I came in to help build something that didn't really exist yet as a team. The foundation was there but everything depended on one person knowing everything.

I built client-specific design systems from the ground up. That meant architecting 500+ tokens, connecting them across components, and creating a system structured so that designers could actually apply it to their layouts without needing to ask someone how it works. The system had to be intuitive enough for a designer who had never touched tokens before, and robust enough to hold up across multiple clients and projects simultaneously.

A big part of that was figuring out who the designers were and how they learned. Not just documenting the system and hoping people read it, but actually communicating in a way that landed. I mentored a junior DesignOps team member through that process too, helping her get up to speed and building the kind of environment where questions were welcomed and people felt supported.

Midway through I was pulled in to migrate 8 websites simultaneously from Adobe XD to Figma, applying the new design system and token structure across all of them at once. When we hit Figma bugs significant enough to block the work, I escalated directly to Figma and got them acknowledged. I also introduced AI tooling into our workflows before it was standard practice, not as a trend but because it genuinely removed friction for the team.

The part I care about most is the collaboration. DesignOps only works if the people around you trust the systems you build and feel ownership over them too. That's what I was building the whole time.

Due to confidentiality agreements, work and client details cannot be publicly displayed.