Acorn: Modern Design System
Context
An immature organization and designer that did not grasp the complexity.
A stalemate with Marketing on ownership, role clarity, and scope.
Limited engineering capacity to collaborate.
Work thus far
Not much beyond a few sticker sheets. Getting this work moving was the #1 priority for me when I joined Live Oak Bank.
I spent time with the designer, discussing architecture and other important, early decisions that you need to get right.
Collaboration
Alignment with Marketing, IT, and Product was crucial, as was buy-in from business line leaders as well as the CEO and SLT.
I spent time educating my partners and building a plan for us to work through together.
Getting started
The designer began with an exhaustive inventory to identify “must-have” and “do-later” components.
Pause for the cause
A rush project came in, the Digital Loan Application.
We needed to focus on getting that product out the door and as consistent as possible with where the design system was heading without knowing all the details. Check it out here.
This isn't working out
Progress was slow. The visual design progressed nicely via collaboration, but the assigned designer was not up to the task of the foundational work and it’s complexity.
I made the call to pull him off the project, and assigned the work to a manager on my team.
Real progress
The manager dove in and righted the ship.
He researched the state of the art in structure and developed a scalable token taxonomy and other critical fundamentals.
Components
Making it operational
With the foundations in hand and a starting set of components, the original designer migrated back into the work and led the cross-functional Design System Council.
I had campaigned for fractional engineering support and was ultimately able to get 2 engineers at 10% to make sure that the system was as performant and engineering-ready as possible.
Lessons learned
- Systems are more complex than they may appear to partners; ensure time to educate
- You need to try to break the system, continually, to ensure future compatibility
- It takes the right kind of brain to do this work; ensure you have the right person on the case.
Description
Live Oak Bank
Design system creation during digital transformation: Break the stalemate between a nascent design team and their former marketing colleagues through collaboration, education, and timeboxing to meet a deadline.
Role
- Head of CX leading a team of 7
- Navigate Marketing’s role
- Set standards for quality and scalability
Business Goals
- Drive design efficiency and quality
- Improve product consistency
- Take control of the user experience