2021–2022
The brief: Five teams, five backlogsThe real problem: One system, one redesign
Five design teams, one system
Five teams, five PO backlogs, one website. The design system was the only thing that made them collaborate.
- Client
- Miele
- My role
- Design Operations Manager
- Period
- 2021–2022
Product discovery.
Details from the design, at reading size.
The product proposition
A concise headline and description introduce the appliance before its imagery.
Useful product cues
Compare, save and product badges are grouped just above the product photograph.
The problem I was handed
Five design teams were redesigning different parts of the website. How do you stop that becoming five products? Design system, tokens, component library.
The problem that was actually there
Management did not want to change how work was run. Product owners kept feeding each team their own topics. Collaboration stayed optional until a shared layer forced it.
What I did
As Design Operations Manager I organised digital design across the organisation, with about fifteen designers. Built the design system path: tokens, component library, and the habits around them. Presented that system to management and stakeholders so the working model had to be accepted.
The result
The redesign shipped. It went live about two years after delivery.
What this shows
A design system is not a Figma file. It is how five teams stop executing five separate PO backlogs.