We are seeking a talented and experienced Design Systems Product Design Lead to join our dynamic team. This role is crucial for nurturing and evolving our design system, ensuring its adoption and adherence across a diverse product portfolio. You will manage and mentor a small team of designers focused on the design system, partner with dedicated design system engineers for design/build harmony, and collaborate with geographically distributed teams to ensure global consistency and effectiveness.
A Day in the Life:
Strategic Vision and System Evolution:
- Lead the development and ongoing refinement of the design system, ensuring the highest standards of quality and consistency.
- Articulate the long-term vision for the design system and create a strategic roadmap, aligning with company goals and product strategies.
- Stay updated with industry trends and best practices to keep the design system current and innovative.
Design System Implementation and Measurement:
- Implement and manage metrics to measure adherence to the design system across all products.
- Develop and implement processes for review, implementation, and adherence to the design system as part of the product development and release process.
- Identify areas for improvement and work with product teams to ensure consistent application of the design system.
Collaboration and Team Enablement:
- Collaborate with a team of dedicated design system engineers to ensure design/build harmony and consistency between design and implementation.
- Partner with the user research team to gather insights and feedback on design system usability, using research findings to drive improvements.
- Develop and execute programs that empower the design team to support and contribute to the design system, fostering collaboration and shared ownership.
- Manage and mentor a small team of designers focused on the design system, providing guidance, support, and professional development opportunities.
- Work effectively with geographically distributed teams to ensure the design system's global consistency and relevance.
Tools, Processes, and Training:
- Design and implement tools and processes that facilitate seamless adoption and usage of the design system by designers.
- Continuously assess and improve these tools and processes to enhance efficiency and user satisfaction.
- Develop and deliver training programs and materials to educate teams on the benefits and usage of the design system, promoting its adoption across the organization.
Accessibility and Customer Impact:
- Advocate for and integrate accessibility standards within the design system to ensure products are inclusive and accessible to all users.
- Collaborate with accessibility experts to continuously improve the design system's accessibility features.
- Demonstrate measurable impact on customer-facing metrics through evolving and improving the design system.
What You Need:
- Proven experience in maintaining and evolving design systems in a product design environment.
- Strong understanding of accessibility standards and best practices.
- Excellent collaboration and communication skills.
- Ability to develop and implement effective tools and processes for design system adoption.
- Experience working with user research teams to improve usability.
- Experience managing and mentoring design teams.
- Ability to work effectively with engineering teams to ensure design/build harmony.
- Experience with technical B2B, information-dense systems, suchs as those found in analytics, finance, etc.
- Proven success in increasing development speed and ease through process and tooling improvements.
- Demonstrated measurable impact on customer-facing metrics through evolving and improving the design system.
- Experience collaborating with geographically distributed teams.
