swatchbook ecosystem

Design Ops & Design Systems

Platforms

Project Overview

Project Overview

As swatchbook grew, our lean design team was overwhelmed by competing requests across the business. Without formal processes, we faced burnout, inconsistent quality, and inefficiencies that cost both time and money.

I led the initiative to establish Design Ops and a scalable design system — aligning teams, streamlining workflows, and creating reusable assets that improved both the product experience and cross-company operations.

Currently evaluating AI-assisted product development workflows using emerging tools such as Figma MCP and Cursor to accelerate prototyping and improve design–engineering collaboration.

Challenges

  • No approval process → inconsistent design quality and branding risks.
  • Ad-hoc requests → overbooking, no prioritization, high stress.
  • Lack of templates → duplicated work and inefficiencies.
  • Designers lacked time for creativity and growth → leading to burnout.

Execution

Design Ops

  • Partnered with Operations, CS, Marketing, Product, Legal, and Engineering to map pain points and align on workflows.
  • Standardized requests in Jira, building a Design Request Portal and swimlane tracking system.
  • Introduced a meeting cadence (2:5 ratio) to balance structure with focus time — ensuring predictable kickoffs and handoffs while protecting creative blocks.
  • Created a UX research repository to consolidate insights and inform design decisions across teams.
Design Self Help Portal on Jira
Design request Portal testing on Jira
Design Meeting Structure
Design Sprint Swimlanes
UX Repository Field Mapping for Jira
Design needs across the organization functions
Design support throughout the organization functions
Design Process 01
Design Process 02
Design Process 03
Streamlining promotional prints process

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Design System & Templates

  • Built and scaled a UI kit + reusable components (typography, color, iconography, layout, etc.) to ensure cross-platform consistency.
  • Extended the system to include templates for presentations, release notes, legal documents, promotional materials, and supplier guidelines.
  • Documented everything in Wiki folders and guidebooks, making resources accessible to both designers and non-design teams.
Coded UI kit

Same strategies were adapted to cover the whole design function under the organization , reusable templates of legal documents, keynotes, release notes, promotional print elements, guideline pamphlets were produced in multiple formats to serve all company functions.

wiki folders

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Documentation template and used for general external correspondence
Keynote templates for external + internal presentations
Design Guidebook (Branding)

Results

Results

  • 20% increase in available creative time by reducing ad-hoc requests.
  • Improved quality & consistency across all customer and supplier-facing touchpoints.
  • Reduced burnout and improved team satisfaction through predictable workflows.
  • Lower operational costs by streamlining repeatable design needs across departments.
  • Faster product delivery through a reusable design system that scaled with engineering.

Reflection

This project reinforced how much design culture depends on operations. By investing in systems and structure, we not only improved efficiency but also created space for designers to thrive creatively — ensuring design could deliver at scale.