How I Lead Design Systems Teams: Feedback, Ownership, and Scaling Trust

Design systems work is never just about components. It’s about people, alignment, and clarity at scale. I’ve learned that successful systems don’t run on tooling alone—they run on trust, shared ownership, and structured feedback.

I give most feedback through design critiques, both live and async. Whether we’re reviewing a new component, a token refactor, or an edge-case fix, the first question I ask is always the same: What problem is this solving? From there, we focus on clarity, accessibility, parity, and scale. I guide feedback toward improving systems thinking, not just polishing visuals.

Here’s a real example:

Before: A button component had mismatched background colors, inconsistent heights, missing focus states, and a disconnected prop structure between Figma and code. Designers had begun duplicating it, and developers weren’t sure which variant to use.

After critique: The team aligned on a cleaned-up structure with clearly defined variants, states, and sizes. We tokenized background and focus states, synced props between Storybook and Figma, and validated accessibility with color contrast and keyboard focus behavior. It went from chaotic to stable.

Critique isn’t about telling someone they’re wrong. It’s about helping them ask better questions, think systemically, and feel proud of what they ship.

At Hearst, I lead a small core systems team supporting over 48 brands. That means our role isn’t to dictate—we build the platform others use. We scale by enabling contribution, not just managing assets.

I created a contribution workflow with:

• Async design critiques and component proposals
• A scorecard for accessibility, token use, and theming coverage
• Code previews and token inspection for each submission
• Git-style governance with a human review layer

This lets product designers, engineers, and brand teams safely contribute to the system without fear of breaking it. Feedback becomes a shared process, not a bottleneck.

Feedback gets even stronger when it’s grounded in data. When I noticed high detachment rates in our component library, I built a health dashboard using the Figma REST API, D3.js, and OpenAI to track adoption, consistency, and drift.

Instead of guessing why components failed, we could see:

• Which variants were duplicated the most
• Which components triggered overrides
• What patterns had low reuse or poor ergonomics

We used this data to focus critiques on areas of real impact—leading to a 70% reduction in detachment and a 5x increase in component reuse.

I lead design systems like products. They are measured, intentional, and collaborative. Feedback is how I scale trust, build alignment, and help people grow their systems thinking. The best work doesn’t come from control. It comes from a culture of clarity, ownership, and honest critique.