Designing unity: Building HP's design system team
PRIMARY ROLE
Senior Design Manager
Summary
Leading the creation and expansion of HP's design system team from 4 to 16 members, I helped achieve a 500% reduction in design and development time, driving scalability and consistency. I cultivated a collaborative, diverse, and inclusive culture, impacting HP's design space.
Timeframe
From 2020 to 2023
Imagine this: building and managing a growing design system alongside another designer, but with no formalized nor dedicated team to really dive into the foundations and complexity work that a design system requires. As a design lead at the time, it was like trying to juggle a dozen things at once, and our passion project was taking a backseat to other product focused tasks. But as a Brazilian expression goes:
Querer é poder - Where there's a will there's a way
Thus, with solid data showing how much our design system was growing across HP, we decided it was time to make a case for a dedicated team. HP has over 600 digital professionals all around the world – why not invest in a team solely focused on making our design game even stronger?
After collecting and compiling the numbers related to design system usage and adoption, revealing an impressive 500% reduction in time spent on design and development, we pitched the idea to leadership. And guess what? After some rounds of discussion they were on board! At the beginning of 2020 we kicked off with a small but mighty team of four designers, led by me as the team’s manager.
This wasn't just a change in titles. While the shift from design lead to design manager felt natural, it also brought its own set of challenges. But I was excited to guide our team towards realizing our vision of building a unified design system for HP… the variable no one was expecting though, was a global pandemic.
From leader to manager in a new remote world
Transitioning from design lead to design manager felt like a natural progression, given my previous experience in leading the team and fostering a collaborative culture. However, this move took on new dimensions as the business world struggled with the challenges of remote work during a global pandemic.
Initially, my main concern was the safety and well-being of my team members. Ensuring that everyone had a conducive remote work setup became a priority. We worked together to define the best means of communication, establishing clear channels on Microsoft Teams to streamline our interactions and keep everyone connected.
One of the hurdles we faced was replacing the spontaneous team bonding moments we enjoyed in the office – like lunches, happy hours, and coffee chats. To bridge this gap, we organized fun Zoom sessions and explored various online tools and games to maintain team cohesion and morale.
In terms of supporting remote work, I implemented a minimum setup standard for the team, including essentials like a 4K webcam, dual monitors, and a quality microphone. With the support of leadership, this not only facilitated better remote interactions but also ensured an equitable experience for all team members, regardless of their location.
Interestingly, the pandemic-induced move to remote work presented an opportunity to hire talent from anywhere in the world. Embracing this strategic decision, we expanded our team all over the country as well as globally, resulting in a more diverse and inclusive team dynamic.
As our team expanded rapidly from 4 to 11 members, we encountered an influx of new perspectives and skill sets. However, this growth also brought with it an increased scope and workload, amplified by the complexity of remote work.
While initially, remote collaboration led to around a 20% boost in productivity, it soon became evident that this intense pace could lead to burnout if not managed effectively. Recognizing the fast paced growth and importance of team onboarding, we agreed to revisit our values ensuring that each new member integrates into our collaborative ecosystem.
Defining the team values: Fostering a culture of collaboration and excellence
In our journey of building a dedicated team for HP's design system, defining our core values played an important role in shaping our culture and guiding our actions. Together, as a growing team, we worked to identify the values that resonated with each of us.
Using the Values Cards activity, we talked about what mattered most to us as individuals and how those values translated into our collective team culture. Through open dialogue and honest discussions, we refined our shared beliefs into five values that would serve as the team compass: Collaboration, Diversity, Integrity, Empathy, and Quality.
These values weren't just words on a Figma file; they were the foundation of our team's identity and operational framework. Collaboration meant more than just working together, it was about learning and growing collectively, and that was extremely relevant to our expanding team. Diversity was about embracing a range of backgrounds and perspectives to fuel our team's creativity and innovation. Integrity guided us to uphold honesty and fairness in all our interactions, both within the team and beyond. Empathy reminded us to prioritize human-first relationships, fostering a culture of understanding and kindness. And Quality highlighted our commitment to excellence, recognizing that the better we crafted our design artifacts, the more effectively we empowered the design system users to create outstanding software applications.
As we went through the challenges of rapid team growth and operational enhancements, our values served as a guide for several discussions and decision making processes.
Our onboarding process was a great example of the importance of these values. We optimized it to create a welcoming and inclusive environment for new team members, by creating a shared Figma file we presented not only the team structure, expectations, and vision but also our core values. This ensured that every member, regardless of their location or background, felt aligned with our shared vision and values from day one.
Solidifying the team: Building a comprehensive design system
To solidify our team and enhance our capabilities, I strategically planned the growth towards a cross-functional group, encompassing necessary disciplines to compose a robust design system. Starting with a small but mighty team of 4 user interface and product designers, we expanded to a total of 11 members in the first year and a half.
This expansion wasn't only about increasing numbers, it was a strategic effort to diversify our skill set and expertise. We brought in specialists in iconography, technical writing, design advocacy, and accessibility, enriching our team's collective knowledge and ensuring that we had the necessary skills to address the foundations of a comprehensive design system.
As our team continued to grow, we focused our efforts on refining our design libraries within Figma. This involved introducing new components, interactive elements, and enhancing documentation to streamline the adoption process. The value of our team's high-quality design language and component libraries was evident by a 30% increase in the adoption rate of our design system across various projects within the company.
Fast forward to 2022 and 2023, we remained committed to our trajectory of growth and increased adoption. Adding 5 more positions, we expanded our team to 16 members, enabling us to work on new areas such as native operating systems support, design advocacy, research, and design enablement.
Investing in design enablement became a cornerstone of our strategy, allowing us to empower our colleagues and creative professionals across HP. We spearheaded initiatives to host extensive design systems and Figma training sessions, reaching over 100 designers, researchers, and project managers with a total of 27 hours of educational content. These efforts not only elevated our team's profile but also solidified our reputation as a comprehensive design system within the company.
Throughout our journey of growth and expansion, our team values remained steadfast, serving as the guiding principles that informed our decisions and actions. Whether it was shaping design libraries, crafting documentation, or driving enablement initiatives, our values of collaboration, diversity, integrity, empathy, and quality continued to support us, ensuring that we remained aligned with our vision to build a unified design system for HP.
With a solid foundation in place we are excited to continue pushing the boundaries of the design systems and making a meaningful impact within HP.