project / Calendly
a shared system for a moving target.
At Calendly, I built a design systems practice while the organization was growing and changing around it. The work was as much about shared ownership as shared components.
what was built
a library people could build with.
A component library, shared design principles, contribution models, accessibility work, and experiments in remote collaboration gave the practice several ways to take root.
- 56
- components
- 112
- designers & engineers using it
- 100%
- product squads adopting in year one
build a shared language while everything moves.
I joined Calendly in June 2021 to establish a design systems practice. The company was rebranding, launching a marketing site, and expanding its enterprise offerings. Headcount doubled during my time there.
Design patterns had grown faster than the documentation around them. I needed to help people find common ground while their work—and the organization—kept changing.
the first plan didn’t survive contact.
The initial roadmap depended on a six-person pilot group of designers and content strategists. Four left for new opportunities in the first quarter.
I shifted the work into initiatives that already had people and resources behind them. We connected system goals to product goals and captured decisions as the work happened. That gave the practice a place to grow inside the organization’s actual priorities.
make the system something people share.
The library mattered. So did the agreements that let people use it, contribute to it, and teach it to someone new.
Make the landscape visible
Audit existing patterns and use that map to guide consolidation.
Name the team’s design principles
Facilitate sessions with designers and content strategists to make working instincts explicit and teachable.
Build with engineering
Develop modular components alongside contribution and governance models.
Bring accessibility into the system
Embed accessibility considerations in the component architecture and help make the work a shared responsibility.
Try ways of working remotely
Experiment with async collaboration using Loom, Miro, Figma, and Slack.
shared ownership is design work.
The pilot group’s departure made the constraints visible early. A useful system had to survive changes in people, priorities, and product direction.
This project shaped how I think about capacity: capture the knowledge people need, make participation possible, and build ways for the group to keep shaping the work. The component library was one part of that larger practice.
from my practice
a system gets stronger when more people can shape it.
Components, principles, and contribution practices give a team something it can use together—and keep developing.
a place to begin
what knowledge is living in one person’s head?
We can explore what would help your team share it, question it, and put it to work.
let’s talk ↗