Building a scalable design system for a global risk platform

The challenge

A global risk and compliance team was working across two major internal platforms with no shared design language. Every designer solved problems independently - components looked different, handoffs were inconsistent, and prototyping took longer than it should have. Something that should have been reusable had to be rebuilt from scratch every time.

The solution

Over four weeks we built a modular design system in Figma to cover both platforms - components, states, layouts, and documentation. The approach was atomic design from the ground up: tokens and variables first, then components built on top of them, all tested against real product needs as we went. Accessibility and maintainability weren't added at the end - they were built into the structure from the start so the system could scale without the team having to revisit fundamentals.

My role

I led the project end to end across both platforms:

• Heuristic evaluation - audited both products to map UX inconsistencies and flag the highest-impact gaps before building anything
• Design system build - constructed the full component library in Figma using atomic design principles, with tokens, variables, and consistent naming conventions throughout
• Dev handoff - set up Figma Dev Mode so developers could inspect components without chasing designers for specs
• Documentation - wrote usage guidelines so teams could apply the system consistently without needing to ask how

The impact

Two platforms. One shared design language. Four weeks.

Prototyping got faster because components didn't need to be rebuilt each time. Design quality became more consistent across genuinely complex enterprise tools. Handoffs between design and development smoothed out. Most importantly, the team walked away with a system they understood well enough to maintain and evolve on their own - not a library they'd inherit and slowly stop using.

Key takeaways

Design systems aren't really about the components. They're about giving a team shared language and momentum.