Maya Chen
All work

B2B SaaS · Design systems

One design system for two products that had drifted apart

A shared library both product teams actually build with.

Role
Design systems lead
Timeline
4 months
Team
2 designers, front-end lead, 2 product teams
Tools
Figma, Storybook, Tokens Studio

The problem

After an acquisition, the company ran two products with different buttons, colors and patterns. Customers using both felt they were in two companies, and every feature was designed twice.

Constraints

  • Neither product could pause feature work for a rebuild.
  • Two front-end stacks had to consume the same tokens.
  • Each team was attached to its own patterns.

Key decisions

  1. Decision 1

    Audit first, then argue

    I inventoried every component in both products side by side. Seeing 14 button styles on one board settled debates faster than any opinion.

  2. Decision 2

    Ship tokens before components

    Shared color, type and spacing tokens went live first, so both products could converge gradually without a big-bang migration.

  3. Decision 3

    Give each team an owner seat

    Each product team named a contributor who reviewed new components. Adoption followed ownership.

The solution

A token-based library with documented components, usage guidance and a lightweight contribution process that both teams follow.

Results

New features now start from the shared library in both products, and the two interfaces read as one family.

What I learned

Documentation written as decisions (“use this when…”) got read. Documentation written as specs did not.

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