Building the edX Enterprise Design System
Design Systems
Context, Challenges, and Goals
As edX Enterprise expanded its partnerships, its brand consistency suffered. Designers struggled with inefficiencies, screens took too long to build, and UX best practices weren’t always followed. Additionally, design and code were out of sync, leading to inconsistencies between what was designed and what developers could implement.
My Role and Approach
As Senior Design Systems Manager, I led the effort to build a design system, ensuring:
✔ Brand cohesion across all enterprise deliverables
✔ Faster design production with reusable components
✔ Improved UX and conversion opportunities
✔ Stronger design-to-development alignment
I conducted team audits, workshops, and stakeholder interviews to uncover pain points and identify which design elements should be systematized. Then, I secured buy-in by demonstrating how a design system would drive efficiency, consistency, and innovation.
Process and Execution
I led a collaborative, adoption-focused approach to system development:
Component Library → Built core UI components, patterns, and templates in Figma & WordPress
Team Workshops → Gathered insights, aligned teams, and defined how components should function
Training & Support → Rolled out system-wide trainings and created a Slack support channel
Flexible & Scalable → Balanced consistency with creative flexibility, evolving the system based on designer and developer needs
Key Learnings
💡 Cross-team buy-in is essential—without PM, dev, and design alignment, a system will fail
💡 Start lean, then scale—smaller, high-impact improvements drive stronger adoption
💡 Balance structure with flexibility—a system should enable innovation, not restrict it
Next Steps: As edX Enterprise evolves, we’re expanding accessibility standards, refining flexibility, and ensuring enterprise users have a powerful, scalable design foundation.