The Opportunity:

In 2017, Product and Engineering wanted to replatform the consumer and enterprise experiences to React. This is the perfect time to build a design system as well — if we’re rebuilding, let’s build it right.

The Challenge:

In 2017, Atomic Design Systems were still a fairly new concept, so stakeholders needed some education before we could get started. Engineers and designers struggled to understand what a "global" (Consumer + Enterprise) design system meant and how we’d organize the library. The consumer and enterprise products were on two different legacy tech stacks, and many on the enterprise side resisted the need to refactor.

What I Did:

Made it visual:

Communicating things visually is the best way to align people. It makes the complex simple, the abstract clear.

I drew a Venn diagram showing global components in the middle, consumer components in the right circle, enterprise in the left circle, and an outer layer of components unique to each line of business. From there, everyone immediately understood what we were building.

Found engineering advocates:

I identified like-minded engineers to rally their organization. This way, engineering didn't feel like "some designer" was telling them what to do - they had one of their own, speaking their language, advocating for the benefits.

An engineering advocate could address concerns in a way I knew I couldn’t. That person’s credibility would help all of us be successful.

Built the right team:

I put together a dedicated team of 2 designers and 3engineers. One designer was from the Consumer experience and the other was from the Enterprise side. The engineers were in the Ukraine, but to kick things off right, I requested for the engineers to come to the US for the first two months. We worked through components and problems together.

Lastly, we established tight governance to maintain quality control and keep the library small, maximizing reusability.

Aligned to a rebrand:

Ticketmaster was modernizing on every front: tech stack, design system, and our brand.

I believe the product is where a brand’s promise lives or dies.

The brand makes promises through its identity and marketing. But the product determines if those promises are real. So I wanted the design of the Ticketmaster website and app to inform the brand as much as possible.

I started with color. I collected photos from concerts that my team members and I had been to and eye dropped colors from the photos. These were the Colors of Live.

Timeline:

We spent about 9-12 months from kickoff to measurable efficiency gains (this was 2017 with more hand-coding and trial and error. We’re already much faster in 2025, and I expect AI and evolving tools will shorten this).

Results: