At Vodafone, I was part of the core team responsible for rebuilding the design system from zero to address inconsistency, slow handoff, and fragmented patterns across products and markets. I led key system domains, including component architecture, tokens, documentation, governance, and adoption, enabling hundreds of designers and developers to work more consistently and efficiently.

Vodafone’s digital presence spanned a wide range of apps and web interfaces, with multiple teams working in silos. This led to:

• Inconsistent patterns across screens,
• Fragmented component usage and duplication,
• Inefficient design‑to‑development handoff,
• Variability in accessibility implementation.

The strategic challenge was to establish a single source of truth that supported scale, flexibility, and long‑term evolution without slowing delivery.

I held end‑to‑end ownership of critical design system domains, contributing beyond execution into strategy, governance, and adoption.

System Architecture & Component Strategy

• Rebuilt the system from zero, defining foundations, patterns, and guidelines
• Led the design and evolution of high‑impact components (like  the Forms library and TOBi chat components)
• Designed component APIs and variants to ensure predictable reuse across products
• Audited legacy components and patterns to identify inconsistencies and gaps before redesign
• Prioritized component development based on impact and adoption across products
• Collaborated closely with engineers to ensure implementation fidelity and scalability
• Defined best practices for component usage, making decisions teams could trust independently

Token & Variable Strategy

• Applied a token-driven architecture (colors, spacing, typography, states) to enable consistent theming and scale
• Introduced variable-driven responsiveness for components to adapt across devices and platforms
• Worked with developers to integrate tokens into code, ensuring design-developer parity
• Created guidelines for future token updates, enabling the system to evolve safely

Documentation & Structure

• Defined the information architecture and structure for system documentation in Zeroheight
• Organized clear sections for onboarding, foundations, components, and accessibility
• Structured examples and use cases to make patterns immediately actionable
• Implemented versioning and changelog standards so teams know when and how components evolve
• Created design decision records to explain rationale behind patterns and governance choices

Governance & Decision Frameworks

• Participated in governance flows, reviewing incoming requests and challenging unnecessary variants
• Escalated system-level decisions with clear rationale when strategic alignment was needed
• Defined decision-making criteria for component inclusion, modification, or deprecation
• Facilitated cross-market reviews to balance global standards with local needs
• Monitored system adoption and identified bottlenecks or misuse, providing corrective guidance

Strategic Planning & Roadmapping

• Planned and prioritized component and feature development to maximize adoption and impact
• Defined the long-term roadmap for system evolution, balancing short-term delivery with scalability
• Anticipated future product needs and designed components and patterns to support them
• Aligned system goals with organizational strategy and product priorities

Adoption, Enablement & Education

• Built onboarding flows and workshops to help designers adopt the system faster
• Advocated for best practices and led education sessions for cross-functional teams
• Created learning resources and reference guides for designers and developers
• Mentored junior and mid-level designers on system thinking and component best practices
• Supported feedback loops with teams, iterating the system based on real-world use

Accessibility Integration

• Embedded accessibility guidelines directly into core components and documentation
• Provided guidance to designers and developers to ensure inclusive patterns
• Audited components and flows for color contrast, keyboard navigation, focus states, and error handling
• Introduced accessibility checklists to ensure new components met standards before release
• Advocated for inclusive design practices across teams, helping accessibility become a default, not optional

Quality Assurance & System Maintenance

• Conducted regular audits of components and patterns to ensure consistency and usability
• Reviewed contributions to maintain design-developer fidelity
• Monitored system adoption and updated documentation to reflect current standards
• Maintained versioning and rollback procedures to reduce risk of system-wide issues

Innovation & System Evolution

• Introduced new patterns, components, and workflows to support emerging product needs
• Advocated for improvements in accessibility, responsiveness, and scalability
• Identified and implemented opportunities to reduce duplication and improve system efficiency
• Drove forward-looking improvements while maintaining stability and trust in the system

As a design system designer, I approached Vodafone’s system as a product in itself, not just a collection of components. My strategy focused on three key pillars:

• Scalability and Consistency – designing components, tokens, and patterns that could reliably scale across 20+ products and 14+ markets, while maintaining clarity and usability for hundreds of designers and developers.
• Governance and Adoption – creating processes, documentation, and decision frameworks to ensure teams trusted the system, knew how to use it correctly, and could self-serve without blocking development.
• Long-term Evolution – anticipating future product needs, prioritizing high-impact components, and introducing token and pattern strategies that allowed the system to grow without breaking existing workflows.

I constantly balanced global standards with local flexibility, speed with maintainability, and autonomy with guidance, ensuring the system solved real problems for teams rather than existing as an abstract guideline.

While internal analytics were limited, the outcomes were tangible and measurable at scale:

• System adoption: successfully scaled across 20+ products in 14+ markets, empowering hundreds of designers and developers.
• Faster design handoff: clear patterns, tokens, and documentation reduced ambiguity and friction between design and development teams.
• Consistency and reuse: redesigned critical components, reducing duplication and improving predictability across products.
• Onboarding and education: structured documentation and workshops enabled new designers to get up to speed quickly and confidently.
• Accessibility: embedded inclusive design practices into core components, creating a baseline standard for teams to follow without extra effort.

The system moved Vodafone from fragmented, inconsistent design toward a trustworthy, scalable framework that teams could rely on day-to-day.

This project reinforced that design system work is about people as much as pixels:

• A system is only successful if teams trust it and adopt it consistently.
• Ownership goes beyond designing components — it includes governance, education, documentation, and long-term strategy.
• Accessibility, clarity, and maintainability need to be baked in from the start, not retrofitted.
• Balancing autonomy and guidance, short-term delivery and long-term scalability, is crucial to creating systems that endure.

I learned to make decisions that scale globally, influence diverse teams without authority, and structure systems that solve real problems efficiently, not just look neat on a screen.