Keepit Global
Design System
Summary
I led the design and governance of Keepit’s global design system, unifying fragmented UI patterns across 5+ SaaS product teams. The system improved consistency, accelerated iteration cycles by 40%, reduced UI errors by 30%, and achieved strong adoption among designers and developers — creating a scalable foundation for future growth.
Project Overview
When I joined Keepit, the product had already grown into a large enterprise SaaS platform with customers across multiple markets.
But as the platform scaled, the design side didn’t always keep up — each team had their own way of doing things, which led to a lot of duplicated UI patterns, inconsistent workflows, and extra rework for designers and developers.
To fix this, I led the initiative to create a unified global design system — something that would not only make our product feel consistent, but also make life easier for everyone building it.
Problem Statement
The challenges were clear pretty quickly:
- Different teams used different versions of the same UI components.
- Designers and developers had to spend extra time rebuilding things instead of reusing them.
- Inconsistencies across the product made it harder to deliver a polished, trustworthy experience for users.
The system wasn’t broken — but it wasn’t scalable either.
My Role in the Project
As Design System Manager, I took ownership of the full process: defining the vision, auditing what we had, building the system in Figma, and setting up governance so it wouldn’t just launch and then fade away.
I worked closely with
Designers
To understand pain points and ensure the system actually helped them move faste
Developers
To align components with code and avoid “Figma-only” patterns.
Product teams
To show the business impact and secure adoption across teams.
Understanding the User
The primary users of the design system were internal stakeholders:
Designers
Needed consistent, reusable components.
Developers
Needed reliable, code-aligned patterns.
Product teams
Needed scalable workflows that reduce time-to-market.
What I Did and Why
Audit
Conducted a full inventory of existing UI components across platforms to identify redundancies and inconsistencies.
Co-Creation
Facilitated workshops with designers and developers to align on needs, pain points, and shared standards.
Build
Developed a component library in Figma, structured with tokens (colors, typography, spacing) and usage guidelines.
Governance
Established documentation, contribution models, and onboarding sessions to ensure long-term adoption and maintenance. This approach ensured that the system was not just a design tool but a shared language across disciplines.
UI Component Audit — Identifying redundancies and inconsistencies across teams to establish a single source of truth for our design system.
System adoption increased from 20% to 85% within a year, demonstrating strong alignment between design and engineering.
Outcome
The new design system made a measurable difference:
- 40% faster iteration cycles for designers and developers.
- 30% fewer UI-related errors, thanks to consistent, tested components.
- High adoption across teams, which meant the system wasn’t just a library, but a shared language between design and engineering.
By streamlining workflows across teams, the system enabled faster delivery and more consistent, higher-quality user experiences.
What I Learned
Building a design system at enterprise scale isn’t only about components — it’s about people. The real work was getting designers, developers, and product managers to see it as their system, not my system. This project taught me that the key to success isn’t just building a solid library, but creating trust, governance, and a culture of contribution.