Scalable & Inclusive Design

Building Accessible Design Systems for SaaS Platforms

Design Systems and Accessibility

Design systems are the backbone of efficient, scalable product development, enabling teams to deliver cohesive experiences across platforms. At Tealium and PGi, I led initiatives to establish and scale design systems that streamlined workflows, improved collaboration, and delivered consistent user experiences. At Tealium, I also spearheaded efforts to bring accessibility to the forefront, aligning our design system with WCAG 2.2 AA standards to ensure inclusivity for all users.

The Business Challenge

At Tealium: At Tealium, the need for a robust design system became evident as the company’s product portfolio expanded, requiring consistent and scalable UI components to support efficient product development and a cohesive user experience. This foundational requirement became even more critical when accessibility compliance emerged as a business necessity. Clients increasingly demanded WCAG 2.2 AA compliance for procurement, and without an accessible design system in place, Tealium faced significant roadblocks in entering new markets. Building a design system that prioritized both scalability and inclusivity was essential to addressing these challenges, enabling the company to streamline its design processes while meeting accessibility standards and unlocking new business opportunities.

At PGi: As PGi rapidly expanded its enterprise collaboration portfolio from a single video conferencing product to multiple SaaS platforms, the lack of unified design patterns was creating friction. Development teams were rebuilding similar components across products, leading to inconsistent experiences as users moved between desktop, web, and mobile applications. This fragmentation not only slowed down feature delivery but also increased engineering overhead and created a disjointed experience for users trying to navigate between PGi's various collaboration tools.

What Problem Did It Solve?

Prior to establishing design systems at both PGi and Tealium, our teams faced significant challenges in delivering consistent experiences at scale. Product designers were recreating similar components across different products, developers were building redundant code, and users were encountering inconsistent interfaces as they moved between platforms. This fragmentation was particularly acute at PGi, where users needed to switch seamlessly between web, desktop, and mobile collaboration tools. At Tealium, the complexity of working with customer data demanded consistent patterns to help users confidently navigate sophisticated workflows. In both cases, the lack of a unified system was slowing down product development, creating unnecessary overhead, and introducing quality issues that impacted the user experience.

Impact

Over my leadership tenures at both Tealium and PGi, the implementation of robust design systems delivered significant quantifiable improvements to product development, team efficiency, and user experience. These initiatives transformed how our teams worked and directly supported substantial business growth. Here are the key impacts:

Tealium Design System

  • Improved design team efficiency by eliminating redundant work and providing a single source of truth for UI components and patterns

  • Strengthened collaboration between design and engineering teams by creating shared language and standardized processes for implementation

  • Enhanced product quality and user satisfaction by ensuring consistent experiences across all platform touchpointsPositioned the company to win business with clients requiring accessibility compliance.

  • Advanced platform accessibility by embedding WCAG 2.1 AA compliance standards into core components, ensuring inclusive design principles were consistently applied across all new features

PGI Design System

  • Unified the user experience across enterprise SaaS products, creating consistent interactions across desktop, web, and mobile platforms while reducing development redundancy

  • Accelerated feature development and reduced QA time by establishing shared components, standardized patterns, and clear handoff procedures between teams

  • Improved cross-product navigation and workflows, making it seamless for users to move between different collaboration tools

  • Enhanced team coordination by creating a shared design language and documentation that streamlined onboarding for new designers and developers

My Key Contributions

Design System Strategy

Developed and executed a comprehensive design system strategy tailored to meet the needs of a growing SaaS product portfolio. Focused on creating scalable, reusable UI components and patterns that aligned with business objectives and user needs. Established a vision for the system's evolution, ensuring it supported both short-term delivery goals and long-term scalability.

DesignOps for Design System

Operationalized the design system through the implementation of DesignOps practices, ensuring seamless integration into team workflows. Built efficient processes for documenting, updating, and communicating design system changes, which improved cross-functional collaboration and reduced time-to-market. Introduced tools like Zeroheight and Figma libraries to streamline usage and maintain consistency.

Coordination with Engineering & Product Partners

Worked closely with engineering and product teams to ensure the design system aligned with technical feasibility and product requirements. Facilitated regular cross-functional reviews to address implementation challenges, prioritize enhancements, and ensure adherence to design standards. Acted as a bridge between disciplines, fostering shared ownership of the design system.

Design System Governance

Managed the evolution of the design system by establishing clear processes for proposing, reviewing, and approving updates. Introduced a bi-weekly design system newsletter to keep stakeholders informed of changes, highlight new components or accessibility enhancements, and provide visibility into the high-level design system roadmap. This initiative fostered alignment across teams, promoted adoption, and ensured a shared understanding of the design system's goals and progress.

Triaging & Estimating Incoming Design Work

Led the triage and prioritization of incoming design requests, ensuring the team’s workload was balanced and aligned with business goals. Developed a streamlined process for scoping and estimating work, enabling efficient resource allocation and predictable delivery timelines. Communicated priorities and status updates to stakeholders to maintain transparency and alignment.

Weekly Individual Meetings with Designers

Held one-on-one meetings with team members to provide tailored guidance, review ongoing work, and address challenges. Focused on building trust, fostering open communication, and helping each designer achieve their goals. Used these meetings to identify opportunities for growth and ensure alignment with team and organizational objectives.

Recruiting & Hiring

Spearheaded recruitment efforts to build a diverse and high-performing design team. Partnered with HR and leadership to define role requirements, source top talent, and conduct interviews. Focused on attracting candidates with complementary skills, aligning hires with both immediate team needs and future growth opportunities.

Mentoring & Skills Development

Mentored team members to build expertise in design systems and accessibility, emphasizing the importance of scalability and inclusivity in product design. Provided constructive feedback and created individualized growth plans tailored to skill development in areas such as component design, accessibility compliance, and WCAG standards. Provided growth plans, targeted training like Deque University, and constructive feedback to empower designers.

Agency Management & Direction

Managed external agency relationships to augment team capabilities during periods of high demand for design system expansion. Set clear expectations, provided creative direction, and ensured alignment with brand standards and business goals. Monitored deliverables and timelines to ensure the successful completion of outsourced work.

Tealium Accessibility: A case Study in Inclusive Design

Accessibility became a critical focus at Tealium as we sought to align our Customer Data Hub and other digital properties with WCAG 2.2 AA standards. The absence of institutional accessibility knowledge presented an opportunity to drive meaningful change.

To address this, I led a comprehensive accessibility initiative, starting with an audit of our existing design system and UI components. Partnering with engineering, we conducted an accessibility audit to identify gaps and establish a roadmap for compliance. This included developing an accessibility checklist and embedding WCAG guidelines into our design system documentation to ensure accessibility considerations were seamlessly integrated into our workflows.

Recognizing the importance of cross-functional collaboration, I secured accessibility training for design, engineering, and writing teams through Deque University. This effort not only upskilled our teams but also fostered a culture of shared responsibility for inclusivity. Additionally, I identified an external vendor to support auditing and remediation efforts, enabling us to prioritize tasks effectively.

The results were transformative: Tealium was better positioned to serve accessibility-conscious clients, unlock new market opportunities, and ensure an inclusive experience for all users. This initiative exemplifies how embedding accessibility into a design system creates scalable, impactful, and user-centric solutions.