Streamlining the Tech@Ford Design Workflow: Library Standardization & Team Enablement

How I consolidated 5+ fragmented Figma libraries, restructured our workspace, and led collaborative sessions to empower Ford designers

The Context: I set out to redesign the internal "employee experience" for Ford’s design team. By auditing and unifying fragmented assets, I eliminated redundant work, simplified how our designers build digital products, and established a scalable framework for future design operations

Executive Snapshot

  • The Context: This initiative transformed our design workflow from a fragmented, manual process into a highly efficient, centralized system.

  • Key Achievements:

    • 1 Unified Library: Consolidated components from 5+ site pages into a single, reusable source of truth.

    • Responsive Updates: Delivered homepage layouts that scale seamlessly across multiple device breakpoints.

    • Workspace Restructuring: Removed unused libraries and decluttered the team's Figma environment.

    • Designer Enablement: Empowered teammates to build and maintain their own component libraries (forms, assets).

Challenge & Solution

  • The Context: Before this project, the Tech@Ford design team struggled with a cluttered Figma workspace. Outdated, fragmented libraries caused frequent layout breakages on the homepage and slowed down designer workflows.

  • The Breakdown:

    • The Challenge: Fragmented components across 5+ pages, broken responsive layouts, and a cluttered workspace that hindered collaboration and increased design debt.

    • The Solution: Audited and restructured the workspace, built a centralized desktop library with fixed variants, and hosted hands-on design sessions to align the team.

The Process & Enablement Sessions

  • The Context: True enablement requires more than just clean files; it requires team alignment. I led collaborative design-system sessions to teach the team how to adopt, customize, and build on top of the new system.

  • What We Covered:

    • Figma Library & Components Feedback: Gathered input to refine component usability and fixed broken variant bugs.

    • Responsive Changes: Standardized layouts across breakpoints to eliminate visual breakages on the live site.

    • Library Pt 2 & Asset Building: Guided teammates in building specialized form and communication asset libraries.

Results & CTA

  • The Context: By treating our internal designers as the "users," we successfully redesigned their daily workflow. The team now works faster, with fewer alignment issues and total consistency across devices.

  • The Impact:

    • Accelerated Workflows: Decluttered workspace and fixed variants cut down design search-and-build times.

    • Cross-Device Consistency: Responsive homepage updates resolved layout breakages across all viewports.

    • Sustained Growth: The team is now self-sufficient, building and managing their own compliant component libraries.

Knowledge Sharing & Learning Enablement

Led updates to the Design Degreed learning pathway, adding resources and reorganizing content based on insights from the designer assessment survey. 

Created and updated multiple Confluence guides to support continuous learning 

Conducted research on Figma metrics and competitive designer benchmarking; compiled findings for team-wide knowledge sharing.

Newsletter Redesign

Redesigned the layout and visual style of the Process User Pulse Newsletter, resulting in increased email open rates.

Applied UX writing principles to streamline content and craft more engaging, user-focused messaging.

Designer Newsletter Creation

Created a brand new newsletter documenting the updates of the Design Ops Team to the entire department.

Design System & Figma Library Contributions

Created a comprehensive Tech@Ford Figma desktop library consolidating components from 5+ site pages and guided designers in adopting and customizing the library.

Completed responsive design updates to Tech@Ford homepage across multiple breakpoints, fixing breakages and inconsistencies.

Organized and decluttered the team’s Figma workspace, removing unused libraries and restructuring components for more efficient designer workflows.

Helped teammates build their own component libraries, including form and communication assets.

Completed Figma variant fixes and fully organized the Tech@Ford library.

Led and contributed to Tech@Ford design sessions, including: Figma Library, Components Feedback, Responsive Changes, and Library Pt 2 sessions.

If you’d like to view my internship projects or learn more about my experience at Ford, please contact me.

THIS WORK IS UNDER NDA