The background
At Atlan, our rapid growth created a new problem. Design inconsistencies were appearing everywhere across our product. As our company scaled, design inconsistencies were hurting our users and slowing down our teams. I worked with designers across the company to establish quality standards and deliver experiences that users would love. My goal was simple: make Atlan synonymous with great design.
The turning point
During a company townhall, I presented a clear vision: user experience could be our competitive advantage. I showed how design quality directly connected to our business goals. The response was immediate. Leadership and my team rallied behind the idea that great design would set us apart from competitors.
Building momentum
I organized workshops with designers, engineers, and product managers. These sessions helped us identify problems and get everyone excited about solutions. To understand our users better, I gathered insights from multiple sources:
- Customer interviews revealed specific pain points
- Sales team shared feedback from prospects
- Design team workshops uncovered internal challenges
The problems we found
Our research revealed five critical issues:
- Users were confused by inconsistent interactions across features
- Unclear copy created misunderstandings and support tickets
- Engineers wasted time rebuilding similar components
- New designers struggled without clear guidelines
- Poor accessibility caused us to lose customers to competitors
Our solution approach
I led a comprehensive product audit with the design team. We documented every inconsistency and presented clear recommendations to leadership. This audit became our roadmap for building a design system that would solve these problems.
I built the foundation with design tokens, typography, and core components. Accessibility was built in from day one, not added later. Every component came with clear documentation and usage examples to help teams implement correctly.
Colors
Typography & layout
Icons
I shared weekly updates with the team and incorporated their feedback throughout the process.
Key components
Here are the main components we designed and built:
Design principles
With our foundation ready, I focused on components that solved real user problems instead of just redesigning what we had. Every component had a clear purpose and improved the user experience.
I partnered with marketing and technical writers to create a content framework. Since content makes up 80% of the user experience, getting the words right was just as important as the visual design.
The results
The design system launch transformed how we work and how customers see us:
- 4 out of 6 new customers chose us specifically for our user experience
- Design and engineering teams collaborated more effectively
- Engineers shipped features 40% faster using system components
- Designers consistently delivered high-quality experiences
- We fixed years of accumulated user experience debt
- Customer satisfaction scores improved across all product areas