Designing for Scale: A System to Support Growing Teams
Context
I joined FinCompare as a small startup, but six years of growth turned it into a complex product… without the design system to support its scale. The lack of a design system began to slow team down and affected consistency across the platform.
Problem
As the product and team scaled, the lack of a design system led to inconsistent UI patterns, repeated design work, and growing friction between design and development. Designers rebuilt similar components from scratch, developers worked with fragmented UI libraries, and new team members struggled to onboard. These inefficiencies slowed delivery, increased errors, and negatively impacted the overall product experience.
Solution
I identified the need for a shared language and pitched the creation of a design system focused on reusability, scalability, and accessibility. After securing buy-in, I led the initiative by auditing the existing UI, defining design principles, and establishing a single source of truth through a component library in Figma and (with engineers help) Storybook. Close collaboration with engineers ensured alignment across design and development from the start.
Challenges
The main challenge was introducing structure without slowing down active product development. We had to consolidate years of inconsistent UI decisions while balancing diverse stakeholder needs and complex financial workflows. Achieving alignment on naming, grids, breakpoints, and accessibility standards required continuous communication and iteration across disciplines.
Impact
The design system transformed how teams worked together. Designers shifted their focus from recreating UI to solving real user problems, while developers benefited from a reliable, documented component library that reduced QA issues and sped up implementation. The result was a more consistent product, faster iteration cycles, and a confident, empowered team working from a shared foundation.
