Governing conflicts through shared decisions
Rather than enforcing a single system upfront, the work focused on making differences visible and discussable.
Workshops were used as a decision-making tool to surface implicit assumptions across teams. Instead of reviewing screens or components, sessions centered on questions such as which decisions needed to be global, which could remain contextual, and where divergence was actually valuable.
These conversations shifted the focus from visual preferences to system behavior, ownership, and long-term impact. Conflicting patterns were not immediately unified, but traced back to the decisions that generated them. This made it possible to identify common ground without erasing legitimate differences.
The outcome was not consensus by compromise, but a clearer decision structure that allowed previously separate design systems to converge into a shared foundation.
Obsolete and disheartening Android configuration
The primary challenge was aligning the design across three distinct platforms, each with its own set of guidelines and user expectations. Additionally, coordinating between separate teams for web and mobile development required effective communication and collaboration.
These conversations shifted the focus from visual preferences to system behavior, ownership, and long-term impact. Conflicting patterns were not immediately unified, but traced back to the decisions that generated them. This made it possible to identify common ground without erasing legitimate differences.
The outcome was not consensus by compromise, but a clearer decision structure that allowed previously separate design systems to converge into a shared foundation.
What changed
Design discussions became less about negotiation and more about decisions. Teams shared a common language to reason about interfaces, onboarding required less context transfer, and feature delivery relied less on ad-hoc alignment. The design system did not remove complexity, but it transformed it from a source of friction into a manageable, shared structure.
