Date:
2022
Building the Post
Before joining The Washington Post, I saw a clear need: modernize news delivery while maintaining The Post's editorial excellence. Teams struggled with speed, communication, and unified messaging. The solution? A comprehensive design system, not just for designers and engineers, but also for the Editorial newsroom. This system needed to balance internal needs, empower journalists, and meet the high standards of The Post's readers.
Role:
Design Lead
As Design Lead, I united The Post's fragmented efforts, fostering alignment and driving success. My dual expertise in design and development bridged team gaps, ensuring a shared vision. I shaped the work, defined clear goals, and crafted a comprehensive plan to deliver a robust design system, paving the way for a stronger future.
Result:
The result: The Washington Post's first-ever design system, transforming workflows and slashing project delivery times by 80%. It fostered a cultural shift, uniting newsroom, design, and engineering teams. Recognized industry-wide for its impact, the system continues to evolve, shaping The Post's operations and driving its excellence.
Project Highlights
Unifying Fragmented Efforts
Played a crucial role in aligning teams across the organization, bridging gaps between design, engineering, and the newsroom to drive success.
Impact of the Design System
Launched The Washington Post's first design system, reducing project delivery times by 80%, improving workflows, and fostering a cultural shift within the organization.
Industry Recognition
The design system has been celebrated for its innovation and continues to shape The Post's future, solidifying its role as a cornerstone of modernized operations.
Dive Deeper
The Struggles of an Organization Without a System
Before introducing a design system, The Washington Post operated in a world of disjointed efforts and fragmented workflows. Teams worked tirelessly to deliver news at scale, but efficiency often took a backseat to urgency without a unified framework. Design, engineering, and the newsroom spoke different languages, relying on an unspoken system of assumptions and workarounds to bridge gaps. This approach, while resourceful, left cracks in the foundation, creating inconsistencies and redundancies that slowed progress and diluted impact.
The absence of a formal system meant that each team interpreted guidelines in its way, leading to misaligned goals and wasted effort. Engineers often had to rebuild components from scratch; designers struggled to maintain consistency, and the newsroom juggled tools that didn’t always meet their needs. Yet, amidst this chaos, there was a spark—a shared understanding that hinted at the possibility of something greater. By leveraging this informal, unspoken system, the teams managed to side-step many pitfalls, but it was clear that a more robust solution was necessary to thrive truly.
The Impact and Growth of the Design System
The launch of The Washington Post’s inaugural design system marked a turning point. For the first time, a shared framework aligned the newsroom, design, and engineering teams under a single vision. The impact was immediate: project delivery times were slashed by 80%, and workflows became more efficient and predictable. The design system introduced consistency and clarity, enabling teams to focus on what truly mattered—delivering news at scale with the speed and quality readers expect.
As the system matured, its role expanded beyond solving fundamental inefficiencies. No longer constrained by primitive hurdles, the organization began focusing on scaling its efforts and driving innovation. Designers and engineers could now collaborate seamlessly, using reusable components and a common language that empowered them to think bigger. The newsroom, too, benefited from tools tailored to their needs, making it easier to create and publish stories quickly and effectively. The design system catalyzed cultural change, fostering deeper collaboration and a shared sense of purpose across the organization.
Industry recognition soon followed, highlighting the system’s innovation and transformative impact. What started as a solution to internal fragmentation evolved into a cornerstone of The Post’s strategy, enabling it to keep pace and lead in the digital news landscape.
Looking Ahead—Inspiring the Future
The success of The Washington Post’s design system is a testament to what can be achieved when teams come together under a shared vision. But this is only the beginning. As the system grows, it opens new possibilities to redefine how news is delivered at scale. The focus now shifts from solving present-day challenges to shaping the future—building tools and frameworks that anticipate readers, designers, and journalists' evolving needs.
The design system’s journey reminds us that great systems are never finished. They are living, breathing entities that adapt and evolve, driven by the creativity and ambition of those who use them. By continuing to innovate and push boundaries, The Post remains committed to delivering the news and the tools and infrastructure needed to uphold its legacy of excellence. This is a future where growth knows no bounds, and the potential to inspire is limitless.