I help product teams build design systems that ship code, not Figma libraries. Token architecture, accessible components, documentation that engineers actually read, and the political work of getting a team to adopt it.
A design system that lives only in Figma is a moodboard. A real design system ships components, tokens, and documentation as code, has clear ownership, and is the path of least resistance for the team building product on top of it.
I have built and rescued design systems for products at every scale: a four-engineer SaaS that needed primitives, an e-commerce team with twenty contributors and three competing button components, and an enterprise platform where the system had become a museum no one shipped against.
The work is half technical and half political. The technical half is token taxonomy, component API design, theming architecture, accessibility, and documentation. The political half is convincing the team that the system saves them time, finding the right level of strictness, and shipping incremental wins so the system earns trust before it asks for it.
I read your codebase. I count buttons. I find the gaps. The output is a written audit with prioritized recommendations.
Before components: tokens. Before tokens: a written architecture proposal you and your team sign off on.
Tokens first, then primitives (Button, Input, Layout), then composite components. Each shipped with docs and tests.
Codemods to migrate existing code. Pairing sessions with your team. Three months of office hours included.
$15,000+ for greenfield system, $10,000+ for rescue engagements on existing systems.
8–16 weeks for greenfield. Rescue engagements vary based on debt depth.
Depends on team size and ambition. Solo founder shipping fast: Shadcn. Mid-size product team: Shadcn + custom token layer. Enterprise with strong brand requirements: roll your own primitives on top of Radix. I will recommend based on your actual constraints, not fashion.
I can lead visual design for marketing and admin UI, but for product UI I work best paired with a designer. Token architecture and component API design is my zone. Pixel-perfect visual taste at the brand level deserves a specialist.
Figma variables → tokens via Style Dictionary or a custom pipeline. Two-way sync is harder than vendors claim. Pragmatic answer: code is the source of truth, Figma mirrors it.
WCAG 2.2 AA is the baseline. Axe in CI, manual screen reader testing, keyboard nav verified per component. I will not ship a component that fails.
The adoption playbook is part of the engagement. Lint rules, codemods, pairing, demo sessions, internal champions. If a team is genuinely unwilling, no consultant fixes that — but in 12 years I have not seen that case when the system actually saves them time.
30-minute call, fixed-price proposal in 48 hours. No commitment until you sign.