👩🏻‍💻 Brainly - Manager, Design System Lead

2018 - 2021

During my leadership over the Design System, we created Html-Sketchapp - the world’s first open-source tool to export HTML code to Sketch and partially public documentation of our Design System that became a benchmark for many designers and developers [read more here, watch more here]. We were also strongly connected with IxD Product Design from the beginning. We are working in the federation model, and I built the IxD Product Design domain embedded in the cross-functional product teams. Our team is the main force behind design culture at Brainly and team visibility.

Establishing a Design System was a struggle with practically zero buy-ins from the business at first - and Peer Impact Award plus the trust of the leadership at the end.

My key achievements in this role:

• Change Agent: Established and led the Interaction Product Design domain at Brainly, managing the core Design System team with a focus on product design quality and community building. Provided guidance to distributed teams, hired, levelled, and mentored designers for excellence and a seamless user experience.

• Innovation & Influence: Secured CTO and CPO buy-in & budget allocation for a dedicated Engineer to improve code-Figma connection, accessibility, and CWV.

• Alignment with Goals: Spearheaded design initiatives in alignment with company objectives.

• Pioneering Design Ops: Optimized processes, enhancing efficiency and fostering a culture of continuous improvement.

• Honours & Awards: Won the 2019 Annual Brainly Impact Award through company-wide employee voting.

Key responsibilities:

• Creating and evolving a strategy, vision, and mission for Brainly Design System and leading this area in The Design Team structure

• Managing or leading specialists across System & Visual Design, IxD Product Design, and Front-end domains

• Working on consistency, design principles, libraries, and processes

• Evangelizing design system mission inside and outside of the organization

• Collaborating with a broad set of internal partners to ensure that The Design System is responding to the org needs and goals

• Collaborating with Interaction and Product Designers on UI patterns and design process

• Collaborating with Front-End Developers on product’s style guide

• Collaborating with Marketing and Communication Directors on branding and brand communication

• Consulting key outsourced projects in terms of design guidelines and visual consistency

• Helping designers to grow with Personal Development support and process

• The hiring process for Interaction Design and Design System domains

• User testing designs to assess user experience

Brainly is the biggest online learning community in the world. 250 million active users monthly, users from 35 countries, 11 language versions. Our motto: No one knows everything, but everyone knows something. With Brainly, students combine their strengths and talents to tackle problems together.