The Challenge

Fusion served hundreds of designers, developers, and product managers across FactSet, but the organization behind it lacked a consistent way of working.

Individual disciplines—including Design, Engineering, Product Management, Accessibility, UX Writing, Research, and Agile Delivery—had developed their own processes, communication channels, and priorities. As the team grew, this fragmentation made it increasingly difficult to support product teams consistently, onboard new consumers, prioritize work, and maintain visibility across initiatives.

The challenge wasn’t simply improving a design system. It was creating an organization capable of operating like a product team at enterprise scale.

My Contributions

As Associate Director of UX Design and a member of the Fusion Design System leadership team, I focused on improving how the organization operated across regions and disciplines.

My responsibilities included:

• Organizational strategy and team alignment

• Governance and operating model development

• Cross-functional facilitation

• Intake and prioritization processes

• Office Hours and support model creation

• Communication and adoption strategy

• SharePoint and onboarding experience

• Design Curator program

• AI knowledge base strategy

• Monthly Fusion Showcase leadership

Key Leadership
Decisions

Create One Team, Not Multiple Disciplines

Rather than allowing Design, Engineering, Product Management, Accessibility, UX Writing, Research, and Agile Delivery to operate independently, we established a shared operating model centered around common goals, shared ownership, and cross-functional decision making.

This shifted Fusion from a collection of specialists into a single product organization working toward the same outcomes.

Design a Service Around Internal Consumers

As adoption grew, supporting product teams became just as important as building components.

We introduced weekly Office Hours, rotating Design Curators, centralized documentation, monthly Fusion Showcases, and a dedicated SharePoint hub that gave teams a consistent way to learn about Fusion, ask questions, and engage with the organization.

These initiatives transformed support from reactive conversations into scalable services.

Replace Informal Processes with Clear Governan

To improve transparency and scalability, we established structured intake, refinement, prioritization, and working agreements that clarified ownership and decision making across disciplines.

This created a repeatable framework for evaluating requests, aligning priorities, and managing the design system as adoption continued to grow.

Treat the Design System Like a Product

Beyond components, we invested in the systems required to sustain long-term adoption.

We improved alignment between Figma, Storybook, and documentation, launched a centralized onboarding experience, and helped shape an AI-powered knowledge base that made it easier for teams to find answers independently while reducing support overhead.

Together, these initiatives positioned Fusion as an internal product supported by services, governance, documentation, and continuous engagement.

Outcomes

The transformation established a scalable operating model that better supported Fusion’s continued growth across the organization.

Key outcomes included:

• Unified global teams around shared processes and governance.

• Improved collaboration across Design, Engineering, Product Management, Accessibility, Research, and UX Writing.

• Standardized intake, prioritization, and decision-making.

• Expanded support through Office Hours, Design Curators, and centralized documentation.

• Increased visibility through monthly showcases and transparent communication.

• Strengthened long-term adoption by treating the design system as a product rather than a component library.