Lenovo Design System Leadership & Governance
Design Systems
Design system leadership and governance for Lenovo’s Cake Design System, supporting adoption, consistency, and ongoing evolution across internal teams and external partners.
ROLE
UX Visual Designer
CONTEXT
As the Cake Design System expanded across teams, there was no clear ownership for onboarding, governance, or quality control. New designers and external partners lacked guidance, leading to inconsistent implementation across products—from misaligned iconography to divergent interaction patterns—ultimately impacting brand cohesion.
My Role
I served as a design system ambassador, onboarding new designers, external partners, and development teams on how to effectively use and implement the system.
I acted as a central point of contact for design system questions, identified gaps in guidance, and translated real-world usage challenges into system improvements. I also conducted audits of subsystems to ensure alignment with evolving standards and visual consistency across products.
Approach
I focused on understanding how the system was being used in practice by listening closely to designers and identifying friction points in adoption.
Through onboarding sessions, feedback loops, and product audits, I uncovered areas where guidance was unclear or incomplete. These insights informed updates to documentation, visual standards, and component usage, helping make the system more intuitive and easier to adopt at scale.
Outcome
Subsystems were brought into closer alignment with the core design system, improving consistency across products.
Updated guidance and documentation reduced ambiguity for designers and partners, making it easier to adopt and implement the system correctly. Over time, this led to more cohesive visual execution and a smoother onboarding experience for new team members.
