Industry
Customer Experience Management
Company
Sprinklr
What is Sprinklr?
Sprinklr provides enterprise software for customer experience management
(reviews, customer service chat etc.)
My role
Design Systems Lead
Responsibilities
Led and oversaw design systems at Sprinklr
Created and managed Figma components, tokens, and documentation
Diagnosed, planned, and resolved design and frontend workflow issues
Built processes to scale design systems work for 30+ designers
Mentored designers one-on-one and through weekly workshops
Impact
4x adoption of
library components
40% reduction of
code misalignment issues
Increase in designer
efficiency & happiness
The problems
Misalignment of process
Designers did not know what to do when they ran into component issues.
Over-reliance on local components
Designers heavily relied on locally created components, with an average of 20% of components being local. This practice introduced inconsistencies and increased the likelihood of designer error.
Minimal documentation
Nearly all components (99%) lacked usage rules or guidelines, leading to misuse and inefficiency.
Production design, not product design
The team was always caught up in granular component issues and not thinking about how to solve product experiences.
As a Design Systems Lead, I worked to bridge the gap between leadership’s vision with the technical and cultural needs of the design system. By focusing on education, teamwork, and clear communication, I showed how well-built Figma components and a supportive team culture work together to ensure the system’s success.
Filling in the missing documentation for a design system used by 30+ product designers saved significant time. Clear, accessible documentation helped designers understand and use the system confidently, reducing confusion and the need for constant back-and-forth communication. Additionally, it made onboarding smoother for new team members and saved time by providing clear answers to common questions.
In my opinion, what makes design systems work is not building the visual components. It's the unseen things like getting the team to understand the why the design system matters, how changes are made, and respect for the process.
I introduced educational initiatives, like workshops and daily office hours to help the team better understand the system’s purpose and best practices. Additionally, I established a feedback loop in multiple channels to identify recurring pain points and address root causes proactively. This approach fostered a culture of open collaboration, ensuring the system evolved thoughtfully and sustainably.
Fixing the design system process played an important role in fostering a culture where designers felt their concerns were genuinely heard and addressed. By adjusting the workflow to include clear feedback mechanisms, the process shifted from being reactive to proactive. Designers gained confidence that their input on usability, consistency, and innovation would directly shape the system, encouraging them to voice concerns and share ideas.
Formalizing the process helped prevent teams and individuals from steamrolling their will and helped balance work in a way that encouraged healthy and objective discussions.
Identify the Need for a New Component
Understand the use case
Check existing components
Developer discussion
Considering the Component
Determine component organization
Define anatomy
Evaluate variants
Designing the Component
Design for decision driving
Accessibility considerations
Consider use cases for different sizes
Critique and review
Design peer feedback
UXR feedback
Developer feedback
Iterate
Apply necessary feedback
Deploy
Communicate with developer partners for implementation
Provide necessary details
Document and share
Write documentation
Communicate through various comms channels
Educate team through brownbag session
Using Figma analytics, components with the highest usage frequency and highest rate of detachment were targeted first, ensuring the greatest immediate impact. This ranked list provided a base for designer interviews to reveal the root causes of detaching components. After resolving the issue, updates to the library component were socialized through team communications and brownbag sessions so that designers could stay on top of updates in more than one way.
Advocating for resources and support
As the sole lead, I quickly understood the importance of advocating for additional resources, such as a dedicated engineer or another designer, to scale the system effectively and meet the growing needs of the team.
Education saves time
Not all designers had the same familiarity with design systems. I found that investing in training, onboarding materials, and one-on-one guidance helped bridge the knowledge gap, empowering the entire team to use the system effectively.