Healthcare provider

Building and maintaining the Design System & Tokens architecture for a top 3 "Fortune 50" healthcare provider

Role: Product Designer ∙ Tokens Architect
Client: top 3 “Fortune 50” healthcare provider in the US
Timeline: 2024 - 2025

Context

A major US healthcare organization relied on a Design System that was functional but stretched beyond its limits. As the product ecosystem grew, inconsistencies multiplied, foundations drifted, and teams struggled to maintain coherence across brands and platforms.

I joined as a Product Designer focused on design systems, tokens, and multi-brand architecture. My role blended strategic thinking with hands-on craft: clarifying foundations, aligning teams, facilitating discovery, and translating complex operational needs into scalable UX.

Challenge

When I joined, the Design System was functional and widely used, but it had reached its ceiling. As adoption increased and business goals shifted, cracks began to show, and the system had reached a breaking point:

  • Foundations were outdated and inconsistently applied across teams.

  • Visual language and brand expression varied, creating reliability and trust issues.

  • Components were rigid, hard to adapt, and unsupported by clear guidance.

  • Documentation was fragmented, making onboarding slow and dependent on tribal knowledge.

  • Multi-brand initiatives were growing, but the system wasn’t structurally prepared for white labeling.

  • The bridge between design and engineering teams increased, creating friction.

Teams weren’t just requesting updates — they needed a system that could support growth, reduce friction, and scale sustainably.

Opportunity

Rather than maintaining the existing system, we had the opportunity to re-architect it into a token-driven, flexible, multi-brand ecosystem.

This opportunity enabled:

  • A foundation-first approach to build recognizable, accessible, and consistent experiences across platforms.

  • A unified 3-tier token architecture (core → semantic → component) that eliminated redundancy and aligned design with code.

  • A White Label strategy enabling multiple brands to share components while customizing visual identity without structural duplication.

  • A modular, adaptable component library redesigned using new layout/display patterns suitable for complex healthcare workflows.

  • Stronger governance, documentation, and cross-team collaboration, reducing friction and giving teams sustainable autonomy.

This transformation reduced maintenance overhead, improved consistency, and shortened brand onboarding from weeks to days.

Approach

I led the transformation through a combination of systems thinking, collaborative facilitation, and cross-team alignment.

Research & System audit

  • Conducted a cross-team audit of foundations, tokens, components, and documentation.

  • Evaluated token usage, naming patterns, accessibility gaps, and breakpoints.

  • Identified core issues causing fragmentation across web and native applications.

Alignment & Communication

  • Led discovery and kickoff sessions to align product, engineering, brand, and accessibility teams.

  • Facilitated workshops on token architecture, component flexibility, and white labeling strategy.

  • Established shared goals, roles, and ownership models to support multi-brand scaling.

Strategic System Redesign

  • Defined the 3-tier token model and authored new guidelines.

  • Rebuilt color, spacing, typography and other foundations for clarity and consistency.

  • Introduced new patterns and adaptable components to support diverse workflows.

  • Created a white-label-ready framework reducing duplication across brands.

Governance, Documentation & Adoption

  • Re-architected and re-write documentation for clarity and traceability for foundations, tokens, components, patterns and team processes.

  • Created contribution workflows and pairing rituals to strengthen collaboration.

  • Partnered with engineering teams to ensure parity between design and code.

Solution

A modernized, scalable, multi-brand Design System built on:

  • Tokenized foundations that bring structure, consistency, and cross-platform alignment.

  • Clear foundations and updated Obelisco-based components (refactored, modernized, and stabilized).

  • A white-labelable architecture enabling multiple brands to share components while customizing identity.

  • Modular, flexible UI patterns optimized for complex healthcare needs.

  • Robust documentation and governance that empower teams and reduce dependency.

Outcome

By the end of the project, the Design System had evolved from a reactive, request-driven model into a mature, scalable ecosystem.

  • 6+ platforms unified under shared foundations and tokens.

  • Multi-brand scaling enabled, with onboarding time reduced from weeks to days.

  • Clearer governance supporting predictability and sustainable workflows.

  • Refactored, accessible components improving usability and compliance.

  • Stronger cross-team collaboration, improving delivery speed and reducing friction.

This new system became a product in itself: predictable, maintainable, and strategically aligned with cross-organization goals.

What this meant for the organization

The redesigned Design System delivered measurable business impact across multiple product teams:

  • 7% cost reduction reported by one major product line after adopting the updated system, directly tied to reduced design/development time and fewer rework cycles.

  • Significant improvement in system adoption and compliance, with many teams moving from D–C grades to A–B within a single month.

  • Higher quality and accessibility standards, ensuring members experienced consistent, compliant interfaces across brands and platforms.

  • Faster multi-brand enablement, thanks to the new white-label-ready architecture.

  • Reduced operational risk, with cleaner foundations, clearer guidance, and fewer one-off implementations.

  • Accelerated delivery, as teams gained autonomy through improved documentation, tokens, and governance.

These shifts strengthened trust in the system as a strategic enabler — not just a library — supporting long-term scalability and cross-product cohesion.

Learning

Throughout the process, several patterns became clear, and shaped the system and how teams collaborated with it:

Communication is as critical as design craft

Education is the fastest path to adoption

Governance and documentation enable sustainability at scale

A solid taxonomy bridges gaps between design and development

White Label systems only succeed with clear token hierarchies and foundations