Building a design chapter from scratch

Starting with no dedicated team or funding. Leadership by proving value at every step.

  • Leadership and people
  • Design systems
  • Product Design
  • Enterprise delivery
Screenshot of the Elevate design system team page, showing the chapter's people and disciplines

My role - Head of Design, Elevate Design System, NAB

I was Head of Design and the founding leader of the discipline. There was no design system team when I started, so the role was to build the team, the operating model, and the investment case to grow it, at the same time as the system itself. Over time I grew the chapter from 3 people to 15, spanning design, engineering, content, and accessibility, across Australia, Vietnam, USA and India.

My leadership - key results

Growth

3 → 15

Growth, AU/VN/USA/India

People, across a multidisciplinary chapter grown from three designers to fifteen.

Reuse value

$7.75M+

Reuse value in FY1

Combined design and engineering reuse value, tracked through a custom-built reuse calculator.

1000+

Engineers

250+

Designers

20+

Product teams

8+

Brands

90% eSat

Engagement

My approach - prove value early, then scale

  1. 01

    Started small

    Attached my team and our work to projects that we could pilot with, and validate impact before pushing for additional headcount.

  2. 02

    Measured results rigorously

    Built a custom reuse calculator to continuously communicate value. FY1 resulted in $7.75M+ in combined design and engineering savings, establishing a baseline of proven results for future investment conversations.

  3. 03

    Combined numbers with narrative

    Used strategic storytelling alongside the numbers to raise visibility across leadership on why the work mattered.

  4. 04

    Secured annual backing

    Leveraged initial metrics and strong leadership relationships to get approval for team growth every financial year.

  5. 05

    Built organic adoption

    Generated widespread internal demand for both the design system and the specialist skills of the team.

  6. 06

    Operated a self-sustaining funding model

    Charged specialist time back to supported project budgets, generating an internal credit balance.

  7. 07

    Reinvested surplus into key hires

    Spent down the internal credit positive balance to hire roles other teams lacked capacity to recruit, including dedicated accessibility specialists, front-end engineers, and content designers.

Laptop showing the Elevate design system home page

I grew and scaled Elevate to enterprise coverage

From To
3 designers Design capability

15 people across design, engineering, accessibility, product and content

3 brands Brands supported

8 brands

Libraries that didn’t match code Design code parity

Foundations, Core and Component sets, in-sync

React only Platform coverage

React, React Native, AEM, Android and iOS

No proper design system site Documentation

Fully documented, AI-ready site

72% Team engagement (eSat)

90%

Australia only Locations

Australia, Vietnam and India

What I would do differently

  1. 01

    Target long-term operational funding early

    Push for Opex over Capex: Requesting core engineering funding directly from BAU or Opex budgets rather than project-by-project funding would have given us much needed stability.

  2. 02

    Protect team knowledge and IP

    Mitigate key-person risk: Contractor reliance meant critical institutional knowledge frequently walked out the door at the end of an SOW. A permanent headcount model would have kept that expertise in-house.

  3. 03

    Reduce administrative friction

    Minimize operational overhead: Moving away from contract-heavy setups would have saved a lot of administrative effort, from managing constant renewals and contracts to dealing with separate IT support models for non-permanent staff.