From a black box to a foundation teams can trust.
ANWB's design system had drifted: buggy, distrusted by the teams meant to use it, built on no clear vision. Embedded as their design-systems expert, I set the strategy across design and code, delivered the token foundation and the first components, then came back to design handover components and help teams adopt them.
The problem
A system the teams had stopped trusting
The design system had grown for years without a moment to step back. It was a source of bugs, it lived on one channel while the ambition was all of them, and it ran on pragmatic choices rather than a clear vision. To the teams meant to build with it, it behaved like a black box: low predictability, low trust. So they worked around it, skipped updates, and the drift compounded.
A design system only pays off when teams reach for it. This one had stopped earning that.
A black box in the middle: low predictability, so teams routed around it. Bugs and skipped updates piled up.
My role
Embedded as the design-systems expert
This was not advice from the outside. I joined the team as the design-systems expert, consulting on direction and building alongside them at the same time. In the first engagement I set the strategy across design and code, delivered a full token setup, and started the component library in Figma and Storybook.
In the second, I came back as a UX designer, designing the handover components the teams needed and helping them put the system to work. Strategy and hands, in the same seat.
The approach
A design system is only as good as the teams that trust it
A black box does not get fixed by adding more to it. It gets fixed by making it legible. So the work started with a strategy that spanned both halves of the system, design and code, instead of patching one and hoping the other followed.
From there, a foundation teams could actually rely on: a full token setup as the shared language, and the first components built once in Figma and Storybook so design and front-end were finally looking at the same thing. Predictable beats clever. A system teams can trust is one they stop working around.
Then adoption, which is the part most systems skip. Handover components designed for the teams that consume them, and the training to go with it, so the foundation turns into a habit instead of a library nobody opens.
One strategy, one token foundation, components built once in Figma and Storybook, handed to the teams with the training to use them.
The outcome
A foundation, and a direction
The engagement delivered a solid design-system strategy spanning design and code, a full token setup, and the start of the component library in Figma and Storybook. The second engagement added handover components and the training to put them to work. Not a finished system, a reset: a clear direction and a foundation the teams can build on and trust, instead of a black box they routed around.
ANWB's team carries it forward from there. That is the point of this kind of work: set the direction, lay the foundation, hand it over, and leave the team better equipped than I found them.
Two engagements: the foundation, then the components teams build with.
Questions
What did the engagement actually deliver?
A design-system strategy across design and code, a full token setup, and the start of the component library in Figma and Storybook. In a second engagement, handover components and team training to help the system get adopted.
Was this advisory or hands-on work?
Both. I was embedded in the team as the design-systems expert, setting the strategy and building the foundation alongside them, not advising from the outside.
How do you turn around a design system teams don't trust?
Make it predictable instead of a black box, give it a clear vision and governance, deliver tokens and components teams can actually use, then enable adoption with handover components and training.
A design system is only as good as the teams that use it.
That's the work I do. Let's talk.
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