The Design Hub: How We Scaled Collaboration and Quality in a Growing Product Team
When I joined, I was the only designer on the team. The “design system” at the time was… me. I knew where everything was, which screens were final, and what still needed work. But as our product and team grew, it quickly became clear that this model wasn’t sustainable.
PMs were asking for the latest designs. Engineers needed clarity on flows. QA teams had questions about specs. And new designers? They had no idea where to start.
On top of that, non-technical stakeholders — from ops to leadership — often struggled to find and review the latest prototypes. They were either looking at outdated screens or pinging designers directly for links.
What we needed was more than just better organization — we needed a shared system that could scale with us, support cross-functional collaboration, and reduce dependency on any single person.
That’s when I built the Design Hub: a Figma-based framework with a clear structure, quick-access prototype links, and transparent design status, built to bring clarity, consistency, and speed to our product development process.
What We Were Struggling With
Before the Design Hub, we had a few recurring pain points:
• Design visibility was low — PMs and engineers weren’t sure which versions were final.
• QA worked from outdated screens, leading to costly last-minute fixes.
• File structure varied between projects, making onboarding slow and frustrating.
• Stakeholders were left out of the loop, often reviewing the wrong version or missing important updates.
• Designers spent time answering the same questions instead of designing.
None of these were unusual problems — but together, they slowed us down and made collaboration more fragile as the team grew.
Building the Design Hub
I started small — just one project. My goal was to make the design output more self-serve and transparent for everyone.
(You can view the full case study with visuals and structure breakdown here.)
Here’s how I approached it:
• File Architecture: Introduced consistent Figma file naming and organization across all projects (Project — Flows)
• Status Tags: Built a simple labeling system inside Figma for screen status — In Progress, Dev Ready, Shipped — so anyone could understand the state of the work at a glance.
• Prototype Links: Created persistent, centralized prototype links that updated automatically as we iterated — making it easy for non-technical folks to review the latest flows without asking.
• Dashboard: Designed a central “Design Hub” file as a home base. It linked out to all live design files, style libraries, components, and prototypes for the team.
• Guidelines & Onboarding: Documented how everything worked and shared it during onboarding and retros. I even included light design ops practices like versioning and component ownership.
Rolling It Out to the Team
As more designers joined, I scaled the Hub with them. I treated it like a product — gathering feedback, adjusting documentation, and evolving the structure as our needs changed.
Key rollout strategies:
• Ran live walkthroughs with PMs, QA, and engineers to demystify the new system.
• Used tooltips and embedded notes inside the files for extra clarity.
• Integrated it with our design-to-dev process, ensuring everyone knew where to find the latest specs.
• Made the Hub a part of our onboarding checklist for every new team member.
The Impact
Once the Design Hub was in place, things just… worked better.
• Faster design handoffs to engineering and QA.
• Far fewer Slack messages asking for “the latest version.”
• Increased confidence across departments that what they were viewing was correct and current.
• Consistent design output across projects.
• Smoother onboarding for new designers — what used to take days now takes minutes.
What I Learned
• Don’t wait until it’s broken to systematize. If you’re the only designer, you’re in the perfect position to lay the groundwork early.
• The best tools feel invisible. The Hub worked because it integrated seamlessly into people’s existing workflows.
• Documentation isn’t just for designers. PMs and QA benefit immensely from design transparency.
• System thinking is leadership. This wasn’t just about organizing files — it was about making our whole product development process more resilient.
Advice for Other Teams
If your team is scaling or your files are starting to feel chaotic, don’t over-engineer your solution. Start small, stay consistent, and treat it like a product: prototype, test, evolve.
