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Scaling Tandem’s Design System
Design Leadership • DesignOps • Stakeholder Management • Design System Architecture • Accessibility
My journey at Tandem Bank began just one month before a massive merger between three distinct companies. We were left with three different brand identities, disconnected technologies, and no design system. Promoted by the CTO to Head of Design amidst this chaos, my objective was to bring order to the branding disarray and unify the digital product experience.
Company
Tandem Bank
Year
2022-2026
Project Type
Design System
Team Size
3 Product Designers (incl. me)
The Challenge
Building a design system from scratch is hard, but doing it during a merger presented unique, severe challenges:
Over four years, I reported to seven different managers (four in my final year alone). This meant company goals and strategies were constantly shifting.
The former CEO halted the initial design system project, dismissing it as a costly exercise in "playing with pretty colours".
Developers and designers were working in silos, creating massive technical debt and an inconsistent, frustrating experience for our users.
My Role
As Head of Design, my role quickly shifted from managing pixels to managing politics, people, and business strategy:
Protecting the Product Vision
I acted as the stabilising force for my team amid constant management changes, keeping morale high and our long-term vision clear.
Stakeholder Education
I had to learn how to translate the value of design into the language of business (focusing on return on investment and speed, rather than aesthetics).
Strategic Resource Management
I negotiated with delivery managers to carve out protected time for my team to solve foundational design problems.
The Outcome
Because we protected the project during the chaotic months, we were able to deliver a fully functioning design system with just two weeks' official notice when the business finally realised they needed it.
While hard metrics were not tracked by the business at the time, the engineering team confirmed that the system significantly sped up the building of new features, such as the new Cash ISA product.
We successfully replaced three disjointed, post-merger brands with a single, accessible, and scalable digital ecosystem.
What I Have Learnt or Improved on
A Design System is a product, not a project. It needs its own roadmap, backlog, and dedicated resources. Treating it as a one-off task is a fundamental mistake.
Executives do not care about "pretty colours" or typography. To get funding and support, you must prove how design reduces costs, speeds up delivery, or aligns with the CEO's specific strategic goals.
In a chaotic company, a design leader must act as a shield. You must absorb the organisational instability so your team has a safe, clear space to do their best work.
Perfection is the enemy of progress. Building a massive library of components "just in case" creates waste. Building a lean system "just in time," based on real screens and close collaboration with developers, is much more effective.
Summary
Ultimately, this four-year journey was about much more than UI components—it was an exercise in change management and resilience. By learning to speak the language of business and strategically protecting our foundational work during periods of extreme organisational instability, I was able to transform a cancelled, misunderstood project into Cube Richmond: the core architecture driving Tandem’s digital future.
What I am Proud of
Despite constant executive turnover and the stress of working on a 'stealth' initiative, I successfully shielded my team from the chaos. I kept our designers highly engaged, motivated, and focused on the long-term vision without any internal conflict.
I am incredibly proud of learning how to manipulate the business narrative to get UX initiatives funded. Turning Dark Mode from a dismissed "wishy-washy visual" into a strategic, energy-saving feature that directly supported the CEO's sustainability goals was a major leadership milestone for me.