ProEdge Design System
Education, Technology
Transforming product development through design operations leadership
ROLE: Design Leadership, Design Operations Management, UX Strategy
METHODS: Design System Development, Atomic Design Methodology, Cross-Functional Collaboration
TOOLS: Figma
TEAM: ProEdge UX Design and Product teams
Business challenge
PwC's enterprise learning platform ProEdge faced critical experience inconsistencies that undermined its market positioning and operational efficiency. The platform suffered from visual fragmentation between its "Learn" (consumer) and "Plan" (administrator) experiences, lacked standardized design principles, and operated with siloed design teams working in disconnected codebases. This fragmentation resulted in lengthy design cycles, inconsistent user experiences, and inefficient resource utilization that directly impacted the platform's ability to scale and compete in the B2B learning space.
My role & leadership
As Creative Director, UX and design operations leader, I identified strategic opportunities beyond my initial engagement scope and secured buy-in to lead a comprehensive design transformation initiative. I established the vision for a unified design system, drove cross-functional alignment between previously siloed teams, and orchestrated the methodology shift from ad-hoc design to systematic component-based development. I led stakeholders through the process change while simultaneously developing the technical foundation that would support the new approach.
Kind Words on design leadership
Wai is a fantastic leader who has been pivotal in establishing and maturing the ProEdge product. Wai tackled inefficiencies and inconsistencies by launching the Design Acceleration initiative, which aligned with our goals of efficiency, consistency, and accessibility. Wai is great with people, she cares and is passionate about her work. She invested her time across different practice areas to gain consensus and manage change. This leadership reduced design to delivery turnaround time by accelerated product development, and ensured brand consistency across all user touchpoints. Wai's commitment to accessibility has made ProEdge inclusive and compliant with standards.Sheree K
Practice Lead, ProEdge, PwC
Strategic approach
I approached this transformation by addressing both operational and cultural challenges:
- System-level analysis: Conducted a comprehensive assessment across design, product, and technical teams to identify root causes of inefficiency rather than just symptoms
- Methodology evolution: Championed atomic design methodology to fundamentally change how teams approached their work, focusing on scalable systems rather than page-level solutions
- Tool modernization: Led the strategic transition from Adobe XD to Figma, introducing collaboration capabilities that would break down team silos
- Process restructuring: Implemented extended ideation phases with low-fidelity exploration to accelerate decision-making and reduce rework
Key decisions & execution approach
After identifying the underlying operational challenges, I made several critical strategic decisions:
- Unification vs. division: Rather than accepting the status quo of separate "Learn" and "Plan" design systems, I advocated for a unified approach that would drive consistency across the entire platform
- Process before pixels: Prioritized methodology changes and process improvements over immediate visual resolutions, recognizing that sustainable improvement required foundational change
- Collaborative tooling: Drove the transition to Figma despite potential short-term disruption, recognizing that collaboration capabilities were essential to breaking down team silos
- Component abstraction: Developed wireframe variants and component libraries that allowed designers to focus on conceptual thinking rather than visual details during early ideation
To ensure success, I balanced immediate operational needs with long-term strategic goals, developing the design system incrementally while simultaneously implementing process changes that would accelerate current work.
Business impact
The ProEdge Design System initiative delivered substantial operational and business value:
- Design acceleration: Significantly reduced design cycle time through reusable components and standardized patterns
- Developer efficiency: Streamlined the design-to-development handoff process, reducing implementation time by 50% and resource requirements
- Experience consistency: Established unified visual language across previously disconnected platform experiences
- Team collaboration: Successfully bridged siloed teams through shared tooling and methodologies, creating a foundation for ongoing cross-functional work
- Established UX KPIs & continuous improvement framework to track engagement, adoption, and long-term design impact.
Future vision
While the ProEdge Design System set the foundation for scalable design practices, future opportunities include:
- Evolving user personas from role-based archetypes to Jobs-to-Be-Done (JTBD).
- Defining UX success metrics to benchmark ProEdge against industry standards and measure product adoption.
- Scaling user testing beyond feature-specific A/B tests to a more holistic approach that captures end-to-end user journeys.
Strategic lessons
This initiative reinforced the critical importance of addressing underlying operational structures rather than just surface-level inconsistencies. By focusing on systematic change rather than point solutions, we created sustainable improvement that scaled with the platform.I also recognized that design systems are as much about team transformation as they are about component libraries. The most significant value came not from the artifacts themselves but from the shared understanding, common language, and collaborative processes that emerged through their development. This insight has guided my approach to subsequent design operations initiatives, focusing first on how teams work together before addressing what they produce.