Design systems are often positioned as a tool that helps you scale what’s working well today. The obvious risk is that it also makes it more efficient to stay in place— leading to a lack of innovation in your products. A design system shouldn’t be the ceiling for creativity. It should be the floor that teams can build on top of. To do this, design systems need to be resilient: built to change and evolve.

In this talk, Yesenia will share lessons learned from evolving a mature design system, and how to create design systems that are built to adapt. Topics will include system of systems architecture, theming APIs, and shifting the culture around the design system.

Yesenia Perez-Cruz is a designer, speaker, and writer based out of Philadelphia. She is UX Director at Shopify, leading the Polaris design system team.

Yesenia’s passionate about increasing inclusivity in tech, designing responsibly and leading with empathy. When she’s not designing, you may find her photographing her beautiful city of Philadelphia, trying a new recipe, or digging into her stash of unread books.