Four product surfaces had drifted into four visual languages. I built one token source of truth and migrated all of them onto it without a redesign.
Role
Design systems lead
Year
2024
Stack
Figma · Tailwind · Style Dictionary · React
Two greys called the same thing meant different values in different apps. Designers guessed, engineers hardcoded, and every release widened the gap.
Audited every colour, space, and type value actually in production — not the ones the guidelines claimed.
Defined a token layer with semantic names tied to intent, not appearance, so dark mode came almost free.
Shipped a codemod so migration was mechanical instead of a judgement call per file.
One source of truth, consumed by four surfaces. Two years on the tokens still hold and new features look like the old ones without anyone policing it.