Klarna Design System
Bringing consistency to fragmented product experiences
Client :
Klarna
Role :
Accountable Lead
Year :
2023-2024
Overview
Klarna's product ecosystem had grown through a decentralized model, creating divergence across teams, surfaces, and experiences. The design system existed, but teams often worked outside it. I led the transition from optional resource to key product foundation across 180 teams and 17 domains.
What I did
Led as Accountable Lead, driving adoption strategy and roadmap across distributed product teams
Reframed the system around responsive principles that could drive productivity, not just documentation
Introduced Templates: copy-paste patterns built from best practice, enabling teams to apply the system at the point of use
Led system through a major rebrand, extending color and typography tokens across the entire ecosystem
Piloted Figma Code Connect to link components directly to production code, laying foundations for AI-ready workflows
Impact
Reduced design-to-dev handoff time and maintenance debt.
Scaled adoption from optional resource to a major product foundation.
Supported rebrand across the entire ecosystem without manual rework.
Wrap-up
The key wasn't building better components. It was adapting to organizational change: shifting adoption from optional to default by focusing on real workflows, not lengthy documentation.