Elevating the Copperleaf Design System from Toolkit to Product

The products we create are a reflection of the way we work as an organization, and the Copperleaf Design System is the foundation that glues all the disparate parts of our products into something that works cohesively on not just a visual but a visceral, functional level.

The importance of a consistent user experience was highlighted by our clients and partners at the 2023 Copperleaf Global Summit in Vancouver, and to that end the Copperleaf Design System is a comprehensive set of principles and guidelines for reusable assets, components, and patterns that provide a framework for creating a cohesive and consistent user experience throughout our digital products. In addition to enabling visual consistency through a reusable pattern library, the Copperleaf Design System also facilitates efficiencies for effective collaboration across teams, easing the creation of best possible solutions for our clients.

At Copperleaf, we manage our Design System like an internal product, so instead of a toolkit that merely serves as a library of reusable components, the Copperleaf Design System has a clear link to business value generation, has its own roadmap, feature prioritization criteria, and metrics that measure progress over quarters. We’ve purposefully built processes around our Design System that make it easy for teams to contribute to it and adopt it. Leveraging the inherent structure of Product Management for the Design System has been tremendously useful in the following ways:

• Scalability: Since Product Management facilitates operation of the moving parts necessary for cross-functional collaboration between Design, Engineering, and Product Management, it’s now simpler to build the processes required to scale the Design System

• Governance: Ownership and establishment of a clear product vision that aligns with the organization’s objectives helps to effectively serve our clients and users. As we continue to scale, the Design System roadmap aims to function as the meeting point for all the product roadmaps

• Contribution and Adoption: Running the Design System as a product has led to better adoption rates within the organization. Teams engage with and use the system more rigorously since they see it as a valuable product 

In addition to enabling visual consistency through a reusable pattern library, the Copperleaf Design System also facilitates efficiencies for effective collaboration across teams, easing the creation of best possible solutions for our clients.

Being a product that serves all other products, the Copperleaf Design System operates through a hybrid governance model, with a centralized team that engages through contributions with all other product teams. As we continue to scale the Design System, this model will evolve in accordance with the needs of our products and teams.

Learn more about how we develop innovative solutions to our clients’ challenges.