Modernizing Vanguard Products
Fintech
2024-2025
PACELift: Cleaning up design and development debt with Vanguard’s design system.
Saved $2M+ annually and cut major design debt
The Challange
Vanguard launched a new design system (Constellation), but none of our institutional or B2C platforms were compliant. This led to design and dev teams working from scratch, wasting time and money — over $2M annually in delivery inefficiencies.
My Role
As the IC design lead, I helped drive the initiative to migrate 3,000+ screens across 6 high-impact products to Constellation. I worked closely with our design system team and dev partners to:
Audit legacy designs and identify reusable components
Apply systemized updates across Figma files
Ensure accessibility, consistency, and dev handoff quality
Collaborate with leads to roll out screens in phases without blocking feature work
Results
$2.8M+ in annual efficiency gains
6 products migrated in 6 months
Enabled 3x faster dev delivery using systemized UI
Helped pilot a new cross-functional working model still used org-wide
What I Learned
Design systems are only effective when supported by strong advocacy and clear ROI
Even highly manual work (like re-skinning thousands of screens) can be high-impact if it's strategic
Speed and quality scale with the right systems, team dynamics, and Figma process
Disclaimer ‼️
Unfortunately, I am unable to showcase specific work due to non-disclosure agreements (NDAs). Please feel free to reach out to me directly for further information.