Design systems and other internal platforms as products with David Demaree from Webflow

David Demaree is a Principal Product Manager at Webflow, where he helps lead the designer experience effort.

Before Webflow, David was at Stripe, where he worked on their design system Sail; and at Google, where he worked on Google Fonts and Material Design. In this episode, David and Rebecca discuss the power of platforms to accelerate engineering efforts, and the power of involving a product manager in platforms, even when all of a platform’s users are in-house.

Find the transcript at: https://www.unblocked.fm/episodes/david-demaree-webflow-design-systems-and-other-internal-platforms-as-products

Timestamps (00:00) Introduction (00:39) Talking about LEGOs (02:20) David’s background (06:32) Material Design (11:01) Selling the investment (14:46) Design systems at Stripe (18:13) Categories of problems that design systems solve (19:55) Selling the long-term, short-term story to leadership (23:07) Speaking the same language as leadership (26:56) Measuring and selling an internal platform (30:55) Secondary effects of platforms (36:04) Platforms as products (42:45) Product for internal platforms vs. external products

Where to find David • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ddemaree/ • Twitter: https://twitter.com/ddemaree

Where to find Rebecca • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rmurphey/ • Twitter: https://twitter.com/rmurphey

Links and mentions • Webflow: https://webflow.com/ • Stripe: https://stripe.com/ • Google’s design system, Material Design: https://m3.material.io/ • Adobe Fonts (formerly known as Typekit): https://fonts.adobe.com/ • Microsoft’s design system, Fluent: https://fluent2.microsoft.design/ • The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering: https://www.amazon.com/Mythical-Man-Month-Software-Engineering-Anniversary/dp/0201835959