100. Brian Dorsey on Design and Engineering Synergy at Mastercard
Feb 13, 2024
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Explore how Mastercard integrates designers into infrastructure teams to revolutionize collaboration. Learn about leveraging design systems for business growth with a focus on accessibility, performance, and themability. Dive into per-component and system-level versioning for accelerated product development.
Integrating designers into infrastructure teams revolutionizes collaboration at Mastercard.
Mastercard leverages its design system to drive business with insights on accessibility, performance, and themability.
Per-component and system-level versioning accelerate product development at Mastercard.
Alignment of design systems with enabling technologies addresses product team needs strategically at Mastercard.
Deep dives
Design System Integration with Developer Platforms
The Director of Platform Product Management at MasterCard discusses the integration of design systems with developer platforms. He emphasizes how a full developer platform, spanning front end, back end, data, libraries, and services, aligns with the goals of design systems. The concept of technology foundations is introduced, highlighting the mission to provide a great developer experience and decrease time to market by addressing common concerns in product development.
Strategic Value of Design Systems
The podcast delves into the strategic value of design systems within organizations. It emphasizes that design systems are design system infrastructure, treated as a product within platform organizations. By applying high engineering standards and considering teams as customers, design systems become a technical solution that enhances scalability and quality across product development. The meticulousness required for design systems' success is highlighted, focusing on delivering flexible and well-crafted components.
Evolution from Grassroots to Centralized Ownership
The evolution of design systems from grassroots initiatives to centralized ownership is explored. The transition from separate product team efforts to a unified design system approach is detailed. The strategic shift towards utilizing design systems to drive improved design quality and front-end development highlights the value of centralized ownership in ensuring consistency and efficiency.
Value Measurement and Future Integration
The discussion touches on measuring the value of design systems and their future integration with generative AI tools. Emphasis is placed on the challenge of calculating ROI in design systems, leading to a focus on perception-based metrics like Net Promoter Score. The potential of design systems as enablers for generative AI tools in enterprise front-ends is highlighted, showcasing the evolving role of design systems in enhancing software development.
Enhancing Tooling for Component Management
The importance of tooling in design system management, particularly for component versioning, is highlighted. The podcast mentions a tool that maps app package dependencies, streamlining updates and notifications for components. The transition from component-level to system-level versioning is discussed, showcasing the iterative approach taken to improve design system efficiency and maintainability.
Strategic Alignment and Enabling Technology
The alignment between design systems and enabling technologies is emphasized for addressing product team needs. The strategic role of product managers in understanding team pain points and aligning technology solutions is discussed. Enabling teams to adopt design systems by solving specific challenges, such as accessibility standards and localization, illustrates the strategic value of design systems in enabling efficient and high-quality software development.
Optimizing Adoption through Strategic Solutions
The podcast emphasizes driving adoption through aligning design systems with broader product priorities. Highlighting scenarios where design systems solve critical problems for product teams, such as meeting accessibility standards and implementing white labeling, showcases the strategic impact of design systems. The focus on using design systems as strategic levers to enhance software quality and modernization resonates as a key driver of adoption.
Join us for a milestone episode of The Design Systems Podcast, featuring Brian Dorsey, a key contributor to Mastercard's groundbreaking design system MADE. Explore how integrating designers into infrastructure teams has revolutionized collaboration. Discover how Mastercard leverages its design system to drive business forward with insights on accessibility, performance, and themability. Learn about per-component versioning and system-level versioning and how they accelerate product development.
Guest Brian Dorsey is a Director of Platform Product Management at Mastercard Data & Services, with a focus on building a development platform that accelerates time to market for products and provides a great developer experience. He treats the design system as front end infrastructure and a key piece of the overall platform.
Host Chris Strahl is co-founder and CEO of Knapsack, host of @TheDSPod, DnD DM, and occasional river guide. You can find Chris on Twitter as @chrisstrahl and on LinkedIn.
Sponsor Sponsored by Knapsack, the design system platform that brings teams together. Learn more at knapsack.cloud.
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