Launching the Blueprint Design System

Early in my time at Redfin, we experienced a round of layoffs that affected many teams and people across the org, one of which was Design Systems. There were two product designers who oversaw the design, production and implementation of Blueprint, Redfin’s fledgling design system and component library. One designer was let go, and the User Experience Engineering (UXE) engineering team behind the designers was disbanded and resources allocated elsewhere.

We were dead in the water with a bunch of work to do.

The hardest part was convincing our lead designer to stick around and see this through with me.

Keep in mind, so much was done before I had taken on this leadership role. Both product designers had worked really hard to establish an understanding of legacy systems, development of an early rollout strategy and partnering with our brand design teams to align on visuals and aesthetics. Months of work went into research and planning before the layoffs and the reassigning of crucial resources and talent.

The Opportunity 

At Redfin, creating and implementing a design system was crucial to streamlining both design and engineering efforts, allowing us to work more efficiently and consistently across teams. By establishing a unified design language and reusable components, we could save significant time and money by reducing redundancy and minimizing the need for rework, which would improve productivity across the board. From a performance perspective, the system would enhance load times and stability, providing a smoother experience for users. Most importantly, it would have a direct positive impact on user engagement and trust—by ensuring a consistent, intuitive interface across all touchpoints, we would build a more seamless and reliable experience that users could depend on, ultimately strengthening their connection with Redfin.

Winning cross-functional support

Early on, we knew that in order for Blueprint to succeed, we needed engineering support to actual implement the monumental changes that were envisioned to bring a cohesive design system to reality amidst a decade of legacy code, inconsistent design patterns and a dismal and struggling design library.

I went straight to the top – well, my VP of Design – obviously he was all in, but needed some proof to sell up; needed some strategic thinking wrapped around how we might proceed given the lack of resources and buy-in from critical stakeholders.

It really started with two people; our VP of Product and VP of Engineering in our Growth org. Both of which were struggling with the negative effects of a layoff, and scrambling resources.

We just talked. I scheduled meetings, we talked about the realities of what engineering support would take. We talked about tradeoffs and timelines.

Working within a culture of “prove it”

For better or sometimes worse, Redfin’s product teams operated withing a culture that rewarded rigorous experimentation – ultimately, Redfin’s products and features we often void of any risk, leaving many product managers and designers struggling to mitigate all risk that might affect lead rates and home listing views.

So far, to many in the business c-suite, things we were working just fine. Why would we need a design system when we’ve been designing without one for so long?

I had to find an answer, and we just kinda had to “go for it”. 

Working Behind the Scenes

While designers and engineers were working towards their first experiment, I had to start planting seeds within different product and feature teams to sell the impact of Blueprint. There were countless meetings and asides, presentations and just real talk about what we can do and how we need help to get it done. I got several other designers, outside of Design Systems to help our lead designer churn out components and variants in Figma, double checking the work to ensure a smooth transition over to engineering. I worked with the Brand Design teams to align over illustrative styles, updates to color and the use of it – all while Blueprint was moving faster than ever before. 

Small Experiment, Big Win!

There was some compromise achieved, and Design Systems was assigned part-time Product Manager and we rolled out our first small experiment on Redfin’s Android mobile app.

The A/B test results for Blueprint were a major success, especially in critical areas like the Listing Details Page (LDP), showing a significant boost in user engagement. The impact was so strong that teams quickly reworked their Q4 roadmaps to adopt Blueprint sooner across all of User Growth. One notable result was on Android, where newly designed listing pages increased buy-side contacts by over 9% and scheduled tours by 8%.

We met with key leaders across Growth, Design, Product, and Engineering to strategize the Blueprint rollout. However, tensions arose between Engineering and Product priorities. While Engineering focused on front-end isolation, Product was eager to get Blueprint fully integrated. The decision was escalated to the CEO, who ultimately directed the UX Engineering team to finalize Blueprint in Q4. This approach ensured that Blueprint would be accessible to as many engineers as possible, avoiding the inefficiencies of hard-coding styles and maximizing its long-term impact.

The surprising big uplift in contacts was enough to scramble to get more engineering resources onboard and implementing the first version across the web platform (desktop and mobile web).

Blueprint 1.0 is released

Results: Blueprint drove engagement, performance, and demand, outweighing losses in onboardings and app installs

Blueprint was more than fresh paint — it rebuilt the foundation and rehauled the overall page experience, which yielded wins for users and the business.

Performance: Reusing design system components helped reduce the size of CSS/JS bundles, resulting in a page that loads faster for users. Performance is critical to UX and traffic growth; we track performance using Google’s Core Web Vitals metrics, which are a direct input to organic rankings.

Demand: Saved the best for last. We saw a massive increase in buy-side contacts, pulling through to customers, likely due to a combo of more engagement with content, bolder and more appealing CTAs, and faster load times.

Those contact leads are what drives Redfin’s revenue machine, and Blueprint had a positive impact on those business critical metrics, more so than any other product experiment in Q1 of 2023. 

What I learned as a leader

Leading the development of Redfin’s Blueprint design system was a lesson in the importance of cross-functional collaboration and perseverance. After layoffs and resource shifts left the project in a tough spot, I had to align key stakeholders and get buy-in from teams that were already stretched thin. Convincing the remaining designer to stay and advocating for the system’s long-term value required constant communication and persistence, but we pushed forward with a clear vision.

I also learned the importance of rallying teams around good design, even when faced with challenges. By launching a small experiment that showed impressive results, we were able to shift opinions and accelerate adoption. The project reinforced the idea that, with perseverance and strong collaboration, even the toughest obstacles can lead to meaningful success, improving both user experience and business outcomes.