Why we host an internal design systems conference
Advocacy and education are two pillars of design systems work, and the team behind Gestalt, our design system here at Pinterest, are champions of both. At the end of 2023, the team hosted the second-annual Design System Day (DSD) at Pinterest, an internal mini-conference dedicated to talks, networking and knowledge-sharing with fellow Pinterest employees and others from the design community.
The team gathered nearly 150 people both virtually and in-person and brought in external guest speakers from companies like Grammarly and Sprout Social to share insights.
In the spirit of sharing insights, we’re giving you a behind-the-scenes look at the conference and why we put it together in the hopes that it inspires other teams to think about ways they can get their teams excited about the systems world.
What happens on Design System Day?
The team constructs the schedule for DSD to create the right balance of informational sessions, open conversation and laid-back networking and connection. DSD is open to cross-functional partners, so the team selects topics that are valuable to designers, engineers, product managers and everyone who touches Pinterest’s product experience.
The schedule for the day was packed, and of course attendees had the option to jump in and out of sessions as their schedule allowed. The team booked a conference room at our San Francisco headquarters for anyone who wanted to attend in-person, and all sessions streamed live virtually. The day was full of:
Presentations:
- We had the honor of having Greg Storey, an internationally recognized designer, writer and speaker, open the event with a keynote talk on how to shift your perspective and ways to think about your impact on a product team. Our former Pinterest colleague, Ayesha Mazrana (now a Design Technologist at Grammarly) presented on design tokens and Koji Pereira, Chief Design Officer at Neon, spoke about design excellence at scale. Mary Heer, Product Designer at Audible, presented on creating inclusive and accessible experiences. In the afternoon, Ravi Lingineni, Design Technologist at Pinterest, and Alberto Carreras, Software Engineer at Pinterest, spoke on topics in design system engineering.
Discussions:
- Each presentation ended with a Q&A to allow attendees to dive deeper and further the conversation. Also, Layla Leal, Product Designer at Pinterest on our Gestalt Design System team, moderated a panel discussion with Alex Rice, Staff Product Designer at Sprout Social and Michael Diaz, Principal Product Designer at Dell, to talk about the intersection between systems and feature designers and cross-functional partners. They shared different perspectives regarding collaboration, the design process, the journey to component adoption and metrics — and, of course, opened the discussion to audience questions.
Networking:
- The day ended with a happy hour and networking activity led by Cíntia Romero and Kate Halvorsen, product designers on the Gestalt team. They led conversations by asking things like, “How do you keep yourself creative when using design systems?” and engaged virtual attendees with an activity hosted in FigJam, Figma’s online whiteboard tool.
Why we host an internal design systems conference
The team puts together the day-long event to highlight Gestalt and provide an opportunity for design colleagues to learn new skill sets, deep dive into the systems world and find new ways to elevate their design craft.
The day aims to contribute to:
- Better collaboration: By discussing system topics that connect Engineering, Product and Design, the team learns how to better engage and partner with each other on projects.
- Expanded networks: Discussions and networking opportunities allows for connection between teammates org-wide and with other folks from the industry.
- Faster workflows: Spending a day thinking about design systems and learning how to use system components, patterns (in Figma and our codebase) and documentation helps make design and development seamless.
Why it works
We heard from Pinterest staff and guests alike that the conference is an invaluable opportunity to level-up on systems knowledge and connect with the larger design community.
Here are some highlights of some of the feedback we received:
“Events like Design System Day are very important as the design system community evolves. It was great to connect with like-minded folks and hear their perspectives on inclusive design, accessibility and design at scale. Sharing our struggles and victories makes us stronger!”
– Koji Pereira, Chief of Design Officer at Neon (Design System Day 2023 speaker)“Only Pinterest can make an online event this much fun! … I met a lot of people and learned a lot at the event; it felt like I was there in person. This should happen every year!”
–Arthur Pesco, Product Designer at Pinterest“The speakers provided insight and wisdom into how to be a better design system practitioner or how to start becoming one, and it was so encouraging to hear accessibility and its importance brought up repeatedly throughout the day. Can’t wait to attend again next year!”
— Alex Rice, Staff Product Designer at Sprout Social (Design System Day 2023 speaker)“Design System Day was the best virtual/in-person event I’ve ever attended, where equal attention was given to the online and in-person participants so everyone felt included. Design System Day was the best event I’ve been to all year, and I can’t wait to attend next year!”
— Sasha Bajzek, UX Engineer at Fairer“Pinterest’s design system conference was incredibly refreshing! The team was very intentional with their balance of speakers and networking.”
— Nadine Sarraj, Product Designer at 365 Retail Markets
We want to share a huge thank you to all of our presenters and the entire Gestalt team for dedicating their time and sharing their expertise and insights with us.
How do you engage your team to learn more about design systems? What topics do you think we should include in next year’s edition?
We’re excited for Design System Day 2024!
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