Hello, I am Meghan Kelley.

I love growing design systems and empowering the people that use them.

About me

I believe that design systems are a shared ownership between the people that maintain them and the people that use them. Establishing and nurturing partnerships is key to this in addition to being empathetic, curious and actively listening to others. I believe in good culture, that encourages innovation and feedback from partners. Design systems inherently depend on the contributions from their audiences to keep evolving as an ecosystem so they can support and empower people where they are. I believe that shared governance, open dialogue, thoughtful maintenance and good design solves audience needs and naturally evangelizes design systems. Done right design systems can bridge organizational divides between people and teams, enabling us all to work better together.

 

Skills

Figma • Sketch • Design Systems Thinking • aspiring design systems thought leader • Governance of Design Systems • Cross team collaboration • Design Operations • Project Management • Product Design • User Experience • Visual Design • User Testing • Interaction design • User Interface design • User experience • Prototyping • Design Research • Workshop facilitation • HTML/CSS

A podcast

During my time at Zendesk, I had the opportunity to chat about my philosophy towards design systems, in particular Greenhouse, Zendesk’s Digital Design System on the Inside Marketing Design podcast.

I go behind the scenes into how we evolved Greenhouse into a mature and robust design system. Take a look here (~50 min):

 

About me, personally

In my free time, I enjoy outdoor activities such as scuba diving and hiking and tactile creative hobbies. Lately, I am a woodworker and a fiber arts enthusiast. I am also a proud mom, wife, and volunteer at the ASPCA and Family Equality.