As the scope of the initiative expanded, I collaborated with design leads across multiple product teams—including Open Pages, Orchestrate, Cloud, and CP4D, to establish a shared execution plan that each team could realistically deliver against. This model also enabled clear visibility for leadership, making it easier to track progress, surface risks, and address blockers early so the design organization could better support teams throughout this large-scale effort.

Through a series of structured workshops, we aligned on a five-level adoption framework to streamline execution. The framework began with a pre-planning phase focused on resourcing and roadmap alignment, followed by incremental levels that progressed from foundational updates such as, iconography, typography, tokens, and shared components. Addressed higher-impact product areas, including core workflows, responsiveness, and data visualization. The final phase addressed UX gaps and the creation of new, product-specific patterns where needed.

As a result of this approach, both Cognos Analytics and Planning Analytics successfully upgraded to the latest version of the Carbon Design System at the time (v11), achieving consistency across products while reducing risk and accelerating adoption.