I find myself open to work following the acquisition of Lacework by Fortinet.

While I’m bummed about it, I leave my team in a good place for the transition with all my contributions and planning docs tied up in a neat bow for easy reference and knowledge transfer. Some closing thoughts I shared with the UX and UXR team to help them as they begin to collaborate more with their Fortinet counterparts and work to build more UX maturity in their new org...

🩵 A design system is NOT a UI kit.

It is made up of the people and processes that influence it. The library is not one and done. It evolves alongside features as it is a living document. Trellis Design System should be treated as a product like any other feature in the product development lifecycle.

🩵 Collaborate. Make your work visible. Avoid siloes!

Lean hard into the design reviews and share early. Sharing earlier gives time for team mates to give feedback and help pivot if a direction is off-pattern.

🩵 If there are system gaps — broken process, missing guidelines, broken components — report them.

It only gets better with input. Remember what I said about it being an evolving product? 😉

🩵 Please approach the design system with as much rigor as possible to maintain cohesive experiences.

This is going to be even more important now that you'll have to juggle features and system at the same time.

🩵 Get comfortable with building proposals and proof of concepts to get buy-in for tools to fill gaps, getting resources and cross team alignment.

Use comparative metrics to make a case for what’s needed to be successful. Numbers can influence the most skeptical.

I've done a lot but I did not do it alone. The success of Lacework’s Trellis Design System is built on the work that every Lacer that has contributed. Thank you all again for being amazing team mates and being part of my career journey... keep it up! ❤️‍🔥

What's next for me?

I'm keeping a look out for roles where I can continue specializing in design systems or internal tools. I got 10+ years of experience driving design strategy and designing products at past orgs like Twitter, Cisco, New Relic, and Workday and have spent most of my career in B2B sectors, e-commerce, dev tools, cybersecurity, etc. I’m looking for a full time role that offers challenges and opportunity for making organizational impact at scale and solves interesting problems for users and teams.

Logistical details:
👩🏽‍💻 Remote roles are a priority.
🚍 Hybrid considered (max. 2 days in office + must be a reasonable commute from San Francisco).
📄 Please reply with job description and the salary range.

💼 My UX portfolio: www.francesliddell.com

Recruiters and hiring managers, get at me. The inbox is open 😉