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Obelisco: design system governance for a city-scale ecosystem

A design system is only as good as its adoption. This case covers both sides of that story: building the governance model for Buenos Aires City Government's design system, "Obelisco," and then driving the enablement work that got teams to actually use it day to day.

Obelisco design system cover visual

My role

Lead governance, then drive adoption

I worked across design, development, and operational leadership to build a system that teams could actually adopt. That meant setting standards, aligning stakeholders, and turning the design system into a practical operating model.

  • Led the governance model for the design system: standards, ownership, and contribution rules across 50+ touchpoints.
  • Advocated for the system's priorities with product and engineering leadership.
  • Designed the documentation and enablement materials that let teams adopt the system without hand-holding.
  • Connected component guidance directly to real product decisions, so teams could self-serve instead of asking for one-off approval.

Approach

Two phases: build it, then make it stick

Phase 1 — Governance & standardization

  • LDefined the system's core components, patterns, and contribution rules, and set up a governance model so the system could evolve without fragmenting across 20+ team members and multiple product areas.

Phase 2 — Adoption & enablement

  • Once the system existed, the real work began: clearer documentation, better references, and direct support so teams could adopt it autonomously — reducing ambiguity in day-to-day decisions and building more coherence across products.

Outcomes

A system that teams actually use

Scale

Standardized 50+ digital touchpoints serving 3M+ citizens under one design language.

Friction reduction

Achieved ~40% reduction in design and development friction across a team of 20+ people.

Adoption

Clearer references and lower ambiguity meant teams could adopt the system independently, without constant one-off guidance.

Who this is for

  • Governments and large organizations scaling a design system across many teams
  • Design leads responsible for both building and driving adoption of a system
  • Product teams looking to reduce friction between design and engineering

Key learning

Building a design system and getting people to actually use it are two different jobs. Governance without enablement produces a system nobody opens — adoption work is what turns standardization into real, measurable friction reduction.