One System, Every Brand: Scaling a Multi-Theme Design System
Partnered across teams to support light mode for the first time, integrating Jackpocket into DraftKings’ platform while preserving the brand’s distinct identity.
Type:
Design System
Role:
Product Design Director
Year:
2024-2026
Overview
DraftKings operates multiple distinct products on a shared platform, meaning every core flow must work consistently across brands, verticals, and millions of users.
As Product Design Director on the platform team, I owned the core experiences that underpin every product: deposit, withdrawal, registration, and account management. My focus was ensuring these flows scaled across branded themes while coordinating across a global design organization, multiple engineering teams, and, following the acquisition of Jackpocket, a new product with its own design system and visual identity.
The Challenge
Designing platform experiences across multiple brands is inherently complex, but the integration of Jackpocket introduced a new constraint: theme divergence at the system level.
All DraftKings products were built on a dark mode foundation. Jackpocket operated entirely in light mode and, based on customer expectations, needed to remain a distinct brand.
Supporting this meant evolving the design system to handle a fundamentally different visual context for the first time.
This exposed deeper challenges:
Existing components did not meet accessibility and contrast standards in light mode
There was no token architecture to support multiple themes at scale
Platform flows needed to function consistently across both themes without duplication
At the same time, Jackpocket was an established product with its own design team and strong point of view, requiring careful alignment to integrate onto the platform without compromising brand integrity or delivery timelines.
Approach & Solution
I focused on creating alignment across teams while defining clear guardrails for how the system needed to evolve.
Established cross-team working rhythms
Brought together platform design, design system, and Jackpocket design teans into a shared operating model, ensuring teams collaborated continuously rather than solving problems in isolation.
Defined system-level guardrails
Clarified how platform flows should behave across themes, including interaction patterns, hierarchy, and accessibility standards. This gave the design system team a concrete target as they rebuilt token architecture for light mode support.
Partnered closely on system evolution
Worked alongside the design system team as they introduced theme-aware tokens, ensuring core flows remained functional, accessible, and consistent across both dark and light contexts.
Built alignment with a distinct product team
Collaborated closely with the Jackpocket design team to balance platform consistency with brand expression, building trust through regular working sessions and shared decision-making.
Drove organizational change to support scale
Advocated for bringing the design system team under the platform umbrella, aligning ownership with how the work was already happening and reducing friction between the teams responsible for system consistency.
Impact
Enabled full light mode support across core platform flows for the first time
Successfully integrated Jackpocket onto the shared platform without compromising brand identity
Established a scalable theming foundation, allowing future products to launch in multiple themes with significantly less effort
Improved accessibility and contrast across the component library
Reduced cross-team friction through shared processes and clearer ownership
Strengthened collaboration between platform and design systems through organizational alignment
This work evolved the design system from a single-theme foundation into a flexible, multi-brand platform, enabling DraftKings to scale across products without sacrificing consistency or accessibility. By aligning teams, defining clear system guardrails, and improving organizational structure, we created a stronger foundation for future growth across an increasingly diverse product ecosystem.