Blue Origin

The challenge

More than 20 front-end developers were building in silos, each re-creating the same components and patterns across a growing set of in-house tools. The result was duplicated effort, inconsistent experiences, and mounting front-end cost.

Blue Origin needed one design language that could bring that sprawling engineering org under a single, maintainable system — without slowing teams down.

The approach

I built the Blue Kit design system to unify those teams under one shared foundation of components, patterns, and guidance — turning scattered one-off UI into a system everyone could build on.

In parallel, I redesigned Jules, an internal suite of ERPs and PLMs, focusing on usability and day-to-day satisfaction for the people who lived in those tools.

• Blue Kit design system to unify 20+ developers
• Jules ERP/PLM suite redesigned for usability
• A 5-year roadmap for scaling the system across the org

The outcome

The 5-year design-system roadmap was projected to save roughly $1.1M annually in front-end costs — proof that good design infrastructure is a financial lever, not just a consistency win.

---

In detail

Our work at Blue Origin involved a strategic partnership with business intelligence and engineering teams to resolve data flow issues. This collaborative effort resulted in the creation of "Blue Whale," a comprehensive system model akin to a 'theory of everything' for managing the expansive manufacturing operations. This model streamlined planning and budgeting processes, leading to the establishment of a UX team dedicated to maximizing operational efficiency and minimizing costs, ensuring sustainable growth and competitiveness.

The “Jules” suite of software products orchestrated and tracked factory operations across rocket and rocket engine manufacturing. From inventory tracking, BOM management and reconciliation, Work Order modeling and factory scheduling - the proprietary software at Blue Origin supported systems across all of Blue Origin’s business units.

Products produced were focused on ground systems, maintenance, design and manufacturing of specialized Rocket Engines, Rocket modules and proprietary space systems.

Our efforts yielded impressive results:

• The Blue Kit achieved a remarkable 90% adoption rate on Gitlab.
• We significantly reduced the learning curve, doubling usability and customer satisfaction, impacting 83% of the workforce.

Creating a system that would offer transparency and crucial insights into a complex, 3000+ employee organization for both the finance team and potential investors was essential not only for internal efficiencies but also for securing government contracts. The challenge was to integrate diverse company functions—from tracking employee hours to adjusting logistics and design improvements—to prevent expensive, late-stage changes that could drastically inflate costs.

Team's strategic design approach consistently delivers tailored solutions to complex problems, highly regarded by stakeholders at every level. His capacity to simplify and address intricate challenges has driven significant organizational changes and process enhancements, making him a trusted leader in design and innovation. – Jeff Bezos, Founder

Team Management

Hired and managed tam, implemented project tracking systems for cross functional visibility, participated in design reviews to cultivate critical thinking and maintain product quality.

AI and Automation

Conducted workshops which incorporated research and service design to strategically prioritize and determine opportunities for automation and AI solutions to increase factory performance. Modeling of real time analytics and monitoring to support more efficient factory and supply chain reporting.

Facilitation Chatbots for User Satisfaction During Crisis

To facilitate the learning of systems and processes we established an LLM from documentation and created an assistant to support just in time learning and factory best practices.

BlueKit Design System

Directed the creation of a proprietary design system, Bluekit. Common patterns for usability and reusable, react based components for a streamlined approach to feature builds - set the system in a CMS for easy reference to code and documentation.

Research and Service Design

Understanding factory operational systems, and how best to support them was foundational to establishing and prioritizing features and establishing use cases. In close partnership with the technical product designers and customers of our products, as a team we were able to clarify issues and support decision making.

North Star Visioning

How can factories produce and teams operate and navigate design revisions as nimbly as possible? By creating animated storyboards to convey the potential and impact of technical enhancements (mobile operations, automated kitting) the team was able to share the proposed tactical and strategic plans to improve factory velocity.