Etsy has a long history of product squad autonomy, where each individual designer (along with their PM and engineering partners) is the primary decider of what is or isn't good enough for their team to ship. While this was great for empowering individuals, it resulted in a mixed bag of user experience quality and consistency.
Furthermore, Etsy's product strategy for many years was laser-focused on revenue-driving projects that could prove their value in a short time horizon. As a result, we consistently deprioritized experience cleanup efforts.
In 2018, I became invested in operationalizing design quality in pursuit of standardizing our UX quality benchmark and leveling up the polish and efficacy of user experiences at Etsy.
What started as a passion project that I'd pick up or put down as time allowed morphed into a core deliverable of mine, first as the Design Lead on Design Systems (2017 - 2020), and then as the Design Lead on the Buyer Experience (2021 - 2024).