9 Years Building the System Behind the System.
I'm Grant Thomas — Senior UX Design Lead on Eli Lilly's enterprise design system. For the past 9 years I've been the person responsible for the design infrastructure that serves 100k+ employees, 50+ global brands, and millions of patients worldwide.
The work. Nine years on Eli Lilly's enterprise design system — one of the most complex design system environments in pharma. I've held nearly every role on that team: researcher, designer, Scrum Master, Product Owner, lead library architect. That breadth isn't an accident. I've always believed you make better design decisions when you understand everything surrounding them.
Some of what I've shipped: built Lilly.com from the ground up. Pushed back on Wieden+Kennedy's proposed brand red — which failed accessibility and was too close to a competitor's identity — and came back with an HCT-based alternative they could stand behind. Built a tonal color system that now spans the entire Lilly brand portfolio: Mounjaro, Zepbound, Taltz, Basaglar, and more. The system I work on today powers both public brand experiences and internal applications across Lilly's global workforce.
The approach. I start every project with deep discovery — inputs, constraints, context — before jumping to solutions. I'm passionate about accessibility and staying engaged through the build, not tossing work over the wall. I hold a PSM-I and PSPO-I, which means I've facilitated the agile side of design work, not just the design side.
Outside of work. Boulderer, reader, street photographer. Art history minor. Inspired by Vivian Maier and Henri Cartier-Bresson. Happiest somewhere unfamiliar — this fall that means France for yoga teacher training.