
About
Hey, I'm Laura, with over a decade of experience in the creative field, from deep hands-on work to leading cross-functional teams at scale. But there's so much more to me than my professional journey.
I'm captivated by creativity and its boundless ability to evolve. It has the power to shift perspectives, inspire, and hold us in awe. I live through my visions—running, falling, failing, and getting back up, only to do it all over again,
but better.
I bend materials, bodies, and the way the world is seen, often finding myself hanging upside down, both literally and figuratively. For me, connections matter more than perfection, and I'm rarely without a camera in hand.
A true collector at heart, I'm always on the hunt, driven by a passion to discover and create.
Work Experience
I am currently leading the adoption of Mews' design system across their B2B and B2C products, accelerating the integration of new offerings into the Mews ecosystem within a software platform that spans over 1,000 pages.
Management:
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Provided mentorship and skill development programs that improved expertise, team motivation, and overall job satisfaction. Encouraged ownership of responsibilities, leading to increased team efficiency and quality of work.
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Led teams through organizational transformation with empathy, ensuring stability and strong performance during periods of change.
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Collaborated with VPs and Directors to increase design system adoption by developing key metrics that serve as success drivers for each team's initiatives.
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Established effective communication frameworks and implemented change management strategies that improved cross-functional collaboration and streamlined workflows, making it easier for teams to contribute to and utilize the Design System.
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Spearheaded the transition from an over-centralized Design System model to a more scalable, shared-responsibility architecture. This new model enhanced performance and efficiency within the Design System team, and fostered a cultural shift by building stronger bridges between the product teams and B2B/B2C products, mirroring the internal product ecosystem at Mews.
Craft
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Developed a plugin that scans Figma artboards to identify non-Design System components, marks compliant components with links to documentation, and simplifies the handover process between design and engineering.
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Created a Slack bot integrated with the Design System documentation that answered 50% of all component-related queries. This reduced the workload on the Design System team, allowing them to focus on higher-priority initiatives.
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Built reusable patterns and page templates to ensure UX consistency across B2B and B2C products. These templates increased Design System adoption and helped product designers save time by reducing the need to recreate similar layouts.
I led a mobile Design System initiative, managing a team of 10 engineers to build and improve a multi-brand, multi-platform system that powers up to 8 different brands.
Highlights:
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Proven track record in scaling design systems and driving adoption, leading HelloFresh's mobile design system from 5% to 100% foundational coverage.
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Led the successful rebranding of our mobile app to match the new HelloFresh identity. This involved updating our Figma libraries and working closely with the team to integrate the new design elements into the codebase.
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Introduced a headless mobile design system that made design consistency across platforms much easier. I created flexible typography tokens that work across different platforms and restructured the Figma libraries to better serve a variety of brands.
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Acted as the main point of contact for anything mobile design-related, providing support and feedback to over 60 designers, including detailed file reviews and guidance during the implementation phase.
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Helped bridge the gap between Design and Engineering by fostering better collaboration through workshops and weekly meetings with the Mobile Team.
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Created and maintained an internal Design System app, allowing users to test and play around with components on both iOS and Android.
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Specialized in mobile design by learning the basics of Android and iOS development, which helped build trust with the engineering team and made collaboration smoother.
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Played a key role in improving how Design and Engineering worked together, ensuring that both sides communicated more effectively and that the design process aligned with the technical side.
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Ran 4+ educational sessions covering topics like Design System best practices, tokens, mobile vs. web design, building components, and how to get the most out of Figma.
Speaking
Led by Design Meetup: Design System Leadership
Participated in a panel discussion exploring leadership in design systems, addressing challenges in integration, scaling, and fostering collaboration. The session brought together leaders from both design and technical backgrounds to share insights on building a culture of teamwork through effective design systems.
participated in Supernova's first in-person meetup in Prague, where I joined a fireside chat to discuss my career journey, including my experience leading the mobile design system at HelloFresh and the design system at Mews. I also shared how I use AI in my day-to-day work with design systems and provided insights on what to look for when hiring for design system teams.
How can the Roman Empire and the way they built their cities inspire you to create a design system infrastructure that will make your team rise?
From a nascent design system with just one brave resident to an empire, Laura will show you how using tools can empower a limited workforce even before you start scaling up. If you’ve ever wondered why and how creating a community around your design system in the early stages is crucial for your success, how to get buy-in from leadership, or how to build an infrastructure that lasts as long as Rome’s famous roads, this is the talk for you.
Volunteering
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I help designers get ready for job interviews, offering practical advice and tips based on my own experience. This includes mock interviews and guidance on how to present their skills and projects effectively.
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I provide detailed feedback on portfolios, helping designers highlight their strengths, tell their story, and showcase their best work to stand out in a competitive market.
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I mentor a solo Design System designer, guiding them through the process of planning, building, and scaling their system. I offer long-term support to help them navigate the challenges of maintaining and growing a system effectively.
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I offer guidance on optimizing processes, improving communication, and fostering collaboration between design and other teams, ensuring that DesignOps runs smoothly and efficiently.
Features
How do you build and scale your design system when your company is rapidly expanding its teams and product portfolio?
That's the question the design system team at Mews faced this year. The team was tasked with enabling feature teams to create high-quality, scalable products with a focus on efficiency and excellent end-user experience.
We chatted with Laura Fehre (Design Manager) and Riccardo Erra
(Senior Front-end Engineer) to learn how they tackled this challenge.
Certifications
This course, led by Anna E. Cook, focuses on conducting accessibility audits for design systems to ensure inclusive experiences for people with disabilities. It covers how to assess designs, client-side code, and documentation to create accessible products. Anna walks through documenting and prioritizing audit findings, and shares best practices for making the results actionable and communicating them with design system stakeholders. The course highlights the importance of accessibility for user satisfaction and gaining a competitive edge with innovative product design.