{"id":60247,"date":"2023-02-06T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-06T20:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/?p=60247"},"modified":"2024-12-20T11:27:23","modified_gmt":"2024-12-20T16:27:23","slug":"community-spotlight-crystal-ledesma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/community-spotlight-crystal-ledesma","title":{"rendered":"Humanizing the Workplace: Community Spotlight with Crystal Ledesma"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t
\n
\n \t
\n \t\t
\n \t\t\t
\n \t\t\t\t

The Community Spotlight\u2014a monthly blog series highlighting some of the amazing members of the <\/span>email community<\/span><\/a>\u2014is back!<\/span><\/p>\n

Every month, we\u2019ll interview, highlight, and celebrate the splendid members of the email community. We dig in to where they got their start, where they are now, and explore their challenges and passions in email.<\/span><\/p>\n

This month, we\u2019re chatting with Crystal Ledesma\u2014design systems expert, fashion aficionado, and long-time email geek.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n
\"Crystal<\/td>\nCrystal Ledesma<\/strong> (she\/her)
\n<\/span>Senior Engineering Manager, Design Systems at <\/span>Zillow<\/span><\/a>
\nFollow Crystal on <\/span>LinkedIn<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Twitter<\/span><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

What did the beginning of your time in email marketing look like?<\/span><\/h2>\n

Cranking out <\/span>sliced-and-diced<\/span><\/a> Photoshop files into HTML emails at ExactTarget!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

How did you first connect with the wider email geeks community?<\/span><\/h2>\n

After getting my first email job, hearing from coworkers about Litmus which in turn led me to the <\/span>email geeks<\/span><\/a> community and <\/span>Litmus Live<\/span><\/a>. My first connection was mostly focused on learning all I could from others in the community to help me understand! Like most who first get into email, I couldn\u2019t understand why certain things didn\u2019t work in email and I desperately wanted to understand it so I could wrap my head around it better and ultimately do better work.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I think when people get email given to them as a responsibility, there’s two common responses. One is noticing the quirkiness of email and wondering why some things don\u2019t work consistently in clients, and then walking away from email afterward. The other response is being bothered by those inconsistencies and developing an obsessive need to figure it out, and those are the people who become email geeks.<\/span><\/p>\n

I cannot even begin to imagine where I\u2019d be without the email geeks community! I probably would have quit email a long time ago, crying over <\/span>Outlook<\/span><\/a> and Lotus Notes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

How would you describe what you found in the email geeks community and what keeps you connected to it?\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Unity! There were people facing the same challenges, trying to find similar solutions, and being able to relate to each other gave me a sense of unity to others in the community. I think it\u2019s the same reason why I stay connected to it. Also, there\u2019s something special about folks that work in email\u2014it\u2019s tough! And underappreciated sometimes. Supporting each other and the culture of sharing keeps me connected to it, even if I\u2019m not working in email day-to-day at this point in my career.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I can’t think of another community that is so motivated to share information with one another, with a notable lack of gatekeeping. In comparison, when I was first interested in front-end development there was always someone saying there’s a right way to do this and a wrong way to do this, even though there are actually many ways you can approach work in web development. There was definitely a sense of gatekeeping that was really intimidating to me, whereas the email community was so much more open because we were all just trying to figure it out together.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

You\u2019re well-regarded in the email community for your design system work. What was the drive behind developing an email design system?<\/span><\/h2>\n

My drive was mostly about scaling myself. The amount of work that needed to be done was not going to be possible with just me, but at the time it wasn\u2019t possible to hire more dedicated email designers and devs, and I was facing the need to scale my work among a variety of disciplines across orgs and in a variety of different email tools. I also happen to have a difficult time saying \u201cno\u201d when people need my expertise or help too. It forced me to think about how I could scale myself to others and empower them with the abilities I have in a way that works for them, and some research led me to design systems for the web. That approach greatly resonated with the complex problem I was trying to solve, so I dug in to adapt it for email.<\/span><\/p>\n

Would it be fair to say that you built your career off of the design system you created?<\/span><\/h2>\n

I guess you can say that. My focus was always so much on the outcome that I was trying to achieve, which is scale and <\/span>efficiency<\/span><\/a>. Everything has always tied back to that sense of wanting to scale, initially me as a one person. And now that we’re a team of 25, we’re trying to support the entire company\u2014people internally who are making the things that ultimately end users interact with.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There are so many things that can be simplified for them to make it easier to focus on the more complex problems they\u2019re trying to solve. I always love this example\u2014I don’t want to think about the right brand color for a button. I\u2019d like to have a button that\u2019s on-brand ready to use, so I can concentrate on more important work. That was always what I was focused on, and I think that’s why my career went that way, because that’s what I cared about.<\/span><\/p>\n \t\t\t<\/div>\n \t\t<\/div>\n \t<\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\n
\n
\n
\n\t\t \t\t \t\t \t\t \t\t \t\t \t\t \t\t \t\t\t \t\t \t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\"illustration\n\t\t\t\t\t \t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t
\t\t\t \t\t\t

6 Steps to a Powerful Email Design System Your Team Loves<\/strong><\/h2>\n\t\t\t \n\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t

Learn what an email design system is, why it works, and the 6 steps you need to create an effective email design system your team will actually use.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t \t\t <\/div>\t\t\t \t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tLearn more\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t \t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\t
\n
\n \t
\n \t\t
\n \t\t\t
\n \t\t\t\t

 <\/p>\n

Could you describe what a typical work day looks like for you?\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Everything I do now is high-level strategy for applications of Design Systems across web, native apps, and email. Every day there is some level of all the following: championing cohesion for improving overall user experience no matter which surface a customer is interacting with, advocating for the team and continuous design system adoption across the company, ensuring that I provide guidance and leadership to the team around what our goals are to help them feel empowered to make decisions on their approach to the design system work that will raise the quality bar impact at scale, and supporting team members in their career in alignment with design system work.<\/span><\/p>\n

Which can also be translated into: lots of writing, presentations, knowledge sharing, and meetings.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What are the specific aspects of your work that you find satisfying?<\/span><\/h2>\n

The human part. Not just leading others\u2014which is definitely a satisfying component to what I do\u2014but how humans are at the core of the work that we do. We\u2019re working to create tools that can increase efficiency and enable humans to think about bigger, more complex problems that will at the end of the day better serve the end users who are interacting with our \u201cproduct.\u201d Ultimately, what we’re trying to do is positively impact others to improve their quality of life when they’re working, and that’s what makes you feel good about what you’re doing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why do you think you find those satisfying?<\/span><\/h2>\n

It\u2019s all about improving things for other humans, and that aspect is an extremely satisfying part of the job. I lead with <\/span>Insights Earth Green<\/span><\/a> so that probably has a lot to do with it. And supporting each team member, rallying for them and their passion areas, assisting them in areas they want to grow, and helping to find alignment in the work we do provides its own dopamine hit as well.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What are you most proud of in your work and why?<\/span><\/h2>\n

I\u2019m proud of being able to always keep humanness at the core of everything I do and every decision I make. An example would be, there’s a tweet I saw that said, \u201cThe world is burning, and there’s a pandemic. But let’s talk KPIs,\u201d and that really spoke to me. So sometimes I tell my team we’re all taking the rest of the day off. I can feel and see and sense in the way people are showing up in meetings or the way they’re chatting on Slack that no one’s able to concentrate. I believe we’re not actually very effective if we’re not treating ourselves as humans first. The work is always here, and it can come later. So I think that’s what I’m most proud of, because we’re not just numbers or cogs, we\u2019re people at the end of the day.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A very second close thing I\u2019m proud of is being able to hire and work with people who are a lot more talented and smarter than I am!<\/span><\/p>\n

What would you tell someone who\u2019s trying to implement an email design system at their company?<\/span><\/h2>\n

First, take a breath and know that getting buy-in can take time and patience is important. It will also likely mean taking on presenting, storytelling, and \u201cmaking the case\u201d for an executive level audience. But if you care about making it happen and feel passionate that having a dedicated <\/span>email design system<\/span><\/a> at your company will make an impact with positive outcomes, dive in.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Start by getting to know what executive leadership cares about at a high level: gather information about email at your company that are in alignment or ladder up to those things leadership cares about, and tie those things to email and how those things can (and will) improve with an email design system.<\/span><\/p>\n

How have your intersecting identities affected the way you approach your work or your career?<\/span><\/h2>\n

This question makes me laugh and smile a bit, because I really do have a variety of identities that I typically keep pretty separate. I think the intersecting identities I have and the impact to my approach at work and in my career circles back to my centering of humans: having empathy for others and ensuring that humans are recognized and supported as whole humans\u2014and not just a number or solely a producer of work\u2014and ensuring that people\u2019s identities aren\u2019t seen as a blocker to growth at work and in their careers. Performance and ability should be the focus. Identities can bring experience or learnings that can directly improve the work that people do, even if it doesn\u2019t seem obvious on the surface.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Being bi is something I don’t talk about a lot, but I did come out, and I realized I never talked about it before out of fear, because you do see people get treated differently. Then, as a Latina I’ve often been mistaken for the receptionist or the service person, particularly when I was younger. Those are important jobs, and I kind of wish everybody could have a service job at some point in their life so they can understand and appreciate it; I worked those jobs, and was happy to do so at the time. But to have someone assume your role based on your identity doesn\u2019t feel good. I don’t want anyone to feel that way, especially since we can control what we’re doing to ensure that we don’t make people feel that way. So I tell my team, let’s try to take that approach in our work\u2014anyone who is going to consume our design system or be an end user that interacts with it are a variety of people from a variety of identities, and we don\u2019t want to cause harm to anyone.<\/span><\/p>\n

What would you tell that younger version of yourself just starting out in this industry?<\/span><\/h2>\n

To keep going with your instincts, and to not lose sight of your personal core values, because that\u2019s what ultimately leads you to success. I\u2019d also tell them that you don\u2019t have to be competitive to make it in the industry.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I never wanted to be competitive with my coworkers, because we’re all on a team. I know there are places that are focused on competition, and making sure that you’re the one that’s the most heard so that you get the most credit and the most promotions. I cannot function that way, and I do think every once in a while that thought worried me, thinking that I wouldn\u2019t be as successful. But that turned out to be untrue, and I have found a lot of success in keeping that non-competitive, team-focused mindset.<\/span><\/p>\n

Which songs pump you up, and which songs chill you out?<\/span><\/h2>\n

This can change every few months! Lately my pump up songs include anything Megan Thee Stallion, or the dancey pop tunes of SG Lewis and Tove Lo. For chill, it\u2019s usually a type of \u201cpumped up\u201d chill sound from Stevie Wonder and Prince.<\/span><\/p>\n

You\u2019ve finished work for the day, and need to recharge\u2014what do you do?<\/span><\/h2>\n

Depends on the day! I\u2019ll exercise if I haven\u2019t yet\u2014moving around really helps me mentally. Sometimes I\u2019ll draw or do some creative photo editing if my creative energy is ready to go. If my energy is depleted, watching a show or movie I\u2019m excited about can reinvigorate me. Lately, I have been playing Skyrim for the\u2026 6th time now? Running around Tamriel seems to never get old.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Learn from (and connect with) Crystal<\/span><\/h2>\n

Would you like to hear more about Crystal\u2019s work with design systems? <\/span>You can find our webinar with her covering this very topic here<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Be sure to follow Crystal on Twitter <\/span>@sentbycrystal<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n \t\t\t<\/div>\n \t\t<\/div>\n \t<\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\n
\n
\n
\n\t\t \t\t
\n\t\t\t \n\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t

Boost efficiency and scale email development<\/strong><\/h2>\n\t\t\t

Craft consistent, on-brand emails with Litmus. Create and store reusable templates, code modules, and more.<\/p>\n\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t

\n\t\t\t Learn more<\/a>\n\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t \t\t \t\t \t\t \t\t \t\t \t\t \t\t <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Meet Crystal Ledesma: email design systems expert and our first guest in the return of Community Spotlight: a series highlighting the amazing members of the email community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":60259,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[10268,478,488,10295],"blog_category":[10304],"class_list":["post-60247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-campaign-planning","tag-design","tag-litmus-live","tag-workflows","blog_category-email-industry-updates"],"yoast_head":"\nEmail Community Spotlight: Crystal Ledesma - Litmus<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Meet Crystal Ledesma: email design systems expert and our first guest in the return of Community Spotlight: a series highlighting the amazing members of the email community.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Humanizing the Workplace: Community Spotlight with Crystal Ledesma\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Meet Crystal Ledesma: email design systems expert and our first guest in the return of Community Spotlight: a series highlighting the amazing members of the email community.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/community-spotlight-crystal-ledesma\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Litmus\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/litmusapp\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-02-06T20:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-12-20T16:27:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Community-Spotlight-Crystal.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"631\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@litmusapp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@litmusapp\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Email Community Spotlight: Crystal Ledesma - Litmus","description":"Meet Crystal Ledesma: email design systems expert and our first guest in the return of Community Spotlight: a series highlighting the amazing members of the email community.","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Humanizing the Workplace: Community Spotlight with Crystal Ledesma","og_description":"Meet Crystal Ledesma: email design systems expert and our first guest in the return of Community Spotlight: a series highlighting the amazing members of the email community.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/community-spotlight-crystal-ledesma","og_site_name":"Litmus","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/litmusapp","article_published_time":"2023-02-06T20:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-12-20T16:27:23+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":631,"url":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Community-Spotlight-Crystal.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@litmusapp","twitter_site":"@litmusapp","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/community-spotlight-crystal-ledesma#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/community-spotlight-crystal-ledesma"},"author":{"name":"","@id":""},"headline":"Humanizing the Workplace: Community Spotlight with Crystal Ledesma","datePublished":"2023-02-06T20:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2024-12-20T16:27:23+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/community-spotlight-crystal-ledesma"},"wordCount":8,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/community-spotlight-crystal-ledesma#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Community-Spotlight-Crystal.jpg","keywords":["Campaign Planning","Design","Litmus Live","Workflows"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/community-spotlight-crystal-ledesma","url":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/community-spotlight-crystal-ledesma","name":"Email Community Spotlight: Crystal Ledesma - Litmus","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/community-spotlight-crystal-ledesma#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/community-spotlight-crystal-ledesma#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Community-Spotlight-Crystal.jpg","datePublished":"2023-02-06T20:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2024-12-20T16:27:23+00:00","description":"Meet Crystal Ledesma: email design systems expert and our first guest in the return of Community Spotlight: a series highlighting the amazing members of the email community.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/community-spotlight-crystal-ledesma#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/community-spotlight-crystal-ledesma"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/community-spotlight-crystal-ledesma#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Community-Spotlight-Crystal.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Community-Spotlight-Crystal.jpg","width":1200,"height":631},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/community-spotlight-crystal-ledesma#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Humanizing the Workplace: Community Spotlight with Crystal Ledesma"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/","name":"Litmus","description":"Are you getting the most out of your email marketing?","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/#organization","name":"Litmus Software","url":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/featured-image.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/featured-image.png","width":600,"height":314,"caption":"Litmus Software"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/litmusapp","https:\/\/x.com\/litmusapp"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":""}]}},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60247"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60287,"href":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60247\/revisions\/60287"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60247"},{"taxonomy":"blog_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog_category?post=60247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}