SharkNinja has officially launched Lantern, a new global design system developed in partnership with Leeds-based agency TALL.
Billed as one of the most advanced digital infrastructures of its kind, TALL and SharkNinja discussed Lantern publicly during their keynote session at Prolific North Live last week, where Ged Hirst, Director of UX & CRO at SharkNinja, and Andy Beckwith, Creative Director at TALL, shared insights into how the system is transforming the company’s speed to market.
Hirst and Beckwith revealed how the framework, described as “digital Lego bricks,” enables SharkNinja’s global teams to launch products faster and more efficiently, without sacrificing quality or accessibility. The modular system helps design, development, marketing, and content teams build on a consistent foundation of reusable components, customisable to local markets and product needs.
Already in use across SharkNinja’s global operations, Lantern has delivered measurable results — with 45–50% faster delivery times, 30% lower tech costs, and 27% less production time overall.
“Lantern is set to transform how SharkNinja’s design and development teams create digital products worldwide,” said Guy Utley, Creative Director at TALL. “We didn’t just build a design system; we built a product for the business. Something that works today and evolves tomorrow. The focus was on time and cost savings, and that’s exactly what we’ve achieved.”
At Prolific North Live, Ged and Andy discussed how systemised thinking has helped SharkNinja maintain agility across 35 international markets, launching over 200 products in the past year — from household appliances to beauty tech — while ensuring brand consistency and accessibility standards (EAA compliant) across every user experience.
Hirst added that Lantern has allowed smaller, cross-functional teams to scale efficiently. “We don’t want to be reinventing the wheel every time,” Hirst said. Systemised thinking has worked really well for us, helping us stay agile enough to launch at speed and be ready for any challenge.”
Behind the talk: SharkNinja and TALL lift the lid on speed, systems and storytelling
During their Prolific North Live keynote, Ged Hirst and Andy Beckwith explored how SharkNinja manages to launch products at speed across more than 35 countries by rethinking how digital design systems can drive efficiency and creativity.
“We’re currently selling in 35 countries,” said Hirst. “It’s not just your vacuum cleaners. We’ve also just launched in the beauty area, we’ve got outdoor, we do barbecues — and we’ve actually launched over 200 new products. That keeps us very busy. The challenge is how we launch these at scale globally.”
That challenge led to Lantern, which Beckwith described as “digital Lego bricks” — reusable design components that allow teams to prototype, test, and build faster, all within an accessible and consistent brand system. Beckwith explained: “We like to think of it as digital Lego bricks — user interface design components from the smallest elements, such as buttons and colours, right the way up to larger, complex patterns.”
Hirst shared how the new system has already empowered SharkNinja’s teams to tell stronger product stories, such as the UK launch of the CryoGlobe LED face mask. “What we wanted to do was tell that story — to educate,” he said. “It’s very different around the benefits and the emotional connection to this product. Using branded components, we could tell that story, add ‘how-to’ articles, and include our brand influencers.”
Beckwith said the system has also allowed teams to focus on optimisation rather than production: “It allowed us to jump straight through to the value — how we could use insights, how we could use the testing and QA that we’d done to produce better experiences for customers.”
Both emphasised the importance of systems thinking in enabling large and small brands alike to act quickly and consistently. “Systems help manage complexity if you’re a big brand, and create clarity if you’re a small one,” Beckwith said. “Having those systems in place — whether they’re brand systems, design systems, or content systems — is what allows teams to act quickly and consistently.”
Hirst closed by underlining the same philosophy. “You don’t want to be reinventing the wheel,” he said. “You might be working with smaller teams, one or two people driving projects forward. Calling out problems ahead of time and systemising thinking has worked really well for us — it helps us stay agile enough to launch at speed and be ready for any challenges.”
