Mooney breaks down silos with multi-product design token masterclass

Belka’s Department of Digital Currency is bullish to announce that Mooney, a leading Italian fintech powerhouse, has successfully planned their Design System improvements through Belka’s expert design token and Figma variables management training.

Mooney combines 40,000 physical points of sale with an evolving digital ecosystem that manages over 250 million transactions annually. After integrating myCicero, they expanded their offering of advanced mobility solutions and digital ticketing.

But even the most sophisticated financial systems need occasional recalibration.

One company, multiple products

“Our Design System was complex and articulated, designed for a wide range of products,” explains Sara Gandini, Head of Experience at Mooney. “As a whitelabel system with graphically neutral components, we needed to adapt the visual style case by case for specific product needs while maintaining consistency.”

We had two challenges:

1. Mooney needed to step up their multibrand Design System to efficiently manage their whitelabel products with their current token structure.
2. There was a gap between design and development teams, causing a persistent misalignment between design assets and development implementation.

This communication breakdown was creating fragmented language and inconsistent approaches to problem-solving, with team members frequently getting blocked in their workflow.

Without a structured environment to address these issues together, both teams were solving challenges independently—missing the benefits of tackling problems together.

Token talk: Belka’s Department of Design Systems gets teams communicating

For over a year, the Mooney team had been working internally on these challenges, gaining valuable experience with tokens. This journey laid a strong foundation that was further clarified and deepened in collaboration with Belka, where we introduced structured best practices from other large-scale token-based projects.

Mooney recognized the need to go even further and turned to Belka’s team for specialized technical training.

We didn’t just dive in. First, we conducted targeted interviews with both Mooney and myCicero teams to identify the specific points where their workflow was getting blocked. We asked the development team about their relationship with the design team and explored how the existing token structure was hindering their multibrand capabilities.

“Before prescribing any solution, we needed to diagnose the actual challenges the team was facing,” says Mattia Marinangeli, Design System Team Lead at Belka. “This preparation ensured our masterclass addressed their specific needs rather than offering generic advice.”

With these insights, we traveled to Milan to deliver a comprehensive masterclass structured in distinct modules:

• Token fundamentals — including theory and exercises to grasp the difference between global, semantic, and component tokens. This sparked crucial discussions between team members about where they were getting blocked in effectively managing multitheme applications.
• How to leverage Figma Variables for responsive designs.
• We facilitated a space for open conversation about best practices for design-development communication.
• Shared advanced techniques for token synchronization and structured communication across teams.

Throughout each module, we facilitated discussions about how Mooney and myCicero were currently working. This wasn’t just a training session—it was a structured environment where team members could finally compare approaches and align their understanding.

“Suddenly, we weren’t just learning about tokens—we were learning about each other’s processes,” notes Luca Cappelloni, Head of Mobile and Web Development at myCicero. “The workshop opened our eyes to how much more efficient our Design System could be with proper token management and better cross-team communication.”

Design tokens pay dividends: Leadership buys into system improvements

The impact of our collaboration with Mooney went far beyond technical training.

• Design and development started their journey toward a joint effort on the Design System and observed common issues to tackle together
• Leadership allocated resources for a dedicated token management system after seeing the business impact

Perhaps most importantly, the training helped Mooney’s leadership understand the strategic importance of properly structured design tokens. By facilitating open discussions and demonstrating real-world use cases, the masterclass made the abstract concept of “token management” tangible and highlighted its business impact.

“Design Systems aren’t just design tools or development frameworks—they’re strategic assets that bridge both worlds,” says Chiara Marchesini, Design System Expert at Belka. “We’re proud to have helped Mooney build a more cohesive and functional approach that will serve as a solid foundation for their growing product portfolio.”

The training resonated beyond the technical teams as well. “This masterclass had a concrete impact at a strategic level,” confirms Sara Gandini, Head of Experience at Mooney. “It helped our leadership understand the importance of structured design token management. This has led to greater awareness of the need to invest in restructuring our foundations.”

The Belka team can’t wait to see what Mooney and myCicero create next with their newly enhanced token expertise and collaborative approach!

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Want more advice from the Belka team?

• Chiara and Sara discuss how to understand whether you need design tokens.
• Do you want to improve your multitheme components in Figma? We have the template for you.‍
• Do you have a design system but feel stuck and frustrated with your work? We can help you with a design system audit.