[Havoc]

When looking at a random website I expect to know roughly what I'm looking at within 20 seconds - max. Ideally 5 if not text heavy.

>shared set of tools [...] government websites

That is exactly what I wanted to know. Pity thats hidden on page 3 and I had to read credits & something about some Joanne's problems first.

The narrative story flow is fine...but you've got to give something solid up front. e.g. Do the startup cliche and say how you're revolutionising the world in a short sentence. Then launch into the speech about Joanne's problems...

[straws]

That's a bit unfair — you're talking about an expository and introductory Medium post. Compare that to the first sentence of the guide itself:

  Open source UI components and visual style guide to create consistency and
  beautiful user experiences across U.S. federal government websites.