Models and Lessons Learned to Scale a Team for an Enterprise — Most organizations are coming to understand systems and why they are important. However, how much does it cost? What team do we need? A System Team Serves Product (or Similar) Teams Peter Merholz and Kristen Skinner’s excellent book Org Design for Design Orgs describes models and roles in composing design teams and orgs. …

A Job Description for Those That Drive a System — As systems evolve from loosely managed side project to a more disciplined practice, contributors may form a central team that treats the system as a product. At this moment, questions of “Do we have a backlog?” (Yes) and “Shall we work in sprints?” …

Evolving Past Overlords to Centralize or Federate Design Decision-Making Across Platforms — Back in the day, design systems were pretty easy to understand. My day was a cool afternoon in September 2006, and I’d just immersed myself as a designer using Sun.com’s living style guide (we called it a component library, for the record). …