New design system role? Here are 10 key strategies for success

John "Ojanti" Itebu
Bootcamp
Published in
6 min readJul 19, 2024
A team of superhero designers welcoming a new member to the design team with a screen showing design system objects behind the new team member

Stepping into a new design system role can be both exciting and daunting. Whether you’re joining an established team or building a design system from scratch, there are several key considerations to keep in mind to ensure your success.

1. Understand the existing ecosystem

A comic-style office worker cosplaying as a superhero, intensely researching existing design systems at his desk in new office

So you’re excited. New challenges spotted and ready to throw your cape on. Remember, each action you take can significantly impact how products are built within your company or team, so it’s crucial to “measure twice, cut once.” Before making any changes or suggestions, it’s crucial to understand the existing ecosystem. This includes:

  • Stakeholders: Identify key stakeholders, including designers, developers, product managers, and other team members who interact with the design system. It will benefit you to identify individuals in these groups who are more passionate about the idea of advancing the design system. At several points along your journey, you might need to make a case for why certain decisions need to be made, and these people can help with lobbying efforts.
  • Current design system, tools and technologies: If there is an existing design system, review it thoroughly. Understand its components, guidelines and documentation. Familiarize yourself with the tools and technologies currently in use, such as design software, version control systems, and collaboration platforms. If you intend to introduce a new tool, be realistic about the ease of adoption.

2. Identify pain points and opportunities

Observe and document processes. Be less judgmental about what you identify as bad decisions and instead investigate the reasons behind why these decisions were made. Conduct an assessment to identify pain points and opportunities in the process of product design and delivery and within the current design system if one exists:

  • User feedback: Gather feedback from designers and developers who use the system. Understand their challenges and what improvements they seek.
  • Usage patterns: Analyze how the design system is being used. Are there components that are rarely used or often modified?
  • Consistency and quality: Check for consistency and quality across the system. Are design patterns and components being used uniformly?
    Document. Document. Document.

3. Establish clear objectives

Setting clear objectives will guide your efforts and help you prioritize tasks:

  • Goals: Define what you aim to achieve with the design system on a high level. These could include improving consistency, speeding up the design process, or enhancing collaboration.
  • Metrics: Establish metrics to measure the success of your design system. These might include adoption rates, user satisfaction scores, or time saved in design and development. Be kind to yourself while doing this.

If you are a lead designer or higher, it might be useful to translate the outcomes of the points above into a goal-setting framework such as OKRs.

4. Build strong relationships with cross-functional teams

A design systems designer, cosplaying as a superhero collaborating with other colleagues on work

Collaboration is key to a successful design system:

  • Design Team: Work closely with other designers to ensure the design system meets their needs and enhances their workflow.
  • Development Team: Collaborate with developers to ensure components are easily implementable and that the design system integrates smoothly with the development process.
  • Product Management: Engage with product managers to understand the strategic goals and how the design system can support product initiatives.

Try to identify key supporters in these groups that are more passionate about the idea of advancing the design system. A co-sign from them will assist in design system advocacy.

5. Maintenance

Document the process for maintaining and updating the design system, including version control and governance practices.
Documentation is an important pillar in a design system. It ensures that everyone understands how to use the system effectively.

6. Focus on Scalability and Flexibility

An image of a factory assembly line producing UI components, symbolizing the scalability and flexibility of design systems. Workers are meticulously crafting and assembling various design elements, highlighting the importance of scalable and adaptable design systems.

\Your design system should be scalable and flexible to accommodate future growth and changes. Sometimes it will appear as if these two goals compete with each other in decision-making. Your job is to find a healthy balance:

  • Component Library: Build a component library that can grow as new components are needed and to a fair extent, have backward compatibility. This extent should be negotiated with the team. Also ensure components are sufficiently modular and reusable.
  • Customization: Allow for customization to meet the unique needs of different products or teams while maintaining overall consistency.

7. Accessibility shouldn’t be an afterthought

A comic-style image of a design systems designer cosplaying as a super hero, guiding a team on accessibility in design systems, emphasizing that accessibility should not be an afterthought. The scene highlights various accessibility features like color schemes and alternative text.

Much of the research in accessibility has already been done, so integrate these insights into your design system. Include principles of inclusive design to ensure your system works for everyone.
What does this mean in practice:

  • Built-in Accessibility: All components within your design system should adhere to recognized accessibility standards, like WCAG. This ensures a baseline level of usability for users, including those with disabilities.
  • Empowering Your Team: Provide clear and comprehensive guidance on designing for accessibility. This can include best practices, resources, and tools to help your team create truly inclusive experiences.

8. Version Control

This is your design system’s safety net. Version control is advisable while managing changes and updates to the design system. The depth and level of detail to how far this should be done will depend on the UX maturity of your team/company, their needs and your expertise.

  • Define a clear versioning strategy, including major, minor, and patch updates.
  • Change Log: Regularly update a comprehensive log to document all modifications, enhancements, and fixes. This ensures transparency and keeps everyone informed about the evolution of the design system.

9. Foster a culture of continuous improvement

A design system should evolve with the needs of the organization. Its important to remember that you are in service of your stake holders and a custodian of a piece of the company’s technology. You’re ultimately responsible for its evolution:

  • Feedback Loop: Establish a feedback loop to gather ongoing input from users. Use this feedback to make continuous improvements.
  • Iteration: Regularly review and iterate on the design system. Stay up-to-date with industry trends and best practices to keep your system current.

10. Champion the Design System

Advocating for the design system is crucial for its success:

  • Training and Onboarding: Provide training and onboarding materials to help new team members get up to speed with the design system.
  • Communication: Communicate the benefits of the design system to all stakeholders. Show how it enhances efficiency, consistency, and collaboration.
  • Showcase Successes: Its a journey with highs and lows, but don't forget to celebrate the wins along the way. Highlight successes and case studies where the design system has made a positive impact. Use these stories to build momentum and buy-in.

Conclusion

Taking on a new design system role offers a chance to make a significant impact within your organization. Success comes from a deep understanding of the existing environment and a commitment to thoughtful planning

Connect with me on LinkedIn 🙂👍

Some useful resources.

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John "Ojanti" Itebu
Bootcamp

Software Designer by day. Orc slayer by night. Advocate of scalable design with expertise in Design Systems. https://ojanti.com/