Reflecting on creating a design system

Published in

Waitrose & Partners Digital

4 min readJul 3, 2020

A design system will test and stretch your business and creative thinking. Some skills may be obvious but others can be easily overlooked and often harder to action. I hope some of these reflections will help your confidence when taking on a daunting project like a design system.

You can’t do this alone

A design system is not just for designers! Without a Project Manager to implement and help developers to add consistent and well thought out code, all you have is a design style guide. One of the main reasons to start a design system is to improve cohesion and communication between teams, so a collaborative approach will give the best results.

It’s good to talk and it’s even better to listen

Communication between teams is healthy in general. It breaks down the ‘us’ and ‘them’ culture. A design system can aid a working culture but you only get out of it what you put in. Unlock possibilities by talking and listening to professionals in other fields and find a common intent.

Just do it (efficiently)

Don’t become paralysed by the thought of a finished piece. A design system is never finished, it continuously evolves and develops for your needs and ways of working. Set meetings with clear actionable outcomes, take notes, break the work down to manageable focussed tasks and share the workload amongst the working group. In no time, you’ll start to see your ideas forming into a project which you control.

One size doesn’t fit all

Like everything in the digital industry, there is no one correct way of doing anything, a design system definitely falls into this category. Blog articles often communicate how companies have found success, so speak to other’s who have created a design system and you may find similarities and learn from their resilience.

Take the wins (where ever possible)

Remember to reflect, share and perhaps reset, you’re not doing this alone. Are you working closely with other teams? Do you have more knowledge of different disciplines? Are healthy discussions on consistent code happening? Are products being released quicker? Do colleagues know where expertise can be accessed? Setting transparent OKRs will help you measure success.

Be aware of blockers

Trying to get a design system up and running and finding it difficult? You may have blockers! Approaching this as a multi-disciplinary team you’ll find it easy to spot the blockers. It may be that teams or people are conditioned by their usual ways of work or structure. Reaching out and seeking a different point of view can prevent the process from stalling.

Don’t bite off too much

Sometimes creatives can be precious, they want their work in a good place to share. This can sometimes lead to unnecessary pressures of having something finished to a certain degree. Once again, a design system is never finished, so be agile and make small releases which will illicit feedback. Listen, iterate and action.

Bringing people on the journey

Small working groups usually make faster decisions but you don’t have to be exclusive. A design system is for everyone — you want people to be passionate, take accountability and be engaged, especially if you do not have a dedicated budget. Communication and transparency are key to encourage people to join the journey, open slack channels for discussions, hold adoption sprints and showcase work.

Nurture

A design system has a life of its own, it will grow and evolve over time in ways you never expected. You can guide it in the right direction and align it to your team and company. Continue to feed it and treat it well and you will reap the rewards.

You’ll hear the words like collaborations, communication, stakeholder management etc used a lot in meetings. To change a culture or a way of work I have found you need an empathetic and human approach. Creating a design system is a perfect opportunity to practice this and put words into actions.