Your company needs a design system and now is the time to tell them - Part 2 of 2
"I am inevitable"....
You can find part 1 of this post here. We continue….
Step 3: Write that sh#t down!
I hate writing things.
I suppose this probably applies to every other designer, I mean, more pixelpushy & problem solvey and less talking & writing. However, documentation is critical to ensuring that all stakeholders are brought up to speed and are on the same page. So why is it the most overlooked part of creating a design system?
Officially, I honestly don’t know.
Unofficially, I figure that everyone is like me, they also hate writing stuff down. Ask any dev—documentations are fun to read until you have to write them.
I do know that in order to effectively communicate the vision, ideas, and patterns of the Design System to everyone, you need to document everything. Plus it helps to track the progress/evolution of the system from the first release till now.
Step 4: One-pot to feed us all
At this point, you’re almost at the finish line. You’ve got the first release of your design system ready, documentation is on point, the codebase is chilling on a CDN somewhere and Figma is a few pixels away from crashing due to memory issues…
But…the work is done.
You’re done. You’re ready. Your Design System is ready to see some action. Engineers tinker with it and use it for staging and production. QAs test and prod every part of it to ensure it is consistent. Product owners turn your design system into a company-wide cultural religion.
You won. But there’s one extra step…..
Step 5: Chilling with the Big Bois.
This is the pinnacle. The point where seasoned veterans will tell you, “you have arrived“. Design is carefully being considered, not only as part of the product development lifecycle but also as a critical component of product direction and strategy. This is the part that every article you’ve ever read on design systems either ends or begins with, the euphoric utopia.
So what do you do with this new found power?
With a seat at the table, comes responsibilities, and scrutiny. You’re not pushing pixels anymore, that’s the new hire’s job now. You’re more involved product direction & strategy, and how your design system can help contribute to that while shaping the company’s future. You’d be expected to demonstrate design leadership, mentoring and empowering your colleagues. Design being part of the company culture is past problem—your new headache now lies in how you can sell that culture to customers.
Welcome to the Big Boys club. It’s time to bam bam.
Keep in mind, the time jump from step 4 to step 5 could span years and it is fueled by many successes, failures and hard learned lessons. The average tenure for a designer at a company is somewhere between 1.8 - 2.1 years, even less so in Nigerian companies. How do you drive a design culture when you can’t guarantee that you’ll be there long enough to see it through?
Seasoned Veterans…..will not give you an answer. Because they, like you, don’t know.
But.
Design Systems, by their nature, are more processes than pixel-pushing and if you’ve done your homework right, there’s a fair chance that you or anyone on the team leaving would neither create a technical debt or impact significantly on the adoption. If anything, such scenarios provide an opportunity to look at your system from a new perspective with fresher eyes.
Fin.
I literally can’t write more than this.
This is probably one of my longer essays to date and I appreciate everyone who reads the Ovalay Weekly Newletters.
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Witty and full of many insights. I love this!