Building a Design System
A Design System is a Product
In my most recent role, I joined just as my team was starting to build the foundation for a design system. In order to scale quickly and get the entire product development organization to adopt it, I built a product team up around it. I wanted to ensure the design system team went through the same rituals as any other product team: roadmaps and backlogs, consistent release cycles and Agile ceremonies. It was important to me that the system be seen as something that was just not owned by the design team, but by everyone within the organization.
As with any product, articulating the vision and value is important to get stakeholder and leadership buy-in.
In order to scale a design system, especially quickly, it must be staffed like any other product team.