John Carvalho
The origin stories of many design systems tend to follow two common patterns: The first is that organizations invest in design systems because they’re feeling pain when it comes to efficient, consistent, quality, customer-centric delivery. Their product teams feel it in their day-to-day, and these challenges bubble up to leadership. The second common pattern is when a company decides to change in response to the trends seen in-market. They’re seeking to be ahead of the curve.
In our eagerness to solve a problem, we can often shoot ourselves in the foot. This is because we typically take a cursory glance at the issue at hand, and immediately start applying our favourite methods and tools to it. As a result, we end up with narrow questions, shallow reasoning, and ultimately, an uninspired attempt at a fix that fails to solve.