Leadership 8 min read

Design systems are cultural, not technical

Every failed design system I've been part of failed for the same reason, and it was never about the tokens.

It's not the tokens

Three design systems in my career. All technically excellent. Two failed. The two that failed had good tokens, good docs, good governance docs. What they didn't have was a culture that saw the system as shared property.

Culture first

Build the norms before the libraries. Who maintains it, who breaks the rules and how, what 'done' means. If those conversations aren't had, the Figma file becomes a polite suggestion.