Day 2-The Design System Rollercoaster: From Enabler and Bottleneck to Catalyst for Change

dsr1

— Hi everyone and thanks for joining me today and I’m tuning in from Berlin, Germany
  • Thrilled to be with you riding roller-coaster called the design system

 

 

dsr2

— Why the roller coaster metaphor?
  • Thinking on journey with design system (DS) of team under 10, for 300 people
  • It captures feelings, dynamics, unpredictability of building such a system

 

dsr3

— I joined company in transition to be product-led org, focused on predictive maintenance for industrial equipment

 

dsr4

— This meant standardizing offerings through early customer projects in 5-7 years and consolidating them to two distinct verticals for the Product IoT platform
  • Needed design systems to serve as a shared baseline
  • Above is a  key screen built with it

 

dsr5

— On top of baseline, built local library with custom components and patterns, with specific unique use cases like dark mode

 

— We needed the right process in place for teams during this transition
  • Promise this will be last product page, and we will  look beyond tangible parts like UI components, patterns, tokens

 

dsr6

— We can define a set of principles guidelines, resources and principles to guide design and development effort for a design system
  • But this leaves out the people and culture around them

 

dsr7

— As companies grow with more people functions, silos start to form

 

dsr8

— Silos form own tool and collaboration with others
  • Consequence of technical debt and design debt
  • Fragmented experiences

 

dsr9

— Frustration builds to point where people give up on using product and services

 

dsr10

— But customers rarely ask to fix inconsistencies in the design
  • Focus on indirect indicators, like activation rates, and confusion to people
  • Designers can make surface fixes, but can also stop manifesting deeply rooted issues

 

dsr11

— Design systems can help us foster common language across silos and define how groups of people work together
  • This can be done through operational internal comms, collaboration culture, and design and dev process

 

dsr12

— More than 65% invested in design system as of 2020, as all companies recognized common language fundamental to collaboration for different teams across countries working for common outcome

 

dsr13

— But if benefits  of design systems are obvious, why do they keep failing?

 

dsr14

— So let’s look at what makes/breaks design system
  • Managing the deisgn system
  • Commons strategies to apply
  • Articulating the value of DS and how it impacts design org

 

dsr15

— Four forces pull in their own direction for success
  • Clear objective on why we need a design system in first place
    • A system is not goal in itself, but helps enable things like improving workflows and inceasing a competitive edge
    • Each case is unique

 

dsr16

— Need sponsorships from senior stakeholders for efforts and initiatives
  • Without commitment, efforts will go in vain

 

dsr17

— Even with top blessing, you need buy-in from all corners of company impacted by a design system

 

dsr18

— To earn the support we need all impacted parties to see change as beneficial and alignment for high-level goals

 

dsr19

— We need to be prepared and learn what peers care about and let’s not forget stakeholders are people with fears and doubts, along with their on goals
  • To read between the lines, we need to build trust and connect on the human level

 

dsr20

— Create a master stakeholder map listing out direct and indirect stakeholders and any friction we have to bridge gaps
  • See above  the example of this map for product managers

 

dsr21

— To get product manager buy-in for our products, we had to create own efficiency case studies for merit of Design Systems
  • Best shot to present with facts
  • Numbers looked better than words

 

dsr22

— Finally to function, and help stakeholders. Formalize product and practice with dedicated resources, and a dedicated DS team
  • There is a but to do this
  • For a design system to be a success need equilibrium between all four forces

 

dsr23

— As design system lead, you wear many hats from diplomat, architect, facilitator, and everything in between to keep everyone on board and keep the ride going, while staying motivated
  • No one tells you this about the role

 

dsr24

— So how do we run the process, or co-create it with others

 

dsr25

— DS is continuous process to manage, not a one-time thing
  • Three pillars to keep in mind for this management

 

dsr26

— 1. Product: A product to develop and maintain content within

 

— 2. Service: For consistent experience you need to educate and support internal users, designers and developers

 

— 3: Adoption and Contribution: Continuous infusion of product use cases, as product evolves

 

 

dsr27

— To do this, we need a dedicated team with enough bandwidth to make this happen

 

dsr28

— See example of DS team from maintenance
  • Needed team commitment and centralized team

 

dsr29

— We also need to focus on aligning siloed teams into a common goal, by guiding and empowering them

 

dsr30

— Design Systems have a unique overview of what each team is doing, and has view of all platforms team is shipping
  • Shown here as colorful shapes
— Keep track of ongoing product requirements and office hours with teams, regular roadmap syncs, couple of weeks and months for now

 

dsr31

— Outline all requirements, figure out which ones are limited in time and resources, and implement and co-design outcome with users for these requirements
  • Consolidate mutual needs
  • Make sure people heard
— That way you can prioritize recurring use cases

 

dsr32

— Guide teams by promoting shared baseline and vocabulary for consistent interfaces and crafting artifacts from design files to documentation

 

dsr33

— Also, it’s a  great time to learn what works for users and make processes as usable and flexible as possible, to allow users to modify while staying in boundraries of shared system

 

dsr34

— Finally infuse the system with real-life components and patterns and empower users to be contributors themselves
  • You are not builders, but librarians and facilitators

 

dsr35

— Hope you now had view of design systems can collaborate with others
  • You can’t inject into process what we don’t have for selves

 

dsr36

— Three things for successful implementation culture
  • Chemistry and collaboration between devs and designers
  • Focus on incremental improvements with the system and retrospectives
  • Shared ownership emerges from previous two elements

 

dsr37

— So let’s cover what common challenges are and what to do about it

 

dsr38

— We are creating conditions to keep it up to data and all forces mentioned
  • Main challenge is lack of knowledge from design systems comes as no surprise

 

dsr39

— We can increase adoption through
  • Loud and frequent DS communication by showing all new components and changes made on storybook and platform of choice
    • Can always have dedicated channel for updates
  • I recommend road shows for broad audience with regular users
  • Keep sponsors and senior stakeholders up to date
    • Don’t just come to them when you need something

 

dsr40

— Provide proper onboarding to users or entire teams via workshops or bite-size lessons through internal newsletter or Slack channel
  • We hosted a design system hackathon for good results

 

dsr41

— Sometimes things don’t work as expected, so be creative
  • Technical part of team had only one engineer and two interns, with serious consequences for team

 

dsr42

— Came up with the design system bootcamp to borrow engineers who could contribute efforts
  • Avoiding being bottlenecks or burning out engineers
  • Great strategy to increase contribution and preserve institutional knowledge
    • Infused teams with our ways of work and collaboration

 

dsr43

— Finally, see how DS fits into big picture and how it shapes design in organization, and has the ability to trigger positive change

 

dsr44

— The nature of the design system’s impact is specific to audience, company, and problem space in question
  • Impact realized through cross-functional work, as impact of design system through adoption, which comes from cross-functional collaboration

 

dsr45

— Use captured metrics like
  • Adoption insights
  • User satisfaction
  • Level of system utilization
— Take all insights with grain of salt

 

 

dsr46

— Remember, product success lies in value delivered to users
  • While we focus on metrics, people can still be disconnected from user problem and reality
    • Great design doesn’t happen in isolation and is subject to power dynamics

 

 

dsr47

— For design to be valuable, you need outcomes for people to focus on interacting with product to save money
  • Marry user needs with business outcomes

 

dsr48

— Understand design value and maturity and put on systemic lenses and focus on entire cohort of metrics of the design system itself like
  • How design is integrated in product, or how designer insights influence product strategy
  • Design systems should back the business value of design

 

dsr49

— Perhaps, the focus on design’s value is what holds innovation back
  • Reward value means more than monetized value of capitalism

 

dsr50

— So how about we focus from financial gains to what drives change and powers excellence and the world itself?

 

dsr51

— Let’s start by designing how work and collaboration happen, and what we value
  • Let’s figure out how we connect our dots

 

dsr52

— That said, it’s constant change management, of building bridges, raising awareness, and creating space for meaningful conversations

 

dsr53

— Can create new paradigms for excellence at multiple levels

 

dsr54

— We transcend our individual roles by becoming advocates for higher values, one component, visual element, or rendered intent at a time

 

dsr55

 

— Thank you! Any questions?

 

FAQ
  1. What process or mechanism evolves the design of system efficiently?
    1. Different team rituals can be brought together in same room and in areas that can be better, and think about process of maintenance from technical people and always be on lookout for better ways and methods
    2. Key to experiment, iterate, and see what works and brings value
  1. Best way for designers to adopt emerging design system, when it appears as way of working?
    1. Bring the designers into the process, and ask them for their input
    2. Show them we are here for them and to make their lives easier and better
      1. Find common language in process and figure things out together and show that their well-being will matter in requests
  1. How are you encouraging design system consumers to actively contribute to design system?
    1. Struggle, as this is a consequence of company culture and silo mentality from company
      1. Encourage hybrid for little push and shared agreement and have DS work be part of the OKRs so people contribute twice in a quarter and where facilitator guides the process
      2. Have an overview of what each team is working and used by Team B or C and strong case for contribution
      3. Hold people by hand until they are ready to contribute
      4. Having OKRs as being part of contribution to design system