Design Systems at Scale: Best Practices and Pitfalls

Creating a (scalable) design system from scratch presents unique challenges and opportunities, whether you're starting from an existing component library or a product without a formal system. In this talk, I’ll share practical insights into developing a robust design system, with a focus on streamlining processes and fostering cross-departmental collaboration.

I’ll present real-life examples, such as how to leverage tools like Jira, Figma, and Visual Studio to create seamless workflows across departments. This also includes embedding code snippets directly into the design system for easy developer access and integrating Figma and Jira to keep teams working within familiar environments, minimizing the need for tool-switching.

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One key aspect of building a robust design system is collaboration between designers and developers, even when designers have limited or no coding experience. I’ll share examples of how we achieved effective collaboration and how we used early-stage "test balloons" to gather feedback and refine the system before its official launch. Additionally, I’ll offer insights into how we structured our design system to ensure scalability and adaptability for future products, projects, or brands.

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The goal of this talk is to provide practical steps and insights to help you collaborate effectively across departments and build a design system that not only meets current needs but is also robust enough to grow with your company.