This video is featured in the Rosenfeld Authors Answer Your Questions playlist.
Summary
?Design systems are becoming more prevalent in how digital teams design sustainably at scale. Join Design System University founder Dan Mall in this “Ask Me Anything” session about design systems and learn more about his soon-to-be-released book, Design That Scales: Creating a Sustainable Design System Practice.
Key Insights
-
•
Design systems often fail when treated as one-off projects rather than ongoing organizational practices.
-
•
Embedding design systems in-house leads to stronger sustainability than transplanting from external consultants.
-
•
The best analogy for mature design systems is Agile: a way of doing work, not a project.
-
•
Effective design systems integrate all disciplines, including content design, language, and taxonomy.
-
•
Organizations typically have a mix of design system parts, processes, or neither and struggle to connect them at scale.
-
•
A key early metric of design system success is how soon design system personnel are included in product conversations.
-
•
Managing change improves when teams proactively communicate roadmap plans and expected design system evolutions.
-
•
To meet diverse teams at scale, focus design system efforts on components needed by a critical mass rather than all requests.
-
•
Use an 80/20 rule in design systems: 80% standardized components, 20% custom design to encourage innovation.
-
•
AI tools should be used to explore multiple design alternatives rather than producing a single solution to maintain creativity.
Notable Quotes
"A lot of people think about design systems as a project, but they’re really about how an organization gets work done."
"The goal is that design systems become the way that we do work, just like when you do Agile, you don’t talk about it—you just do it."
"Design systems should capture the reality of your organization, documenting how you work now and where you want to go."
"Sometimes you need to connect the people before you can connect the parts in a design system."
"I give every team I work with an 80/20 rule: 80% of your UI can be standard components, and 20% must be custom designed."
"If you use AI tools, ask for five different ways to do something, not just one, to force exploration."
"A key metric for a successful design system is how early the design system team is invited into project conversations."
"You have to know what the development roadmap is to ensure design system changes are properly integrated and prioritized."
"Change isn’t disliked as much as the surprise that comes with it—managing expectations makes change more palatable."
"Design systems teams are most effective when they focus on serving the components and processes needed at scale by many teams."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Reducing cognitive load on decision makers really helps them work with the data."
Brad Peters Anne MamaghaniShort Take #1: UX/Product Lessons from Your Industry Peers
December 6, 2022
"Many design champions started as non-designers and transitioned into design careers after becoming community leads."
Lona MooreScaling Design Beyond Designers
June 11, 2021
"The interface becomes a radically adaptive surface—an intelligent canvas that reacts to your behavior and context."
Josh Clark Veronika KindredSentient Design, AI, and the Radically Adaptive Experience (1st of 3 seminars)
January 15, 2025
"Being involved early in product planning lets us bring the art and science of research to where it can be most helpful."
Erin May Roberta Dombrowski Laura Oxenfeld Brooke HintonDistributed, Democratized, Decentralized: Finding a Research Model to Support Your Org
March 10, 2022
"From setup to analysis, AI moderation still requires a good understanding of what quality research looks like and how to interpret qualitative data."
Tara TresselInvestigating qualitative depth of AI-moderated interviews
March 10, 2026
"Code is definitely considered the source of truth; we're working hard to make Figma an extension of that."
Charles Lee Jennie YipBuilding a New Home for the Atlassian Design System
October 22, 2020
"Technology can revolutionize how we think about education."
Kristin SkinnerFive Years of DesignOps
September 29, 2021
"User researchers stop at findings and insights, but often do not advocate for a direction."
Megan BlockerGetting to the “So What?”: How Management Consulting Practices Can Transform Your Approach to Research
March 26, 2024
"Systems change happens at the human scale by making structures and humans visible so we can investigate and change them together."
Shanti Mathew Natalie Sims Natalia RadywylCivic Design at Scale: Introducing the Public Policy Layer Cake
December 9, 2021