Design systems appear to be for consistency, but are really for collaboration.

Design Systems Foundations

Design systems are more than just a component library, some Figma files and a documentation site. If the artifacts were the most important part, you'd be able to take one of the hundreds of libraries of UI components available for free and be done with it. Many design system efforts fail because they are so focused on the artifacts that they forget to build the actual system part. The 8 week Design System Foundation program makes sure your design system won't fall into this trap. We focus on the things that make the system actually valuable (common goals, shared understanding, cross-functional agreement) then use that as the basis for the plan for artifacts; so you can actually get all the outcomes design systems promise (increased velocity, less redundancy, more consistency.)

"The Hand-off" (the point in a project where design's leading role ends and engineering's leading role begins) is usually where problems between design and engineering take place. Design systems are the common language and point of shared understanding on both sides of the hand-off. Or at least they should be, if they're built well. Unfortunately most design systems aren't designed or developed with this in mind. In fact, most people don't really know why they have invested in a design system beyond something vague like "everyone has one" or "to improve efficiency and consistency." But consistency of what? Who's efficiency? Knowing the answers to these kinds of questions is essential to actually building the "system" part of the design system. Having cross-functional agreement on the answers is the key to success.

What is it?

The Design System Foundation is a multi-week consulting engagement that is focused on helping your design and engineering stakeholders come together and do the work to make your design system work as a collaboration accelerator, not just some components in a Figma file or a React library. Over the course of 4 to 8 weeks (paced so busy teams can work these engagements into their schedules), we build that shared understanding, cross functionally, and then use that shared understanding to build a grounded, realistic road-map for the artifacts. Not Just Pretty Pictures will provide the framework for documenting the whole system (in your preferred design system tool of choice or using our easy to host design system site starter). Usability and Accessibility auditing, as well as planning to integrate the latest tools including AI is also available.

How does it work?

This program requires participation from both design and engineering stakeholders. The multi-week schedule allows us to accommodate busy teams while still delivering results fast. Each week ends with outcomes that can be put into practice right away. Want more details? Check out The 8-week program details below.

How much does it cost?

We start with a free 30 minute consultation to discuss your current challenges and goals. For most teams one these pre-defined projects is the right choice to get your design system aligned and working as a tool to drive collaboration and see real, meaningful productivity gains:

Basic Foundation

$5,000

This is a 4-week engagement that focuses on building a shared cross-functional understanding. We'll create alignment around shared goals with the system, come up with solutions to pain points that complicate and slow down the hand-off while never getting addresses cross-functionally, and build a documented set of agreements that will make future decision making and development smoother and faster.

The Design System Foundation

$8,000

The full 8-week Design System Foundation program. Just like the Basic Foundation, the first 4 weeks focus on building that solid, shared cross-functional understanding of your design system program. Then we will work together through the details of what to build and how to publish it to build out a full featured roadmap that applys these agreements. It's a plan you can start building in week 6. We will also provide full governance documentation, delivered in your design system documenaton tool of choice or our basic Storybook-based docs sitee template.

Ultimate Foundation

$15,000

For teams that want more help with the in-the-weeds part of the process. This includes everything in The Design System Foundation engagement to make sure your design system is a tool that enabled smooth cross-functional collaboration. It also includes usability and accessability (a11y) auditing for your existing or new components and their documentation, as well as consultation and process planning for implimentation details like "how do we use our design system with the new GenAI tools we have?" or "How do we get adoption across teams ourside our direct sphere of influence?"

None of these look "just right?" We offer custom consulting engagements that can be tailored to your specific needs and budgets. If you want to get real productivity gains out of your design system, let's have a short call to discuss your current chanllenges and see how we can help.

Schedule your free 30 minute session

The 8-week program

Week 1 – Level Setting

Getting everyone on the same page is a surprisingly common problem around design systems. Does everyone understand why the design system exists? What problem its trying to solve? How do you know its solving everyone's problems? How do you know when new problems arise? If you have one, how is your existing system performing? These questions are among the many fundamental answers we co-create in week 1. You can't build a strong system without knowing what you're trying to do, for whom, and how you will know it is doing it. But often design systems projects run full steam without this shared, cross-functional understanding.

Goals

  • Convene the stakeholders & verify these are the people that need to be in the room
  • Understanding the problems everyone wants the system to solve
  • Agreeing on desired outcomes and measures
Week 2 – Who is it for?

You may think this is a silly question to answer, everybody knows who the design system is for, right? If so, you may be surprised to find out that it's not that obvious, and that lots of companies spend a lot of time answering this question years into their design system program. Like any good product, we need to be clear about who we're building and maintaining it for. The activities in week two will not only answer "Who is it for?" but other important questions like "How does it impact their work?" and "Who is is NOT for?"

Goals

  • Thoroughly explore who is impacted by the design system, though the lens of a tool for improved collaboration
  • Build a shared understanding of the who will be using this and what that means for them and the team building and maintaining the design system
  • Identify areas of potential resistance and develop strategies to win people over
Week 3 – How do we change it?

It's easy to build something. It's difficult to make it last and stay relevant. Like any good system, we need to understand how we will go about adapting the system. This is another one of those questions where the answer seems obvious, but it's not so simple to answer well. Week 3 is about digging into these complexities and coming away with cross-functional agreements that will make future updates feel like business as usual instead of a serious challenge.

Goals

  • Tackle all the common change scenarios craft a process to handle them
  • Tackle all the specific to your group scenarios and craft a process to handle them
  • Decide on how any changes to the processes will be made in the future
Week 4 – Who is responsible?

Not just who does the design and who builds the components. Who ensures the processes are followed? Who provides support for teams using it? Who evangelizes it to internal teams? How do those responsibilities impact the other responsible people?!? And many more questions just like those. The productivity gains any design system can provide are often completely eaten by unclear responsibilities. We'll clear them up in week 4.

Goals

  • Identify all the responsibilities that go along with running a successful design system in your organization
  • Build an agreement on how those responsibilities get handled and by who
  • Write it all down so it can be revisited as needed
Week 5 - 7 – Giving it shape

We've identified our goals, figured out how we're going to work, and know who is responsible for what. The next three weeks will focus on building out a detailed plan for the entire system in it's vNext state. This is where we get into the weeds! We talk about design tokens, and CSS, and components! We make decisions about how to build and how to share and how to publish! And we hit the tiny details most people miss when they just jump in and start building components. We may not have a fully finished design system by week 7 (that is up to you and your teams and how much you do in these three weeks) but we will have a detailed map of what the system will be and a functional definition of done to work with on your own timelines.

Goals

  • Shared understanding of what to build
  • Shared understanding of how to build it
  • Shared understanding of how to distribute it
Week 8 – Running with the plan

Week 8 isn't the finish line, because this wasn't the race. This was the training to win the race. Week 8 is your approach to the starting line. We'll review all the work to date and any work in progress and work on a launch (or re-launch) announcement. Most importantly, we'll celebrate the progress and the wins we've had over the last 8 weeks.

Goals

  • Last revisions to the plans made over the preceding 7 weeks leading to a launch announcement you can share with your internal stakeholders and teams
  • Retrospective of the preceding 7 weeks to reinforce the lessons learned, agreements made, and things we learned along the way
  • Shared celebration of everything we've accomplished