A critical yet overlooked skill needed to build an effective design system (2024)

We all know how important it is to have a well-crafted design system. It serves as an essential set of standards, providing a solid, consistent, and straightforward language that organizations use to communicate with their users.

The global design community acknowledges the importance of learning how to build design systems, as evidenced by the countless forums, meetups, courses, and workshops dedicated to the topic.

Yet, only highly design-mature teams have truly effective systems in place.

Why is this still happening? Why do so many designers learn to build these systems, but in the real world, well-crafted design languages are rarely seen?

In this article, I aim to discuss the most under-taught yet crucial skill designers need to master to enhance the design system landscape.

The problem is that most of the learning in the field focuses mostly on:

• How to get started with creating a design system.
• How to create a component library in Figma or other tools.
• How to create style guides and patterns.
• How to tailor a design system to your business needs.
• How to document a design system.

Let’s pause for a moment and consider this: to implement a design system, it must be developed by engineers and utilized across the entire product, right?

Doesn’t this mean designers should also master the following:

1. Selling the design system to stakeholders.
2. Helping the team successfully implement the components and styles into the actual product.
3. Crafting a well-thought-out plan for transitioning from old to new design systems.

The answer is we ABSOLUTELY should.

No one cares about your design system in Figma or any other design editor file. If it isn’t integrated into the real product, it doesn’t exist.

Currently, very few organizations and courses teach these crucial skills. As a result, most design systems, even those that are well-designed, end up in the so-called “design system graveyard.”

Selling the Design System and organizing its distribution is the least creative and yet most complicated part of the journey.

It’s not like no one teaches these skills at all. Organizations like Nielsen Norman Group and Design System University created some great courses that include important lessons on the topic. However, these courses are advanced, quite expensive, and relatively scarce compared to the global design system education market.

In my humble opinion, we’re facing a significant supply-demand problem.

There’s low demand because not many designers are thinking of mastering leadership soft skills(not to be confused with management). Most of us are comfortably focused on designing outputs without aiming to influence product strategy or improve the business. As a result, people are given the “bread and circuses” they want in the form of courses and workshops that touch only the creative, visual aspect of design systems, learning only the “top of the funnel.”

The supply, in turn, is low because, as mentioned, it’s not an easy skill to teach or learn.

Many “teachers” lack real expertise but still seek fame and money by tutoring on how to create a design system.

In reality, there is no simple formula for selling design systems. You can’t be a poor communicator, have no real influence in the organization, lack an understanding of team operations and business growth, and then expect to learn a few magic tricks to make everyone prioritize and adopt the design system.

Selling design systems requires persuasive and communication skills that designers must constantly hone.

Every team is unique, with different views on design and various challenges. Some teams may already have a design system in place, while others may not. It’s difficult to invent a one-size-fits-all method to cover all cases.

I haven’t taken the aforementioned courses, but I believe they must be valuable. If someone struggles to explain why stakeholders should prioritize design system distribution over other projects, these courses can be helpful.

However, beyond taking courses or reading books on this topic, we designers must work harder on our communication skills. We need to better understand how good and bad designs impact business metrics.

Developing a design system is a time-consuming and complex process, and very few people on the team will agree to take that risk just because designers think it’s a good idea.

Instead, it must be presented as a practical solution to the problems your team is currently facing.

This is a basic selling method, as old as time, but many designers are still ignorant of it. Some of us are not even aware of the problems our colleagues are dealing with.

Another critical aspect is the level of credibility designers have within the team.

People are unlikely to buy anything from someone they don’t trust.

Where would you prefer to buy an iPhone: from an Apple store or a random person in the subway? That’s why all shops, real estate agents, and dealers work hard to build their brands and reviews.

Without credibility and respect, designers won’t be able to promote any idea, even if they use all the right persuasion techniques.

As we can see, being a well-respected team member who is actively involved in business and product strategy is essential for effectively advocating for a robust design system.

I am unsure if any design system course covers this aspect, we have to learn that ourselves.

The goal of this article is to emphasize the importance of design system (DS) promotion and distribution skills.

I want to appeal to the design community to start sharing the knowledge we have.

Some of us may already possess strong leadership and communication skills, while others might succeed by taking courses and reading books.

However, many of us still struggle, and that’s perfectly fine. Let’s share all of our experiences — successes and failures alike. Especially failures. We shouldn’t be ashamed of them at all, as they are probably the best way to learn. I’ll learn from your failures, and we both will learn from mine.

By actively discussing this topic, we can grow both the demand for and supply of these skills. As more discussions take place, designers will become much more proficient in promoting robust design systems, leading to more great designs being implemented.

So let’s talk, people!