A Pattern Approach to Design Systems

A design system is something every product team needs or uses (or plans to make), but that means very different things to different teams!

For small teams, a design system can seem confining or like “extra” work or design debt, and for larger companies, it can be tricky to decide when to creatively extend a design system.

Here’s what I think is a durable and useful way to think about design systems to avoid those pitfalls.