Failing forward at

Hi 👋

I am Sebastian.

My team and I try to assit our colleagues in creating great products and experiences.

"We can't build that."

"Here's the simple truth: you can't innovate on products without first innovating the way you build them."
- Alex Schleifer, Human Computer

Let's build a design system!

What is a Design System?

Explain in simple terms, what is a design system?

A design system is like a toolbox full of reusable building blocks for creating digital products. It includes things like buttons, colors, and rules for how things should look and feel. This helps designers and developers create apps or websites that are consistent, look good, and are easy to use. It saves time and keeps everything in line with the brand's style.

tl;dr

The goal of a design system is to make product development more efficient, consistent, and scalable.

Tech Stack

First Customer

Nobody wants my product

Expectation vs Reality

Is it aligned with their goals?

Nope, everyone is still busy investing in the "legacy" system.

If you build it, will they come?

Hell no. "We've always done it this way."™️

What's the cost of adoption?

Ehm, ... well it's complicated. It's is basically impossible.

"The hard problems around legacy modernization are not technical problems; they are people problems."
- Marianne Bellotti, Kill it with fire

Alignment

Core Theme

React for the Core

Buy-in

Onboarding

from

"We can't build that."

"We can build that... most likely."

Yay we made it! 🥳

What went wrong?

Nothing

Bi-weekly Reviews:

at least one team showcased something built with Marigold.

Quarterly Product Demos:

all but one new feature was built with Marigold.

The Adoption Myth

"Adoption is a lagging indicator of the goal, not the goal itself. [...] Design system adoption doesn't indicate success."
- Dan Mall, In Search of a Better Design System Metric than Adoption

The goal of a design system is to make product development more efficient, consistent, and scalable.

Adoption

Empower teams to deliver better experiences faster and more consistently.

Patterns

Components

"[...] Patterns are opinionated. Components often work best when they're unopinionated and have a degree of flexibility."
- Luke Murphy, Stop building components, start building patterns

Patterns are the OS of your Design System.

What is a Design System?

It depends.

"A design system is supposed to answer to a specific need, and that chagnes from company to company."
- Pedro Hernandez, Design Ops Manager @ Datadop

How to build a design system

Follow the money.

Identify the project/feature that benefits greatly.

Emphasize patterns.

Address design and user experience challenges holistically.

By the people, for the people.

Communicate, early and often.

The obstacle is the way.

Trust in your adaptability, not your plan.

Let's fail forward at