Brendon Montgomery
The purpose of a design system is to serve the needs of a team, not just an individual designer. You know that creating a design system creates speed, but it’s not simply about the compound effect of cutting down on designer’s grunt work—a design system also removes burdensome communication blockers, and adds speed to the work of the overall agile team, including developers, quality practitioners, and marketing/merchandising teams.
The purpose of a design system is to serve the needs of a team, not just an individual designer. You know that creating a design system creates speed, but it’s not simply about the compound effect of cutting down on designer’s grunt work—a design system also removes burdensome communication blockers, and adds speed to the work of the overall agile team, including developers, quality practitioners, and marketing/merchandising teams.
In the course of three years of consulting and problem solving for companies with existing design systems, one fact has become (at times, painfully) obvious: Design systems are hard to get right.
Leading organizations have invested enormous resources into their digital experience, maturing their digital capabilities and delivering better experiences to customers. With all the right tools, people, and the right mindset, why are there still blockers?
Products and platforms exist for every industry, and all claim to make building your customer experience easier, more cost effective, and seamless across digital channels. They offer rich data and infrastructure, as well as frontend or customer experience features. Working with well-established platforms can be beneficial for reducing your lead time to launch new customer experiences, with their solid infrastructure, strong security and data measures, and well-connected features.
Web Summit 2021 Masterclass presentation from Brendon Montgomery, featuring Michael Brown. This lecture outlines how to use a design system to maximize capital efficiency for your business. A design system allows you to leverage cost-effective, outsourced partners with confidence, keep your experiences consistent, and scale your business more readily.
In the past year, we’ve seen a shift from senior leaders in enterprise organizations asking “What’s a design system?” to saying “Yeah, we’ve got a design system. It isn’t delivering the way we thought it would.” This common problem is slowing speed to innovation, and making leaders question the efficacy of having and using a design system.
In the past year, we’ve seen a shift from senior leaders in enterprise organizations asking “What’s a design system?” to saying “Yeah, we’ve got a design system. It isn’t delivering the way we thought it would.” This common problem is slowing speed to innovation, and making leaders question the efficacy of having and using a design system.