What can we learn from design systems that became problems themselves instead of solutions? 

 What can we learn from design systems that became problems themselves instead of solutions? 

 What can we learn from design systems that became problems themselves instead of solutions? 

 What can we learn from design systems that became problems themselves instead of solutions? 

 What can we learn from design systems that became problems themselves instead of solutions? 

 What can we learn from design systems that became problems themselves instead ofsolutions?

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYcLF6RxuXI&t

Investigation 🕵️

Investigation 🕵️

Investigation 🕵️

Career Prospects

RSA Design Community

Hidden from Stakeholder/s

Akward Conversation

Liminal Space

The Vague Answer

A design system is a set of interconnected patterns and shared practices coherently organized. [...] They may contain, but are not limited to, pattern libraries, design languages, style guides, coded components, brand languages, and documentation.

The Vague Answer

A design system is a set of interconnected patterns and shared practices coherently organized. [...] They may contain, but are not limited to, pattern libraries, design languages, style guides, coded components, brand languages, and documentation.

The Vague Answer

A design system is a set of interconnected patterns and shared practices coherently organized. [...] They may contain, but are not limited to, pattern libraries, design languages, style guides, coded components, brand languages, and documentation.

The Vague Answer

A design system is a set of interconnected patterns and shared practices coherently organized. [...] They may contain, but are not limited to, pattern libraries, design languages, style guides, coded components, brand languages, and documentation.

The Vague Answer

A design system is a set of interconnected patterns and shared practices coherently organized. [...] They may contain, but are not limited to, pattern libraries, design languages, style guides, coded components, brand languages, and documentation.

The Vague Answer

A design system is a set of interconnected patterns and shared practices coherently organized. [...] They may contain, but are not limited to, pattern libraries, design languages, style guides, coded components, brand languages, and documentation.

The Vague Answer

A design system is a set of interconnected patterns and shared practices coherently organized. [...] They may contain, but are not limited to, pattern libraries, design languages, style guides, coded components, brand languages, and documentation.

The Vague Answer

A design system is a set of interconnected patterns and shared practices coherently organized. [...] They may contain, but are not limited to, pattern libraries, design languages, style guides, coded components, brand languages, and documentation.

The Vague Answer

A design system is a set of interconnected patterns and shared practices coherently organized. [...] They may contain, but are not limited to, pattern libraries, design languages, style guides, coded components, brand languages, and documentation.

The Vague Answer

A design system is a set of interconnected patterns and shared practices coherently organized. [...] They may contain, but are not limited to, pattern libraries, design languages, style guides, coded components, brand languages, and documentation.

The Vague Answer

A design system is a set of interconnected patterns and shared practices coherently organized. [...] They may contain, but are not limited to, pattern libraries, design languages, style guides, coded components, brand languages, and documentation.

The Vague Answer

A design system is a set of interconnected patterns and shared practices coherently organized. [...] They may contain, but are not limited to, pattern libraries, design languages, style guides, coded components, brand languages, and documentation.

Career Change

"So I actually studied architecture. I have a Master's Degree in that. I coded in Python as part of my thesis, I built like an algorithm for my thesis. After working in the industry for a while I really missed the coding, and then I started looking around for development jobs, very fresh, like I had never worked on a team or anything, and managed to get some contract work."

Career Change

"So I actually studied architecture. I have a Master's Degree in that. I coded in Python as part of my thesis, I built like an algorithm for my thesis. After working in the industry for a while I really missed the coding, and then I started looking around for development jobs, very fresh, like I had never worked on a team or anything, and managed to get some contract work."

🏛️

Career Change

"So I actually studied architecture. I have a Master's Degree in that. I coded in Python as part of my thesis, I built like an algorithm for my thesis. After working in the industry for a while I really missed the coding, and then I started looking around for development jobs, very fresh, like I had never worked on a team or anything, and managed to get some contract work."

🏛️

Career Change

"So I actually studied architecture. I have a Master's Degree in that. I coded in Python as part of my thesis, I built like an algorithm for my thesis. After working in the industry for a while I really missed the coding, and then I started looking around for development jobs, very fresh, like I had never worked on a team or anything, and managed to get some contract work."

🏛️

👩‍💻

Career Change

"So I actually studied architecture. I have a Master's Degree in that. I coded in Python as part of my thesis, I built like an algorithm for my thesis. After working in the industry for a while I really missed the coding, and then I started looking around for development jobs, very fresh, like I had never worked on a team or anything, and managed to get some contract work."

🏛️

👩‍💻

Career Change

"So I actually studied architecture. I have a Master's Degree in that. I coded in Python as part of my thesis, I built like an algorithm for my thesis. After working in the industry for a while I really missed the coding, and then I started looking around for development jobs, very fresh, like I had never worked on a team or anything, and managed to get some contract work."

🏛️

🐣

👩‍💻

Career Change

"So I actually studied architecture. I have a Master's Degree in that. I coded in Python as part of my thesis, I built like an algorithm for my thesis. After working in the industry for a while I really missed the coding, and then I started looking around for development jobs, very fresh, like I had never worked on a team or anything, and managed to get some contract work."

🏛️

🐣

👩‍💻

Moving Fast

"We were making a lot of progress. I think we were like, maybe two or three months away from completion, which was about two months delay. So which is not too bad. Yeah, we were hacking it together. But we were like a team, you know, and there was no real design system. But everyone was working together. Hey, if you're doing this page, I've done this before, you know, like, you can use it."

🏛️

🐣

👩‍💻

Moving Fast

"We were making a lot of progress. I think we were like, maybe two or three months away from completion, which was about two months delay. So which is not too bad. Yeah, we were hacking it together. But we were like a team, you know, and there was no real design system. But everyone was working together. Hey, if you're doing this page, I've done this before, you know, like, you can use it."

🏛️

🐣

📈

👩‍💻

Moving Fast

"We were making a lot of progress. I think we were like, maybe two or three months away from completion, which was about two months delay. So which is not too bad. Yeah, we were hacking it together. But we were like a team, you know, and there was no real design system. But everyone was working together. Hey, if you're doing this page, I've done this before, you know, like, you can use it."

🏛️

🐣

📈

👩‍💻

Moving Fast

"We were making a lot of progress. I think we were like, maybe two or three months away from completion, which was about two months delay. So which is not too bad. Yeah, we were hacking it together. But we were like a team, you know, and there was no real design system. But everyone was working together. Hey, if you're doing this page, I've done this before, you know, like, you can use it."

🏛️

🐣

📈

👩‍💻

Moving Fast

"We were making a lot of progress. I think we were like, maybe two or three months away from completion, which was about two months delay. So which is not too bad. Yeah, we were hacking it together. But we were like a team, you know, and there was no real design system. But everyone was working together. Hey, if you're doing this page, I've done this before, you know, like, you can use it."

🏛️

🐣

📈

🧵

👩‍💻

Moving Fast

"We were making a lot of progress. I think we were like, maybe two or three months away from completion, which was about two months delay. So which is not too bad. Yeah, we were hacking it together. But we were like a team, you know, and there was no real design system. But everyone was working together. Hey, if you're doing this page, I've done this before, you know, like, you can use it."

🏛️

🐣

📈

🧵

👩‍💻

Moving Fast

"We were making a lot of progress. I think we were like, maybe two or three months away from completion, which was about two months delay. So which is not too bad. Yeah, we were hacking it together. But we were like a team, you know, and there was no real design system. But everyone was working together. Hey, if you're doing this page, I've done this before, you know, like, you can use it."

🏛️

🐣

📈

🧵

🤝

👩‍💻

Moving Fast

"We were making a lot of progress. I think we were like, maybe two or three months away from completion, which was about two months delay. So which is not too bad. Yeah, we were hacking it together. But we were like a team, you know, and there was no real design system. But everyone was working together. Hey, if you're doing this page, I've done this before, you know, like, you can use it."

🏛️

🐣

📈

🧵

🤝

👩‍💻

Enter Mr. Fix It

"Since we missed the deadline, a senior team-lead was hired to bring some structure. He felt that the project
was a mess since there was no testing framework, documentation, design system or anything. There's none of that. This new team leader was like, really big into biology. So we had, we had organisms, atoms, neutrons and gluons and I swear, there were like 12 levels As far as I know."

Enter Mr. Fix It

"Since we missed the deadline, a senior team-lead was hired to bring some structure. He felt that the project
was a mess since there was no testing framework, documentation, design system or anything. There's none of that. This new team leader was like, really big into biology. So we had, we had organisms, atoms, neutrons and gluons and I swear, there were like 12 levels As far as I know."

📆

Enter Mr. Fix It

"Since we missed the deadline, a senior team-lead was hired to bring some structure. He felt that the project
was a mess since there was no testing framework, documentation, design system or anything. There's none of that. This new team leader was like, really big into biology. So we had, we had organisms, atoms, neutrons and gluons and I swear, there were like 12 levels As far as I know."

📆

Enter Mr. Fix It

"Since we missed the deadline, a senior team-lead was hired to bring some structure. He felt that the project
was a mess since there was no testing framework, documentation, design system or anything. There's none of that. This new team leader was like, really big into biology. So we had, we had organisms, atoms, neutrons and gluons and I swear, there were like 12 levels As far as I know."

📆

📚

Enter Mr. Fix It

"Since we missed the deadline, a senior team-lead was hired to bring some structure. He felt that the project
was a mess since there was no testing framework, documentation, design system or anything. There's none of that. This new team leader was like, really big into biology. So we had, we had organisms, atoms, neutrons and gluons and I swear, there were like 12 levels As far as I know."

📆

📚

🧬

Enter Mr. Fix It

"Since we missed the deadline, a senior team-lead was hired to bring some structure. He felt that the project
was a mess since there was no testing framework, documentation, design system or anything. There's none of that. This new team leader was like, really big into biology. So we had, we had organisms, atoms, neutrons and gluons and I swear, there were like 12 levels As far as I know."

📆

📚

🧬

Enter Mr. Fix It

"Since we missed the deadline, a senior team-lead was hired to bring some structure. He felt that the project
was a mess since there was no testing framework, documentation, design system or anything. There's none of that. This new team leader was like, really big into biology. So we had, we had organisms, atoms, neutrons and gluons and I swear, there were like 12 levels As far as I know."

📆

📚

🧬

A Previous Life

"When I actually worked as an architect, we did like, massive warehouses for for Pick 'n Pay. And the boss of the company, great guy, he was all about like, simplicity and replicability. And you know, just sound simple, effective. Construction, and design, obviously  shaped my thinking around systems and design systems."

📆

📚

🧬

A Previous Life

"When I actually worked as an architect, we did like, massive warehouses for for Pick 'n Pay. And the boss of the company, great guy, he was all about like, simplicity and replicability. And you know, just sound simple, effective. Construction, and design, obviously  shaped my thinking around systems and design systems."

📆

📚

🧬

A Previous Life

"When I actually worked as an architect, we did like, massive warehouses for for Pick 'n Pay. And the boss of the company, great guy, he was all about like, simplicity and replicability. And you know, just sound simple, effective. Construction, and design, obviously  shaped my thinking around systems and design systems."

📆

📚

🧬

👯

A Previous Life

"When I actually worked as an architect, we did like, massive warehouses for for Pick 'n Pay. And the boss of the company, great guy, he was all about like, simplicity and replicability. And you know, just sound simple, effective. Construction, and design, obviously  shaped my thinking around systems and design systems."

📆

📚

🧬

👯

A Previous Life

"When I actually worked as an architect, we did like, massive warehouses for for Pick 'n Pay. And the boss of the company, great guy, he was all about like, simplicity and replicability. And you know, just sound simple, effective. Construction, and design, obviously  shaped my thinking around systems and design systems."

📆

📚

🧬

👯

A Previous Life

"When I actually worked as an architect, we did like, massive warehouses for for Pick 'n Pay. And the boss of the company, great guy, he was all about like, simplicity and replicability. And you know, just sound simple, effective. Construction, and design, obviously  shaped my thinking around systems and design systems."

📆

📚

🧬

👯

🐣

Bottom Down

"Well, the progress that we've made thus far have been using the Tailwind library, which comes with a lot of its own built-in logic. We were doing a lot overriding defaults to make the new design system work. So yeah, I guess it would have been easier to rather focus on bigger issues. We kept going back and forth, back and forth - do it this way, then you do it. No, not like that like this. "

📆

📚

🧬

👯

🐣

Bottom Down

"Well, the progress that we've made thus far have been using the Tailwind library, which comes with a lot of its own built-in logic. We were doing a lot overriding defaults to make the new design system work. So yeah, I guess it would have been easier to rather focus on bigger issues. We kept going back and forth, back and forth - do it this way, then you do it. No, not like that like this. "

📆

📚

🧬

👯

🐣

🚛

Bottom Down

"Well, the progress that we've made thus far have been using the Tailwind library, which comes with a lot of its own built-in logic. We were doing a lot overriding defaults to make the new design system work. So yeah, I guess it would have been easier to rather focus on bigger issues. We kept going back and forth, back and forth - do it this way, then you do it. No, not like that like this. "

📆

📚

🧬

👯

🐣

🚛

Bottom Down

"Well, the progress that we've made thus far have been using the Tailwind library, which comes with a lot of its own built-in logic. We were doing a lot overriding defaults to make the new design system work. So yeah, I guess it would have been easier to rather focus on bigger issues. We kept going back and forth, back and forth - do it this way, then you do it. No, not like that like this. "

📆

📚

🧬

👯

🐣

🚛

Bottom Down

"Well, the progress that we've made thus far have been using the Tailwind library, which comes with a lot of its own built-in logic. We were doing a lot overriding defaults to make the new design system work. So yeah, I guess it would have been easier to rather focus on bigger issues. We kept going back and forth, back and forth - do it this way, then you do it. No, not like that like this. "

📆

📚

🧬

👯

🐣

🚛

🔬

Bottom Down

"Well, the progress that we've made thus far have been using the Tailwind library, which comes with a lot of its own built-in logic. We were doing a lot overriding defaults to make the new design system work. So yeah, I guess it would have been easier to rather focus on bigger issues. We kept going back and forth, back and forth - do it this way, then you do it. No, not like that like this. "

📆

📚

🧬

👯

🐣

🚛

🔬

Bottom Down

📆

📚

🧬

👯

🐣

"Well, the progress that we've made thus far have been using the Tailwind library, which comes with a lot of its own built-in logic. We were doing a lot overriding defaults to make the new design system work. So yeah, I guess it would have been easier to rather focus on bigger issues. We kept going back and forth, back and forth - do it this way, then you do it. No, not like that like this. "

🚛

🔬

Roundhay Garden Scene (1888)

Credited Crew: 7

Marvel Avengers: Endgame (2019)

Credited Crew: 497

• ⚖️ Most optimisations have trade-offs elsewhere
• 💰 Not all time spent/saved is of equal value
   
• 💔 Locally optimising non-bottlenecks might unintentionally make organizational bottlenecks worse
   

Eliyah M. Goldratt
The Goal (1984)

"Al, the trouble is there is nothing for the guys down there to do while heat-treat is cookin’ the parts. You load up one of the damn furnaces, shut the doors, and that’s it for six or eight hours, or however long it takes. What are they supposed to do? Stand around and twiddle their thumbs?’’

Uncommon Sense

Eliyah M. Goldratt
The Goal (1984)

"Al, the trouble is there is nothing for the guys down there to do while heat-treat is cookin’ the parts. You load up one of the damn furnaces, shut the doors, and that’s it for six or eight hours, or however long it takes. What are they supposed to do? Stand around and twiddle their thumbs?’’

Uncommon Sense

Eliyah M. Goldratt
The Goal (1984)

"Al, the trouble is there is nothing for the guys down there to do while heat-treat is cookin’ the parts. You load up one of the damn furnaces, shut the doors, and that’s it for six or eight hours, or however long it takes. What are they supposed to do? Stand around and twiddle their thumbs?’’

Uncommon Sense

Eliyah M. Goldratt
The Goal (1984)

"Al, the trouble is there is nothing for the guys down there to do while heat-treat is cookin’ the parts. You load up one of the damn furnaces, shut the doors, and that’s it for six or eight hours, or however long it takes. What are they supposed to do? Stand around and twiddle their thumbs?’’

Uncommon Sense

Eliyah M. Goldratt
The Goal (1984)

"Al, the trouble is there is nothing for the guys down there to do while heat-treat is cookin’ the parts. You load up one of the damn furnaces, shut the doors, and that’s it for six or eight hours, or however long it takes. What are they supposed to do? Stand around and twiddle their thumbs?’’

Uncommon Sense

Eliyah M. Goldratt
The Goal (1984)

"Al, the trouble is there is nothing for the guys down there to do while heat-treat is cookin’ the parts. You load up one of the damn furnaces, shut the doors, and that’s it for six or eight hours, or however long it takes. What are they supposed to do? Stand around and twiddle their thumbs?’’

Uncommon Sense

Cross-functional Work

Adam Dunford
The Interaction Design Competency
Framework (2016)

"Interestingly, the skill or aspect with the most mentions across all job listings was 'collaborative' or the ability of the employee to cooperate and work with others"

Cross-functional Work

Adam Dunford
The Interaction Design Competency
Framework (2016)

"Interestingly, the skill or aspect with the most mentions across all job listings was 'collaborative' or the ability of the employee to cooperate and work with others"

Cross-functional Work

Adam Dunford
The Interaction Design Competency
Framework (2016)

"Interestingly, the skill or aspect with the most mentions across all job listings was 'collaborative' or the ability of the employee to cooperate and work with others"

Cross-functional Work

Adam Dunford
The Interaction Design Competency
Framework (2016)

"Interestingly, the skill or aspect with the most mentions across all job listings was 'collaborative' or the ability of the employee to cooperate and work with others"

The Math

The implication of these rules is that we must not seek to optimize every resource in the system [...] A system of local optimums is not an optimum system at all; it is a very inefficient system. [...] you are not increasing productivity. On the contrary, you are doing exactly the opposite. ’’

Eliyah M. Goldratt
The Goal (1984)

The Math

The implication of these rules is that we must not seek to optimize every resource in the system [...] A system of local optimums is not an optimum system at all; it is a very inefficient system. [...] you are not increasing productivity. On the contrary, you are doing exactly the opposite. ’’

Eliyah M. Goldratt
The Goal (1984)

The Math

The implication of these rules is that we must not seek to optimize every resource in the system [...] A system of local optimums is not an optimum system at all; it is a very inefficient system. [...] you are not increasing productivity. On the contrary, you are doing exactly the opposite. ’’

Eliyah M. Goldratt
The Goal (1984)

The Math

The implication of these rules is that we must not seek to optimize every resource in the system [...] A system of local optimums is not an optimum system at all; it is a very inefficient system. [...] you are not increasing productivity. On the contrary, you are doing exactly the opposite. ’’

Eliyah M. Goldratt
The Goal (1984)

The Math

The implication of these rules is that we must not seek to optimize every resource in the system [...] A system of local optimums is not an optimum system at all; it is a very inefficient system. [...] you are not increasing productivity. On the contrary, you are doing exactly the opposite. ’’

Eliyah M. Goldratt
The Goal (1984)

The Math

The implication of these rules is that we must not seek to optimize every resource in the system [...] A system of local optimums is not an optimum system at all; it is a very inefficient system. [...] you are not increasing productivity. On the contrary, you are doing exactly the opposite. ’’

Eliyah M. Goldratt
The Goal (1984)

The Math

The implication of these rules is that we must not seek to optimize every resource in the system [...] A system of local optimums is not an optimum system at all; it is a very inefficient system. [...] you are not increasing productivity. On the contrary, you are doing exactly the opposite. ’’

Eliyah M. Goldratt
The Goal (1984)

The Cost

Eliyah M. Goldratt
The Goal (1984)

"I want people at those furnaces standing by, ready to load and unload twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. [...] "But you know you’re talking about two, maybe three people per shift.’’ "Is that all?’’ I ask. "Don’t you remember what lost time on a bottleneck costs us?’’

The Cost

Eliyah M. Goldratt
The Goal (1984)

"I want people at those furnaces standing by, ready to load and unload twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. [...] "But you know you’re talking about two, maybe three people per shift.’’ "Is that all?’’ I ask. "Don’t you remember what lost time on a bottleneck costs us?’’

The Cost

Eliyah M. Goldratt
The Goal (1984)

"I want people at those furnaces standing by, ready to load and unload twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. [...] "But you know you’re talking about two, maybe three people per shift.’’ "Is that all?’’ I ask. "Don’t you remember what lost time on a bottleneck costs us?’’

The Cost

Eliyah M. Goldratt
The Goal (1984)

"I want people at those furnaces standing by, ready to load and unload twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. [...] "But you know you’re talking about two, maybe three people per shift.’’ "Is that all?’’ I ask. "Don’t you remember what lost time on a bottleneck costs us?’’

The Cost

Eliyah M. Goldratt
The Goal (1984)

"I want people at those furnaces standing by, ready to load and unload twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. [...] "But you know you’re talking about two, maybe three people per shift.’’ "Is that all?’’ I ask. "Don’t you remember what lost time on a bottleneck costs us?’’

The Cost

Eliyah M. Goldratt
The Goal (1984)

"I want people at those furnaces standing by, ready to load and unload twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. [...] "But you know you’re talking about two, maybe three people per shift.’’ "Is that all?’’ I ask. "Don’t you remember what lost time on a bottleneck costs us?’’

De$ign $ystem$ amirite?

Nathan Curtis
And You Thought Buttons
Were Easy? (2017)

"Let’s imagine you combine a designer, engineer and QA specialist to design, build, and test these buttons. If these staff cost $100/hr, and it takes this team of three 200 hours combined to design, build and test buttons at this level of quality, then buttons cost $20,000."

De$ign $ystem$ amirite?

Nathan Curtis
And You Thought Buttons
Were Easy? (2017)

"Let’s imagine you combine a designer, engineer and QA specialist to design, build, and test these buttons. If these staff cost $100/hr, and it takes this team of three 200 hours combined to design, build and test buttons at this level of quality, then buttons cost $20,000."

De$ign $ystem$ amirite?

Nathan Curtis
And You Thought Buttons
Were Easy? (2017)

"Let’s imagine you combine a designer, engineer and QA specialist to design, build, and test these buttons. If these staff cost $100/hr, and it takes this team of three 200 hours combined to design, build and test buttons at this level of quality, then buttons cost $20,000."

De$ign $ystem$ amirite?

Nathan Curtis
And You Thought Buttons
Were Easy? (2017)

"Let’s imagine you combine a designer, engineer and QA specialist to design, build, and test these buttons. If these staff cost $100/hr, and it takes this team of three 200 hours combined to design, build and test buttons at this level of quality, then buttons cost $20,000."

De$ign $ystem$ amirite?

Nathan Curtis
And You Thought Buttons
Were Easy? (2017)

"Let’s imagine you combine a designer, engineer and QA specialist to design, build, and test these buttons. If these staff cost $100/hr, and it takes this team of three 200 hours combined to design, build and test buttons at this level of quality, then buttons cost $20,000."

De$ign $ystem$ amirite?

Nathan Curtis
And You Thought Buttons
Were Easy? (2017)

"Let’s imagine you combine a designer, engineer and QA specialist to design, build, and test these buttons. If these staff cost $100/hr, and it takes this team of three 200 hours combined to design, build and test buttons at this level of quality, then buttons cost $20,000."

The Wrong Abstraction

Sandi Metz
The Wrong Abstraction (2014)

Duplication is far cheaper than the wrong abstraction. I've seen problems where folks were trying valiantly to move forward with the wrong abstraction, but having very little success. Adding new features was incredibly hard, and each success further complicated the logic.

The Wrong Abstraction

Sandi Metz
The Wrong Abstraction (2014)

Duplication is far cheaper than the wrong abstraction. I've seen problems where folks were trying valiantly to move forward with the wrong abstraction, but having very little success. Adding new features was incredibly hard, and each success further complicated the logic.

The Wrong Abstraction

Sandi Metz
The Wrong Abstraction (2014)

Duplication is far cheaper than the wrong abstraction. I've seen problems where folks were trying valiantly to move forward with the wrong abstraction, but having very little success. Adding new features was incredibly hard, and each success further complicated the logic.

The Wrong Abstraction

Sandi Metz
The Wrong Abstraction (2014)

Duplication is far cheaper than the wrong abstraction. I've seen problems where folks were trying valiantly to move forward with the wrong abstraction, but having very little success. Adding new features was incredibly hard, and each success further complicated the logic.

The Wrong Abstraction

Sandi Metz
The Wrong Abstraction (2014)

Duplication is far cheaper than the wrong abstraction. I've seen problems where folks were trying valiantly to move forward with the wrong abstraction, but having very little success. Adding new features was incredibly hard, and each success further complicated the logic.

The Wrong Abstraction

Sandi Metz
The Wrong Abstraction (2014)

Duplication is far cheaper than the wrong abstraction. I've seen problems where folks were trying valiantly to move forward with the wrong abstraction, but having very little success. Adding new features was incredibly hard, and each success further complicated the logic.

The Wrong Abstraction

Sandi Metz
The Wrong Abstraction (2014)

Duplication is far cheaper than the wrong abstraction. I've seen problems where folks were trying valiantly to move forward with the wrong abstraction, but having very little success. Adding new features was incredibly hard, and each success further complicated the logic.

• Centralised logic and documentation
• Consistent branding and visual aesthetic

The Goal

• Time spent reverse-engineering Tailwind
• Time spent arguing over semantics
• Re-writing code to fit system
• Hiring and onboarding devs to help with above

• Centralised logic and documentation
• Consistent branding and visual aesthetic

The Cost

• Centralised logic and documentation
• Consistent branding and visual aesthetic

The Goal (Paraphrased)

We want a design system

• Time spent reverse-engineering Tailwind
• Time spent arguing over semantics
• Re-writing code to fit system
• Hiring and onboarding devs to help with above

System as Reason Itself

"So where it came from is us, the designers, you know, we saw this problem of having components that's misaligned, or creating new components out there when there's already existing component that does a similar if not the same feature or function. So from there, we ended up kind of using zero height to really document all of our designs and back it up as code."

System as Reason Itself

"So where it came from is us, the designers, you know, we saw this problem of having components that's misaligned, or creating new components out there when there's already existing component that does a similar if not the same feature or function. So from there, we ended up kind of using zero height to really document all of our designs and back it up as code."

System as Reason Itself

"So where it came from is us, the designers, you know, we saw this problem of having components that's misaligned, or creating new components out there when there's already existing component that does a similar if not the same feature or function. So from there, we ended up kind of using zero height to really document all of our designs and back it up as code."

System as Reason Itself

"So where it came from is us, the designers, you know, we saw this problem of having components that's misaligned, or creating new components out there when there's already existing component that does a similar if not the same feature or function. So from there, we ended up kind of using zero height to really document all of our designs and back it up as code."

System as Reason Itself

"So where it came from is us, the designers, you know, we saw this problem of having components that's misaligned, or creating new components out there when there's already existing component that does a similar if not the same feature or function. So from there, we ended up kind of using zero height to really document all of our designs and back it up as code."

System as Reason Itself

"So where it came from is us, the designers, you know, we saw this problem of having components that's misaligned, or creating new components out there when there's already existing component that does a similar if not the same feature or function. So from there, we ended up kind of using zero height to really document all of our designs and back it up as code."

System as Reason Itself

"So where it came from is us, the designers, you know, we saw this problem of having components that's misaligned, or creating new components out there when there's already existing component that does a similar if not the same feature or function. So from there, we ended up kind of using zero height to really document all of our designs and back it up as code."

System as Reason Itself

"So where it came from is us, the designers, you know, we saw this problem of having components that's misaligned, or creating new components out there when there's already existing component that does a similar if not the same feature or function. So from there, we ended up kind of using zero height to really document all of our designs and back it up as code."

The Co$t

"So as soon as we put something in there, after a while, we realize, hey, this is outdated. Right? And how these different interactions are, those stuff changes quite often. And it becomes a problem of like, you know, how do we keep updating it, while not also like, you know, wasting a ton of time, every single time there's a change, you have to go and update it."

The Co$t

"So as soon as we put something in there, after a while, we realize, hey, this is outdated. Right? And how these different interactions are, those stuff changes quite often. And it becomes a problem of like, you know, how do we keep updating it, while not also like, you know, wasting a ton of time, every single time there's a change, you have to go and update it."

The Co$t

"So as soon as we put something in there, after a while, we realize, hey, this is outdated. Right? And how these different interactions are, those stuff changes quite often. And it becomes a problem of like, you know, how do we keep updating it, while not also like, you know, wasting a ton of time, every single time there's a change, you have to go and update it."

The Co$t

"So as soon as we put something in there, after a while, we realize, hey, this is outdated. Right? And how these different interactions are, those stuff changes quite often. And it becomes a problem of like, you know, how do we keep updating it, while not also like, you know, wasting a ton of time, every single time there's a change, you have to go and update it."

The Co$t

"So as soon as we put something in there, after a while, we realize, hey, this is outdated. Right? And how these different interactions are, those stuff changes quite often. And it becomes a problem of like, you know, how do we keep updating it, while not also like, you know, wasting a ton of time, every single time there's a change, you have to go and update it."

The Co$t

"So as soon as we put something in there, after a while, we realize, hey, this is outdated. Right? And how these different interactions are, those stuff changes quite often. And it becomes a problem of like, you know, how do we keep updating it, while not also like, you know, wasting a ton of time, every single time there's a change, you have to go and update it."

Cap Watkins
The Boring Designer (2015)

"With infinite time and resources we could do anything, but the boring designer knows we have neither of those things. We have super talented people working together for a finite period of time. [...] Sometimes that means re-skinning a UI and making some light design/copy changes to enable the engineering team to focus on making the page loads lightning fast."

The Boring Designer

Cap Watkins
The Boring Designer (2015)

"With infinite time and resources we could do anything, but the boring designer knows we have neither of those things. We have super talented people working together for a finite period of time. [...] Sometimes that means re-skinning a UI and making some light design/copy changes to enable the engineering team to focus on making the page loads lightning fast."

The Boring Designer

Cap Watkins
The Boring Designer (2015)

"With infinite time and resources we could do anything, but the boring designer knows we have neither of those things. We have super talented people working together for a finite period of time. [...] Sometimes that means re-skinning a UI and making some light design/copy changes to enable the engineering team to focus on making the page loads lightning fast."

The Boring Designer

Cap Watkins
The Boring Designer (2015)

"With infinite time and resources we could do anything, but the boring designer knows we have neither of those things. We have super talented people working together for a finite period of time. [...] Sometimes that means re-skinning a UI and making some light design/copy changes to enable the engineering team to focus on making the page loads lightning fast."

The Boring Designer

Cap Watkins
The Boring Designer (2015)

"With infinite time and resources we could do anything, but the boring designer knows we have neither of those things. We have super talented people working together for a finite period of time. [...] Sometimes that means re-skinning a UI and making some light design/copy changes to enable the engineering team to focus on making the page loads lightning fast."

The Boring Designer

Cap Watkins
The Boring Designer (2015)

"With infinite time and resources we could do anything, but the boring designer knows we have neither of those things. We have super talented people working together for a finite period of time. [...] Sometimes that means re-skinning a UI and making some light design/copy changes to enable the engineering team to focus on making the page loads lightning fast."

The Boring Designer

Cap Watkins
The Boring Designer (2015)

"With infinite time and resources we could do anything, but the boring designer knows we have neither of those things. We have super talented people working together for a finite period of time. [...] Sometimes that means re-skinning a UI and making some light design/copy changes to enable the engineering team to focus on making the page loads lightning fast."

The Boring Designer