After 5 years of building design systems at enterprise scale, I’ve learned what makes the difference between a system that scales and one that gets abandoned. Here are the key principles that matter most.

Start with Real Problems, Not Perfect Components

The biggest mistake I see teams make is building components in isolation. They create beautiful buttons, cards, and forms without understanding how they’ll actually be used in production.

What works better:

  • Audit existing products first
  • Identify the most common patterns
  • Build components that solve real problems
  • Start with the 20% of components that solve 80% of use cases

Governance is Everything

A design system without governance is just a collection of components. You need clear processes for:

  • Contributing: How do teams add new components?
  • Reviewing: Who approves changes and additions?
  • Maintaining: Who’s responsible for updates and bug fixes?
  • Documentation: How do you keep docs current?

At Aramco, we established a Design System Council with representatives from each major product team. This ensures buy-in and shared ownership.

Make Adoption Frictionless

The best design system is the one teams actually use. Here’s how we made adoption easier:

  1. One-line installation: npm install @aramco/design-system
  2. Comprehensive documentation: Every component has usage examples
  3. Design tokens: Consistent spacing, colors, and typography
  4. Code examples: Copy-paste ready implementations
  5. Regular updates: Monthly releases with clear changelogs

Measure What Matters

Track these metrics to understand if your system is working:

  • Adoption rate: How many teams are using the system?
  • Component usage: Which components are most/least used?
  • Time to market: How much faster are teams shipping?
  • Design consistency: Are products looking more cohesive?

The Hard Truth About Maintenance

Design systems are never “done.” They require ongoing investment in:

  • Technical debt: Refactoring and optimization
  • New features: Adding components as needs evolve
  • Documentation: Keeping guides current
  • Training: Onboarding new team members

Budget for 20-30% of your design system team’s time for maintenance activities.

Key Takeaways

  1. Start small, think big: Begin with core components, plan for scale
  2. Governance first: Establish processes before building components
  3. Make adoption easy: Reduce friction at every step
  4. Measure success: Track metrics that matter to your organization
  5. Plan for maintenance: Design systems are living products

Building a design system that scales isn’t about perfect components—it’s about creating a system that teams want to use and can maintain long-term.

What challenges have you faced with design system adoption? I’d love to hear your experiences in the comments.