My approach to design systems

Most teams feel the pressure to build a full design system early—components, tokens, documentation, patterns, all perfectly polished. But the truth is: most products don’t need that level of systemisation until much later.

Early on, what matters isn’t scale. It’s clarity.

A design system only becomes useful when it’s:

• Accurate — reflecting what already works in your product

• Adopted — actually used by the team, not just documented

• Appropriate — sized to the stage your product is in

The smallest useful version isn’t a huge component library. It’s a handful of decisions that reduce friction: a few reusable UI pieces, a simple token set, a naming pattern the team understands. Just enough structure to remove chaos—without slowing down experimentation.

Systemise what’s proven. Leave the rest until your product finds stronger fit.