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Ask a design system team how they’ll raise the quality of the products they support, and you’ll usually hear one of two options.

Design System Decision Matrix Product Team · Design System Build vs.

Before you read any further, answer one question, quietly to yourself: Does your design system create “sameness” in the products that have adopted it?

I’ve learned, over the years, to trust my instincts.

“A location where airflows meet, characteristically marked by an upwelling of air.”

I can’t believe this, but after years of conversations, reading, collaborating with internal teams, coaching design system leads, and facilitating large community conversations, I’m so very proud to announce the upcoming release of my book, Maturing Design

I was very fortunate to attend Penpot Fest 2025 on Oct 9 and 10 in Madrid, Spain.

Any artist will tell you that the tools they use impact their art.

For a design system program where the goal is often stable, high quality, durable output, how much instability, lack of quality, or impermanence can we tolerate in our tools?

Nobody knows exactly where all of this is going, and that’s the fun part… Last week, as part of my bi-monthly research show, The Question, I gathered with a group of very thoughtful design system practitioners to talk about the role of AI in our design sy…

In a recent episode of The Question, Adrianne Daley and I invited the design system community to dig into one of those quiet-but-critical topics: tracking design system deviation.

The Question: Episode 053 Wrap-up On Friday, May 16 of 2025 we held the Episode 053 design system deep dive conversation as part of a series called The Question.

I don’t like garlic.

Most design system teams I interact with feel like they are still not getting all the impact they had hoped for from their systems.

The Question: Episode 35 Wrap-up On Friday, October 25 of 2024 we held the Episode 35 design system deep dive conversation as part of a series called The Question.

The Question: Episode 31 Wrap-up On Friday, September 6th of 2024 we held the Episode 31 design system deep dive conversation as part of a series called The Question.