What does a design system mean to you?
Why is the design system essential to us?
What are the top three problems this design system is aiming to solve?
What are the biggest challenges at the moment?
What are the goals and objectives of the design system?
What do we want to achieve in the six months, 12 months?
How will the design system align with the business strategy and brand identity?
Who are the primary and secondary users of the design system (e.g., designers, developers, product managers)?
How many resources can we put into building it?
Which design system do you admire? What elements of it would you like to emulate?
What is our current technology stack? What are the challenges and things to improve it?
Do we want to build a public or internal design system?
How will we name our design system?
What will our design system include?
How close can we work with the product and its roadmap?
What does the design system roadmap look like?
How do you feel about the current collaboration? How can we improve it?
Who and how can contribute to the design system?
How can we communicate the value of the design system?
What communication channels will we use?
Do people know how to use our design system? How can we help them implement the design system in their workflow?
When the system gets updated, where do people get notified?
Who and how will we communicate all the changes?
Who will be the owner of the design system? Who and how will communicate all the changes?
How will we integrate the design system into our design process?
What are our most redundant tasks? How much time do we spend doing them?
How do we log our design or tech debt?
What is the best way to onboard new people?
What educational materials can we create to quickly onboard new people and upgrade their knowledge? Coach and set developmental goals for individuals.
What are our design principles?
What is our visual language? Did we define it?
What is our brand character? Does it come through in the design system?
How can we make design system available and valuable for multiple brands?
Which grid are we using?
Are we using design tokens? How can they be best utilized?
Which icons are we using? In which format will we use them (.svg, font, icon library)?
How can we define rules for illustrations?
How can we define motion guidelines?
How can we define interactivity, information structures, and workflows?
Do our interfaces look consistent? Are we using the styles consistently?
Who will maintain our (Figma) UI library?
How will we mark deprecated components?
How will we share updated or new components?
Which components have the highest impact?
Which components are the most needed/used in the product?
Is detaching allowed? How can we get the updated (or new suggestions) back into the design system?
Can we make prototypes of concepts before coding? Who will make them?
How can we get feedback from users?
How will we handle versioning?
How is the design system team structured?
How do designers navigate through the design system? What's a better way?
How do stakeholders navigate through the design system? What's a better way?
How do developers navigate through the design system? What's a better way?
What rules or constraints exist within the product?
What kind of naming conventions are we using? Can we write rules and guidelines down?
What is the best practice for organizing our (Figma) library?
How can we easily adapt the design system as the company grows or pivots?
How can we ensure our design system is scalable?
What products will the design system support?
Which platforms will use this design?
Which web tools should we use?
Which Figma plugins can we use?
What kind of design apps are we using?
Can anyone use the code, and does it follow the rules?
Define code guidelines.
Define dependencies.
How will we handle versioning?
What is the search mechanism within the design system?
Kickoff User Research: Understand user needs and wants
Who can we interview to gather more intel?
Let's make a design audit.
How will we collect user feedback?
How will we conduct usability tests and assess the effectiveness of the components?
How can we evaluate the findings?
How can we share the results?
What is our tone and voice?
Do we have guidelines for content creation (text, video, ...)?
What is the process for adding, modifying, or removing content from the design system?
How will we handle content localization or internationalization
How should content adapt to different screen sizes and devices
What are our SEO (Search Engine Optimization) considerations for content?
Is the current documentation helpful?
What kind of format or tool will we use for documentation?
Who is the primary audience for the documentation? How technically proficient are they?
Who will be responsible for updating the documentation?
How is the documentation organized to allow easy discovery of information?
What level of detail is necessary for the documentation? How deep should the explanations go?
Will we track changes? Who will take care of versioning and changelog?
Which tools will we use (plugins, platforms, etc.)?
Are there any security issues?
Where can we utilize AI to skip repetitive tasks?
Define the key performance indicators (KPIs)
Is the investment paying off?
Did we increase the component adoption?
How are our current users satisfied with our UI components? What is missing?
Are we providing value with the design system?
Which tool can we use to measure it?
How can we evaluate the impact over time?
What do we want to achieve in the six months, 12 months?
Are teams working more efficiently?