PLAYBOOK
Key questions to ask in design system discovery
Remembering
Why is the design system essential to us?
How does the design system integrate with your preferred design tools?
When do you typically look for existing components versus creating new ones?
Where do you store or document your design decisions?
How much time do you spend recreating similar design elements across projects?
How has AI changed your role as a designer?
Understanding
Explain your current process for ensuring design consistency across products.
Outline the steps you take when introducing a new design pattern.
What specifically makes a component well-defined or in need of improvement in your experience?
Compare your ideal design system to what you're currently using.
Define what makes a component reusable in your opinion.
Applying
Show me how you currently implement a new component from ideation to delivery.
Use examples to demonstrate how you communicate design decisions to developers.
Complete this scenario: You need a component that doesn't exist in the current system. What steps do you take?
Classify the design elements you use most frequently versus rarely.
Relate how design system usage affects your productivity.
Analyzing
Contrast the way you work with and without design system resources.
Categorize the existing components by how useful they are to your workflow.
Identify the gaps in the current design system documentation.
Separate the aspects of the current workflow that help versus hinder consistency.
Diagram your ideal component creation and documentation process.
Creating
Create a sketch of how you would organize a design system that would best suit your needs.
Imagine an ideal handoff process between design and development.
Design a solution for the most common inconsistency issues you encounter.
Propose a naming convention for components that would make sense to both designers and developers.
Invent a workflow that would encourage better adoption of the design system.
Evaluating
Select the top three components that would benefit from better documentation.
Decide which parts of the current process need immediate improvement.
Prioritize the features you would like to see in a design system.
Rate the current collaboration between design and development teams.
Discuss how you would measure the success of a design system implementation.
How has using the design system impacted your workflow or productivity? (IF you already have one)
Can you provide specific examples of how the design system has saved you time or effort?
Collaboration
How do you typically collaborate with developers when using or contributing to the design system?
What are your biggest challenges in collaborating on design and implementation?
How do you provide feedback on existing components or suggest new ones?
What would motivate you to contribute new components or patterns to the design system?
Remembering
What do you like about how you currently implement design components?
What is the biggest pain point when translating designs to code?
Tell me about the last time you had to create a component from scratch.
How much time do you typically spend interpreting design specifications?
How much time do you spend recreating similar design elements across projects?
How do you validate AI-generated code for components?
What's your experience with AI-assisted design-to-code tools?
Understanding
Explain how you determine whether to reuse an existing component or build a new one.
Outline your process for implementing responsive behaviors.
Distinguish between the design documentation that is helpful versus insufficient.
Compare your experience with different component libraries or frameworks.
Define what makes a component implementation successful in your view.
Applying
Show me how you currently approach integrating design tokens in your code.
Use examples to demonstrate how you handle component variants.
Complete this scenario: You discover a discrepancy between the design and technical requirements. How do you proceed?
Classify the technical challenges in implementing the current design patterns.
Relate how component reusability affects your development process.
Analyzing
What type of workarounds have you created to handle design inconsistencies?
What do you like or dislike about the current component architecture?
What's the hardest part about maintaining consistency across the application?
Separate the technical concerns from the design concerns in your current workflow.
Diagram your ideal component architecture.
Creating
Create a proposal for how design tokens should be structured in code.
Imagine an ideal automated process for design-to-code translation.
Design a component API that would be flexible yet consistent.
Propose a testing strategy for design system components.
Invent a solution for handling component versioning and updates.
Evaluating
Select which accessibility standards should be prioritized in the design system.
Decide which performance metrics should be considered when evaluating components.
Prioritize technical debt issues related to component implementation.
Rate the maintainability of the current component architecture.
Discuss how you would balance customization versus standardization in a component library.
How has using the design system impacted your workflow or productivity? (IF you already have one)
Can you provide specific examples of how the design system has saved you time or effort?
Collaboration
How do you typically collaborate with designers when using or contributing to the design system?
What are your biggest challenges in collaborating on design and implementation?
How do you provide feedback on existing components or suggest new ones?
What would motivate you to contribute new components or patterns to the design system?
Remembering
Who are the primary users of your product's interface?
What design inconsistencies do you notice across your product?
When do design system considerations enter your product planning process?
Where are the greatest efficiency losses in your current design and development process?
How do you currently track design and development time spent on UI elements?
How do you govern AI use in design system development?
What policies exist for AI-generated design assets?
Understanding
Explain your current process for ensuring design consistency across products.
Outline the business value you expect from a design system.
Distinguish between the design features that differentiate your product versus those that should be standardized.
Compare your product's usability to competitors in relation to interface consistency.
Define what success looks like for a design system from your perspective.
Applying
Show me how you currently measure the impact of design changes.
Use examples to demonstrate how design inconsistencies affect user experience.
Complete this scenario: Your team needs to quickly launch a new feature. How would a design system help or hinder this process?
Classify the design decisions that require stakeholder input versus those that can be standardized.
Relate how design system implementation would affect your product roadmap.
Analysis
What type of user feedback have you received regarding UI consistency?
What do you like or dislike about the visual language of your product?
What's the hardest part about maintaining a cohesive product experience?
Separate the business requirements from the design preferences in feature requests.
Diagram the current decision-making process for UI changes.
Creating
Create a list of metrics you would use to measure design system success.
Imagine how your team's productivity might change with a robust design system.
Design an ideal timeline for design system implementation that aligns with product goals.
Propose how a design system governance model should work within your organization.
Invent strategies to encourage adoption across different product teams.
Evaluating
Select which product areas would benefit most from design standardization.
Decide how much time and resources you would allocate to design system development.
Prioritize which inconsistencies cause the most significant user experience issues.
Rate the current design decision-making process in terms of efficiency.
Discuss how you would balance innovation versus standardization in your product design.
Remembering
What do you know about how inconsistent design affects your brand perception?
What are the current challenges in scaling design across products or teams?
When do design decisions typically cause delays in product development?
Where in your organization is design consistency most critical?
How much is currently invested in design-related activities across teams?
Understanding
Explain how design efficiency impacts your business objectives.
Outline what you understand about the ROI of design systems.
Distinguish between design aspects that should be centralized versus team-specific.
Compare your organization's design maturity to industry standards.
Define how design system governance should align with organizational structure.
Applying
Show me examples of brand inconsistencies that concern you.
Use scenarios to illustrate how design inefficiencies affect time-to-market.
Complete this thought: The most valuable outcome of a design system would be...
Classify design initiatives by their strategic importance to the organization.
Relate how design quality connects to customer satisfaction metrics.
Analysis
What types of design-related issues escalate to your level?
What do you like or dislike about how design decisions are currently made?
What's the hardest part about scaling design practices across the organization?
Separate the cultural from the technical challenges in implementing design standards.
Diagram how design system responsibilities should be distributed organizationally.
Creating
Create a vision statement for what a successful design system would enable.
Imagine how cross-functional collaboration might improve with standardized design practices.
Design an organizational structure that would support sustainable design system governance.
Propose how design system success should be measured at an executive level.
Invent incentives that would encourage design system adoption across teams.
Evaluating
Select which business metrics would most clearly demonstrate design system ROI.
Decide what level of investment in design systems is appropriate for your organization.
Prioritize design system objectives based on strategic business goals.
Rate the importance of design consistency relative to other organizational initiatives.
Discuss how a design system initiative should be positioned within broader digital transformation efforts.
Remembering
Which AI tools are currently part of your design workflow?
When did you first start integrating AI into your design system processes?
How often do you use AI for design tasks versus manual creation?
Where in your workflow do AI tools provide the most value?
How much time do you spend on tasks that could be handled by agents?
What manual quality checks could potentially be automated?
Understanding
Explain how AI has changed your approach to component creation.
Distinguish between tasks you prefer AI to handle versus those requiring human touch.
Define what makes an AI tool valuable for design system work.
Explain your vision for autonomous design system maintenance.
Compare current automation capabilities with your ideal scenario.
Applying
Which design system tasks benefit most from AI assistance.
Analyzing
What patterns have you noticed in AI-generated design suggestions?
Identify the limitations of current AI tools for design system work.
Contrast the time spent on AI-assisted versus traditional design processes.
Separate the design decisions AI can make autonomously from those needing human oversight.
Examine how AI impacts design system governance and quality control.
Apply agentic thinking to your most time-consuming design tasks.
What risks do you see in delegating design decisions to autonomous systems?
Categorize design tasks by their suitability for agentic automation. Create an Airtable with the suggested AI flows.
Creating
Design a workflow that optimally combines AI assistance with human expertise.
Propose guidelines for when to use AI versus manual design approaches.
Create a prompt template library for common (design system) needs.
Imagine an AI assistant specifically trained on your design system. What would it do?
Develop guidelines for evaluating AI-generated design solutions.
Think about metrics.
Evaluating
Prioritize AI tool features based on your team's needs.
Rate the current AI tools' effectiveness for design system tasks.
Assess the ROI of AI tool subscriptions versus time saved.
Judge the accessibility and inclusivity of AI-generated designs.
Collaboration
How do you typically collaborate with developers when using or contributing to the design system?
What are your biggest challenges in collaborating on design and implementation?
How do you provide feedback on existing components or suggest new ones?
What would motivate you to contribute new components or patterns to the design system?
