governance
What are the best practices for governance in a design system?
Romina Kavcic
Define Roles:
Clearly state who owns, decides, and contributes. This helps everyone understand their role.
Set a Contribution Process:
Let’s create easy workflows for proposing changes. Tools like GitHub or Figma can help. Also, setting clear criteria for new additions will keep things organized.
Use Version Control:
Implementing semantic versioning is a great idea. Keeping a changelog and having a plan to phase out old components will help keep our system up-to-date.
Meetings + updates
Regular meetings with design, engineering, and product teams will help us review changes. Collaborative decision-making for the win! Also, don't forget to have monthly/quarterly meetings, where you share the progress with the whole org.
Document Standards:
Providing clear guidelines on usage and accessibility is essential. Let’s set coding and design standards and outline our quality assurance processes for everyone.
Encourage Feedback:
There is no stupid questions. 🙃 Creating open channels for input and issues is vital. Let’s offer sessions for questions and work on building a supportive community.
Measure Impact:
Tracking how components are used and gathering feedback will help us improve. Using this data will guide us in making better choices.
Your "north star":
Anticipating future governance needs is wise. What are your plans for scaling?
Trainings:
Onboarding new members is crucial. Create helpful resources and guidance to set them up for success.
Align with Goals:
Have your company objectives in mind. You need executive support.
More useful articles
A Design System Governance Process by Brad Frost
In the file: Governing your design system by Figma
Pinterest’s Ashley Seto and Fidelity Investments’ Taylor Cashdan and Mark Steinruck provide a behind the scenes look into their design systems and the operations that keep them going.
Creating design system inventory with Airtable
How We Drove Adoption of Our Design System | Twilio Segment Blog
Governance by design: Building successful design systems by Rangle.io
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Nov 2, 2024
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