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AuthorCélio Pires
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Published2024
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CategoryDesign Systems
Keeping a Design System alive
Most design systems die after the first release. Everyone's excited for two weeks and then the product grows and the system stays still. Nothing fancy. Just consistent care.
The problem
Most design systems die after the first release. Everyone's excited for two weeks and then the product grows and the system stays still.
Components get outdated. Patterns drift. New features don't use the system. Teams start building their own versions again. The system becomes a museum piece instead of a working tool.
To avoid that I added simple maintenance loops: monthly reviews, new component proposals, cleaning duplicates, quick audits.
Maintenance loops
Simple routines that kept the system relevant:
• monthly reviews
• new component proposals
• cleaning duplicates
• quick audits
Nothing fancy. Just consistent care. These small, regular check-ins prevented the system from drifting and kept it aligned with how the product actually evolved.
Examples
Different products needed different focus:
• At Bitloops this meant syncing design and code often
• At Sphera it meant checking that patterns still matched new dashboards
• At Commons it meant updating flows as rules changed
Each product had unique needs, but the principle was the same: keep the system in sync with reality.
Tools
The right tools made maintenance easier:
• Figma branches helped with safe updates
• Jira kept track of changes
• Loom updates made communication easy
• A shared changelog kept everyone aligned
These tools weren't fancy, but they made it easy to maintain the system without chaos. Updates were safe, changes were tracked, communication was clear.
Communication
Keeping everyone informed was key:
• Loom updates made communication easy
• A shared changelog kept everyone aligned
• Regular reviews meant teams knew what was changing
• Clear documentation prevented confusion
When people know what's happening, they trust the system. When they trust it, they use it. When they use it, it stays alive.
What I learned
A system is a small product living inside the big one. If you look after it it stays useful. If you ignore it it disappears.
Most design systems die after the first release because nobody takes care of them. The product grows, the system doesn't, and teams drift away.
Simple maintenance loops prevent that. Monthly reviews, cleaning duplicates, syncing with code, updating patterns. Nothing fancy. Just consistent care.
When you treat the system like a product — with regular updates, clear communication, and ongoing attention — it stays alive. It becomes part of how teams work instead of something they work around.
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