I'm slow and I think that's ok
I'm slow and I think that's ok
I'm slow and I think that's ok
Sep 16, 2024
Equitable design patterns
As our features team speeds up, our design system team is trying to figure out how fast or slow it should be moving to support continuous client requests and user needs. It’s been refreshing that the answer may not be what I feared. Sometimes, it “is” better to slow down.
We continue to learn about new business rules and exceptions with each implementation
Feature teams uncover nuanced use cases and content based on stakeholder input and local community needs
As much as we fight the good fight, sometimes clients want what they want despite what's in the design system
Resources
I’ve been enjoying reading about how other teams have begun to rethink how design systems and features teams should work together and avoid what could be bottlenecks:
Ship Faster by Building Design Systems Slower by Josh Clark offers a fresh perspective on how teams can coordinate efforts. Once you accept that each of your teams moves at different speeds, you can allow features teams to “cook their own recipes” allowing your systems team to curate any output into stable systems contributions.
How to turn ‘slow’ into fast by Beau Ulrey provides a similar perspective with options for systems teams to be more involved in an iterative fashion. Through a stepped approach systems, teams can utilize MVPs and coordinated production “boosts” for high-value initiatives to be more strategic partners with their features teams.
The Art of Slow: Leadership Strategies for Sustainable Design Systems by Richard Banfield suggests an “intentional” path to considering systems teams’ priorities. If systems teams can ground themselves in the problems or their specific customers and products, they can shift from complexity to a mindset of “What can we do with the time we have?”
Takeaways
As our team at Exygy evolves how we collaborate, lessons that stand out from these resources include:
Allow your feature and design system teams to work at their paces of speed and quality
Foster collaboration between teams with strategic investments from the systems team to support elements of high value to the features team
Focus on the health of the team and direct needs of the communities you serve to avoid burnout
As our features team speeds up, our design system team is trying to figure out how fast or slow it should be moving to support continuous client requests and user needs. It’s been refreshing that the answer may not be what I feared. Sometimes, it “is” better to slow down.
We continue to learn about new business rules and exceptions with each implementation
Feature teams uncover nuanced use cases and content based on stakeholder input and local community needs
As much as we fight the good fight, sometimes clients want what they want despite what's in the design system
Resources
I’ve been enjoying reading about how other teams have begun to rethink how design systems and features teams should work together and avoid what could be bottlenecks:
Ship Faster by Building Design Systems Slower by Josh Clark offers a fresh perspective on how teams can coordinate efforts. Once you accept that each of your teams moves at different speeds, you can allow features teams to “cook their own recipes” allowing your systems team to curate any output into stable systems contributions.
How to turn ‘slow’ into fast by Beau Ulrey provides a similar perspective with options for systems teams to be more involved in an iterative fashion. Through a stepped approach systems, teams can utilize MVPs and coordinated production “boosts” for high-value initiatives to be more strategic partners with their features teams.
The Art of Slow: Leadership Strategies for Sustainable Design Systems by Richard Banfield suggests an “intentional” path to considering systems teams’ priorities. If systems teams can ground themselves in the problems or their specific customers and products, they can shift from complexity to a mindset of “What can we do with the time we have?”
Takeaways
As our team at Exygy evolves how we collaborate, lessons that stand out from these resources include:
Allow your feature and design system teams to work at their paces of speed and quality
Foster collaboration between teams with strategic investments from the systems team to support elements of high value to the features team
Focus on the health of the team and direct needs of the communities you serve to avoid burnout
As our features team speeds up, our design system team is trying to figure out how fast or slow it should be moving to support continuous client requests and user needs. It’s been refreshing that the answer may not be what I feared. Sometimes, it “is” better to slow down.
We continue to learn about new business rules and exceptions with each implementation
Feature teams uncover nuanced use cases and content based on stakeholder input and local community needs
As much as we fight the good fight, sometimes clients want what they want despite what's in the design system
Resources
I’ve been enjoying reading about how other teams have begun to rethink how design systems and features teams should work together and avoid what could be bottlenecks:
Ship Faster by Building Design Systems Slower by Josh Clark offers a fresh perspective on how teams can coordinate efforts. Once you accept that each of your teams moves at different speeds, you can allow features teams to “cook their own recipes” allowing your systems team to curate any output into stable systems contributions.
How to turn ‘slow’ into fast by Beau Ulrey provides a similar perspective with options for systems teams to be more involved in an iterative fashion. Through a stepped approach systems, teams can utilize MVPs and coordinated production “boosts” for high-value initiatives to be more strategic partners with their features teams.
The Art of Slow: Leadership Strategies for Sustainable Design Systems by Richard Banfield suggests an “intentional” path to considering systems teams’ priorities. If systems teams can ground themselves in the problems or their specific customers and products, they can shift from complexity to a mindset of “What can we do with the time we have?”
Takeaways
As our team at Exygy evolves how we collaborate, lessons that stand out from these resources include:
Allow your feature and design system teams to work at their paces of speed and quality
Foster collaboration between teams with strategic investments from the systems team to support elements of high value to the features team
Focus on the health of the team and direct needs of the communities you serve to avoid burnout