A design system can solve your problems with quality, speed, maintainability, and more. It is seen as a drop-in solution that everyone should have. But is this actually true?

Should you start building a design system for your company? And if so, how do you start?

This article provides steps to evaluate if you need a design system. It also shares my recommended steps to start building your design system.

Design systems are great at solving some specific problems¹. A design system can be a great solution if you encounter those problems at your company. If you don’t experience any of those issues, a design system will probably not help much.

But maybe you’re so used to certain problems that you don’t notice them anymore. So, investigate carefully.

I will outline some of the biggest challenges a design system can help with below.