Design System Culture (Smashing Meets, 2022)

The culture around your design system is greatly impacted by the culture of your organization. In this presentation, Ben shares how this understanding can impact the way you approach creating a sustainable systematic design practice. He examines the various types of organizational cultures and considers how they work together (and how they don't).

The hardest work we have to do is the cultural work. This presentation will help you face that challenge head-on and shape your approach, making your work more sustainable and enjoyable.

Topics covered:
- What is organizational culture?
- How to establish culture
- How subcultures are impacted by overall org culture
- Primary types of design system subcultures
- How to adjust your approach for a sustainable system

Transcript

1. Ben Callahan
   Design System
   
   
   Culture
   @bencallahan
   

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2. a quick story…
   Last year, my company, Sparkbox, spent the majority of the year consulting with a large
   fi
   nancial services company.
   
   
   They are a very competitive organization, with lots of ideas for new products. But they really were struggling to move
   as quickly as they wanted on those new ideas.
   
   
   So, they hired us to help them build a new product and along with that product, a design system. I think their hope
   was that we could then use the design system to increase the ef
   fi
   ciency of their internal teams as they rolled out more
   products in the future.
   
   
   So we jumped in alongside their teams and got to work.
   
   
   Now, I wish I could sit here and tell you about how amazing this engagement was.
   
   
   But I’ll be very honest, it was a real struggle.
   
   
   It was so dif
   fi
   cult, that, at the end of last year, we made the tough decision to walk away from this customer. And the
   reason that we did so was…
   

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3. Cultural
   incompatibility.
   

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4. @bencallahan (on Twitter)
   
   
   https:/
   /bit.ly/connect-with-ben
   
   
   https:/
   /sparkbox.com
   Let’s connect!
   

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5. Basic Underlying Assumptions
   Espoused Beliefs
   Artifacts
   Organizational Culture is
   
   
   made up of three layers
   

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6. Basic Underlying Assumptions
   Espoused Beliefs
   Artifacts
   Organizational Culture is
   
   
   made up of three layers
   What you see
   What people say
   What people believe
   http://www.scheinocli.org/
   

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7. Basic Underlying Assumptions
   Espoused Beliefs
   Artifacts
   Organizational Culture is
   
   
   made up of three layers
   What you see
   What people say
   What people believe
   Experience
   http://www.scheinocli.org/
   

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8. There are four primary types of Organizational
   Culture in the competing values framework
   Focused
   Flexible
   

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9. There are four primary types of Organizational
   Culture in the competing values framework
   Focused
   https://www.thercfgroup.com/
   fi
   les/resources/an_introduction_to_the_competing_values_framework.pdf
   Flexible
   External
   Internal
   

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10. There are four primary types of Organizational
    Culture in the competing values framework
    Focused
    Flexible
    External
    Internal
    Collaborate
    

    Clan Culture
    

    “Do things together”
    Control
    

    Hierarchy Culture
    

    “Do things right”
    https://www.thercfgroup.com/
    fi
    les/resources/an_introduction_to_the_competing_values_framework.pdf
    

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11. There are four primary types of Organizational
    Culture in the competing values framework
    Focused
    Flexible
    External
    Internal
    Collaborate
    

    Clan Culture
    

    “Do things together”
    Control
    

    Hierarchy Culture
    

    “Do things right”
    Compete
    

    Market Culture
    

    “Do things fast”
    Create
    

    Adhocracy Culture
    

    “Do things
    fi
    rst”
    https://www.thercfgroup.com/
    fi
    les/resources/an_introduction_to_the_competing_values_framework.pdf
    

    View Slide

12. There are four primary types of Organizational
    Culture in the competing values framework
    Focused
    Flexible
    External
    Internal
    Collaborate
    

    Clan Culture
    

    “Do things together”
    Control
    

    Hierarchy Culture
    

    “Do things right”
    Compete
    

    Market Culture
    

    “Do things fast”
    Create
    

    Adhocracy Culture
    

    “Do things
    fi
    rst”
    https://www.thercfgroup.com/
    fi
    les/resources/an_introduction_to_the_competing_values_framework.pdf
    “People
    fi
    rst” “Disrupt everything”
    “Beat the competition”
    “Avoid risk”
    

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13. Collaborate
    

    Clan Culture
    

    “Do things together”
    Control
    

    Hierarchy Culture
    

    “Do things right”
    “I believe the scope of my work cannot be
    accomplished in any way other than to partner
    with teams who have caught the vision”
    Design system subcultures are most often
    Collaborative or Controlling
    

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14. Collaborate
    

    Clan Culture
    

    “Do things together”
    Control
    

    Hierarchy Culture
    

    “Do things right”
    “I believe the scope of my work cannot be
    accomplished in any way other than to partner
    with teams who have caught the vision”
    “My product teams haven’t created consistency,
    so I’m here to make sure they do going forward”
    Design system subcultures are most often
    Collaborative or Controlling
    

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15. Collaborate
    

    Clan Culture
    

    “Do things together”
    Control
    

    Hierarchy Culture
    

    “Do things right”
    The spectrum from collaborative to controlling
    helps us identify healthy and unhealthy behaviors
    Unhealthy
    Collaboration
    Unhealthy
    

    Control
    

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16. The spectrum from collaborative to controlling
    helps us identify healthy and unhealthy behaviors
    Primarily based on
    

    subscriber needs
    
    
    Collaborate
    

    Clan Culture
    

    “Do things together”
    Control
    

    Hierarchy Culture
    

    “Do things right”
    Unhealthy
    Collaboration
    Unhealthy
    

    Control
    Primarily based on
    

    organization needs
    
    
    Tries to prioritize
    

    everyone’s needs
    

    (serves no-one well)
    Ignores input
    

    from subscribers
    

    (serves no-one well)
    Prioritization
    

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17. The spectrum from collaborative to controlling
    helps us identify healthy and unhealthy behaviors
    Primarily driven
    

    by relationship
    
    
    Collaborate
    

    Clan Culture
    

    “Do things together”
    Control
    

    Hierarchy Culture
    

    “Do things right”
    Unhealthy
    Collaboration
    Unhealthy
    

    Control
    Primarily driven
    

    by incentive
    
    
    Unsustainable
    

    over-support through
    the adoption process
    Unsustainable
    

    non-support through
    the adoption process
    Adoption
    

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18. The spectrum from collaborative to controlling
    helps us identify healthy and unhealthy behaviors
    Intentionally
    fl
    exible
    (extension of the system
    

    is encouraged)
    Collaborate
    

    Clan Culture
    

    “Do things together”
    Control
    

    Hierarchy Culture
    

    “Do things right”
    Unhealthy
    Collaboration
    Unhealthy
    

    Control
    Necessarily restrictive
    (extension of the system
    

    is discouraged)
    
    
    Extreme
    fl
    exibility
    (extension of the
    system is overused)
    Extreme restriction
    (extension of the
    system is forbidden)
    Extension
    

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19. The spectrum from collaborative to controlling
    helps us identify healthy and unhealthy behaviors
    System primarily
    

    adapts to the work
    fl
    ows
    

    of the subscribers
    Collaborate
    

    Clan Culture
    

    “Do things together”
    Control
    

    Hierarchy Culture
    

    “Do things right”
    Unhealthy
    Collaboration
    Unhealthy
    

    Control
    Subscribers primarily
    

    adapt to the approach
    

    of the system
    Extreme accommodation
    for subscriber work
    fl
    ows
    (decision paralysis)
    Lack of accommodation
    for subscriber work
    fl
    ows
    (regular rework)
    Change Management
    

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20. Healthy and unhealthy cultural characteristics
    HEALTHY RANGE
    Collaborative Controlling
    Prioritization
    Driven by subscriber needs Driven by organizations needs
    Tries to serve everyone perfectly,
    

    serving nobody well
    Ignores subscriber input,
    

    serving nobody well
    Change Management
    System adapts to the
    

    work
    fl
    ows of the subscribers
    Subscribers adapt to the
    

    approach of the system
    Extreme accommodation for subscriber
    

    work
    fl
    ows resulting in decision paralysis
    Lack of accommodation for subscriber
    work
    fl
    ows resulting in rework
    Extension
    Intentionally
    fl
    exible,
    

    extension is encouraged
    Necessarily restrictive,
    

    extension is discouraged
    Extension is overused Extension is forbidden
    Adoption
    Driven by relationship Driven by incentive
    Unsustainable over-support,
    

    burning out system team
    Unsustainable lack of support,
    

    frustrating subscriber teams
    

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21. There are four primary types of Organizational
    Culture in the competing values framework
    Focused
    Flexible
    External
    Internal
    Collaborate
    

    Clan Culture
    

    “Do things together”
    Control
    

    Hierarchy Culture
    

    “Do things right”
    Compete
    

    Market Culture
    

    “Do things fast”
    Create
    

    Adhocracy Culture
    

    “Do things
    fi
    rst”
    https://www.thercfgroup.com/
    fi
    les/resources/an_introduction_to_the_competing_values_framework.pdf
    

    View Slide

22. There are four primary types of Organizational
    Culture in the competing values framework
    Focused
    Flexible
    External
    Internal
    Collaborate
    

    Clan Culture
    

    “Do things together”
    Control
    

    Hierarchy Culture
    

    “Do things right”
    Compete
    

    Market Culture
    

    “Do things fast”
    Create
    

    Adhocracy Culture
    

    “Do things
    fi
    rst”
    https://www.thercfgroup.com/
    fi
    les/resources/an_introduction_to_the_competing_values_framework.pdf
    

    View Slide

23. There are four primary types of Organizational
    Culture in the competing values framework
    Focused
    Flexible
    External
    Internal
    Collaborate
    

    Clan Culture
    

    “Do things together”
    Control
    

    Hierarchy Culture
    

    “Do things right”
    Compete
    

    Market Culture
    

    “Do things fast”
    Create
    

    Adhocracy Culture
    

    “Do things
    fi
    rst”
    https://www.thercfgroup.com/
    fi
    les/resources/an_introduction_to_the_competing_values_framework.pdf
    

    View Slide

24. There are four primary types of Organizational
    Culture in the competing values framework
    Focused
    Flexible
    External
    Internal
    Collaborate
    

    Clan Culture
    

    “Do things together”
    Control
    

    Hierarchy Culture
    

    “Do things right”
    Compete
    

    Market Culture
    

    “Do things fast”
    Create
    

    Adhocracy Culture
    

    “Do things
    fi
    rst”
    https://www.thercfgroup.com/
    fi
    les/resources/an_introduction_to_the_competing_values_framework.pdf
    

    View Slide

25. There are four primary types of Organizational
    Culture in the competing values framework
    Focused
    Flexible
    External
    Internal
    Collaborate
    

    Clan Culture
    

    “Do things together”
    Control
    

    Hierarchy Culture
    

    “Do things right”
    Compete
    

    Market Culture
    

    “Do things fast”
    Create
    

    Adhocracy Culture
    

    “Do things
    fi
    rst”
    https://www.thercfgroup.com/
    fi
    les/resources/an_introduction_to_the_competing_values_framework.pdf
    

    View Slide

26. There are four primary types of Organizational
    Culture in the competing values framework
    Focused
    Flexible
    External
    Internal
    Collaborate
    

    Clan Culture
    

    “Do things together”
    Control
    

    Hierarchy Culture
    

    “Do things right”
    Compete
    

    Market Culture
    

    “Do things fast”
    Create
    

    Adhocracy Culture
    

    “Do things
    fi
    rst”
    https://www.thercfgroup.com/
    fi
    les/resources/an_introduction_to_the_competing_values_framework.pdf
    

    View Slide

27. Can the design system
    subculture change the
    

    culture of the organization?
    

    View Slide

28. Basic Underlying Assumptions
    Espoused Beliefs
    Artifacts
    Organizational Culture is
    
    
    made up of three layers
    What you see
    What people say
    What people believe
    Experience
    Create
    http://www.scheinocli.org/
    

    View Slide

29. Your design system won’t
    make your products more
    consistent.
    

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30. People will make
    

    what they want to make.
    

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31. People will make
    

    what they want to make.
    

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32. People will make
    

    what they want to make.
    Your job is to change
    

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33. @bencallahan (on Twitter)
    
    
    https:/
    /sparkbox.com
    
    
    https:/
    /bit.ly/connect-with-ben
    Thank you
    

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34. View Slide