It Takes a Village: Building Organizational Buy-In For Your Design System

In working with clients on design system projects (and in our annual Design Systems Survey), we see again and again how building buy-in across an organization is one of the greatest challenges that organizations face with their design systems. In this presentation, Lina shares why building organizational buy-in is critical for a design system, how to go about building that buy-in, and a success story of one of our clients.

Transcript

1. It Takes a Village:
   Building Organization Buy-In For Your Design System
   

   View Slide

2. Lina Calin, Project
   Manager
   

   View Slide

3. View Slide

4. 1. Why building buy-in for your design
   system is important
   2. How to build buy-in for your design system
   3. A real world example of building
   organizational buy-in
   Agenda
   

   View Slide

5. Why is Buy-In Important?
   

   View Slide

6. View Slide

7. 
   
   +
   
   +
   
   

   View Slide

8. ● Buy-in shows us we built the right thing.
   ● Buy-in shows us we built it the right way.
   ● Buy-in leads us towards a better user
   experience.
   

   View Slide

9. Steps to Build Investment
   

   View Slide

10. 1. Document
    your “why”
    
    

    View Slide

11. ‘Why’
    ■ What existing problems will your design system
    solve?
    ■ What future problems can the design system
    mitigate?
    ■ What other benefits can a design system bring?
    

    View Slide

12. Document your
    “why”
    Have an immediate example of a problem
    a design system will solve
    

    View Slide

13. 2. Build allies
    

    View Slide

14. Build allies
    1. Pick someone(s) powerful and influential
    2. Pick someone(s) who, with access to a design system,
    will have a lot of impact
    3. Pick someone(s) who can explain the technical
    benefits
    

    View Slide

15. 3. Identify key
    stakeholders
    
    

    View Slide

16. View Slide

17. 4. Understand
    limitations &
    requirements
    ☑
    

    View Slide

18. Understand the build requirements
    ➔ Any features need to get
    to integration quicker?
    ➔ Any needs of your allies
    that should be
    prioritized?
    ● Tech-specific or
    tech-agnostic?
    ● Budget constraints?
    ● Urgency?
    

    View Slide

19. 5. Make a
    support plan
    
    

    View Slide

20. Support Plan
    ● Platform & browser support
    ● Regular newsletter with updates
    ● Dedicated Slack channel
    ● “Office hours” with support team
    ● Versioning
    ● Documented process for contribution
    ● Regular user surveys
    

    View Slide

21. “Your technical approach doesn’t
    matter as much as creating a living,
    breathing system that’s flexible,
    maintainable, stable, scalable, and
    successful in the long-term.”
    - Katie Sylor-Miller, Senior Software Engineer –
    Design Systems at Etsy
    

    View Slide

22. Case: University of Georgia
    

    View Slide

23. View Slide

24. Document your “why”
    

    View Slide

25. Build allies & identify key
    stakeholders
    
    

    View Slide

26. “It's helpful to recognize that you don't have
    to get everyone's buy-in all at once. But you
    do want to be strategic about who you build
    your partnerships with and in what order.”
    - Nancy Byron | Marketing and Communications
    Manager - UGA Online Learning
    

    View Slide

27. Understand limitations of the
    project
    
    ⭐
    
    

    View Slide

28. Results
    
    

    View Slide

29. Buy-In +
    Growing
    

    View Slide

30. View Slide

31. Thank you
    

    View Slide