Are you a Design System designer or Design System product manager, who is frequently asked why the system “can’t do this” or “doesn’t do that”? And do you just respond with “we are aware”? Then this article is for you.

What is design system maturity?

Design system (DS) maturity is a subjective scale of how developed / experienced a company’s design system is.

Factors of DS maturity

Not an extensive list by any means, but design system usefulness, adoption, complexity, and comprehensiveness all factor into maturity.

Non-factors of DS maturity

Company maturity and product maturity have no bearing on DS maturity. A company can be 20 years old with an established product, but have no design system. Conversely, a startup company could have built out a DS in parallel with its product. Neither of these situations are “good” or “bad”, just prove the point.

Stages of maturity

Thee stages (and their definitions) below should be used as a starting point, and refined to fit your company’s style.

Stage 1: Absence

A lot of software companies never get to the point of wanting or needing a design system. It’s not for everyone, and especially may not be needed at a startup.

At this stage:

• Teams (if there are even teams) are pretty siloed when it comes to designing and developing features.
• There may be some form of a component library on the design or engineering side, but this probably spawned from a passion project or learning opportunity. Many may not even know about it.

Stage 2: Acknowledgment

Leadership and/or powerful players realize the need for a design system, but have yet to put resources (people / money / time) into it.

At this stage:

• Most of design and engineering are starting to realize they need some sort of system in place.
• Whispers of product…