Design operations
Scaling design systems for blended teams
Governance and rituals for distributed design systems shipping across web, native, and marketing touchpoints.
- Design Ops
- Collaboration
Create a single source of intent
Component libraries aren’t enough. You need a north-star narrative describing who the system serves, where it’s used, and how decisions are made. At Adex we co-create a product manifesto that orients every contribution back to user needs.
This becomes the onboarding path for agencies, contractors, and vendors. Within two weeks they should know the tokens, component rules, and contribution path.
Artifacts we rely on
- Design system map linking products, surfaces, and KPIs.
- Decision log capturing tradeoffs and rationale for component variants.
- Contribution ladder making expectations explicit for internal and external makers.
Distribute ownership without chaos
We structure blended squads with clear swimlanes: core system, feature pod, and go-to-market. Every change requests a design review, code review, and documentation update. The key is keeping these cycles lightweight—ship weekly, not quarterly.
Rotating maintainers ensure fresh eyes on governance. Pair those rotations with automated quality gates to maintain consistency.
Celebrate adoption, not velocity
Track the percentage of product surface area using the system, not just components shipped. Every month we host a demo day featuring before/after stories from squads. It’s the antidote to rogue forks.