Ship a Design System in Production
14 weeks · 0 milestones
Build and document a component library used by at least one production product — tokens, components, and usage guidelines.
Milestone map
Milestone map
3 milestones
A design system is a product, not a library. Before building, audit the current product UI for inconsistencies and produce an architecture document answering: what are the design tokens, how do components relate to patterns, how will versioning work, and how will adoption happen without a big-bang rewrite. This milestone satisfies the Engineering Design Triad: design artifact.
Proof required
Submit: (a) a UI audit of the existing product identifying 5–10 component inconsistencies or duplicate implementations that the system will resolve, with screenshots, (b) the system architecture document (minimum 1,500 words) covering: token architecture (colour, spacing, typography at minimum), component hierarchy, versioning strategy, and incremental adoption roadmap, and (c) decision records for the two most significant architectural decisions explaining why alternatives were rejected.
What gets checked
- UI audit identifies specific instances with screenshots — not general statements about 'inconsistent spacing'
- Architecture document answers all four questions: tokens, hierarchy, versioning, adoption
- Decision records state why alternatives were rejected