Serious question, has anyone else had a design system audit go sideways?

We did one for a client in Denver last quarter and it uncovered a dozen different button components. The lead dev just looked at the report and said, 'We built a forest, not a system.' How do you even start to clean that up?

3 comments

3 Comments

evana712mo ago

Honestly, the forest comment is spot on. But that report is just a list of trees. Did anyone figure out why it grew that way in the first place? Like, was there no process for making new components, or did every new team lead just decide to start their own thing? You can't fix the mess without knowing what broke.

tyler8222mo agoMost Upvoted

Wait, they never even asked why?

casey_campbell6d ago

The way I've seen it work is one person just started saying no to new components unless someone could prove the existing ones were totally broken. Did your team ever try that kind of hard cutoff?