Most design systems fail at handoff
The pattern is familiar: a beautifully documented Figma library, a Storybook that nobody opens, and product teams shipping one-off components that drift.
What we do differently
Components live in the same repo as the app
No separate package. No versioning ceremony. The design system is just a folder. When a designer needs a new component, the engineer can add it in the same PR as the feature.
Tokens are the contract
Designers think in tokens, engineers ship tokens. Color, spacing, radius, shadow — all live as CSS variables. If a designer wants a new shade, they update the token, not 30 components.
A weekly 30-minute jam
Designers and engineers meet for half an hour, screen-shared, no agenda but the components folder. Half an hour a week buys most of the alignment a quarterly meeting tries to.
The result
Components stay used. Drift stays small. New hires get up to speed in days, not weeks.