What do most design system teams think is the first step in their journey of a thousand miles? The first no-brainer component that you're supposed to tackle when you work on a design system?

You probably thought, “Button. That’s where we begin.” And you’d be wrong.

Yes, every design system needs a button. Yes, buttons are basic components.

But here’s the thing about buttons: If you go to product teams — especially after you’ve explained the benefits of a design system in a language that’s meaningful to them and their goals — they’re going to laugh you out of the room.

They don’t need another team to give them a proposal for systematizing buttons, colors, and all the details that do absolutely nothing to accomplish something that advances your organization’s mission.

Uber's mission statement is: “We reimagined the way the world moves for the better.”

The question that every team at Uber should be asking to keep them on track is: How can our team's feature or product re-imagine the way that the world moves for the better?

Begin with the end in mind

One of the key principles in Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People is “Begin with the end in mind.” You can see how Uber’s mission statement connects to its design teams with this exact thought.

Buttons have nothing to do with results. Yes, you’ll need them. But that’s not where you begin.

Instead, begin each day, each task, each project, each component, each page, and each pattern with a clear vision of your desired direction and destination.

Asking the right questions specific to your organization

So how do you find “the end” in your organization?

Come back to the mission and vision statements. Whatever the mission of your organization, whether it’s profitability or something else, you need to tie the benefits of a design system to that purpose.

When you can do that, you’re taking ownership of some of that heavy lifting from the mission and vision of the company. And that’s where your design system begins.

Connecting design and engineering components as a functional unit

If you’re not designing buttons, then what should your initial deliverables look like?

When most designers think about the components of a design system, we think about a user interface kit made in tools like Figma or Sketch.

In these platforms, you’ll see each individual component as if they were spread across a table.

These components are useful, but only when we see every component working together.

And by “working,” I mean functional.

Designs only function because the engineering team works their code wizardry.

Design systems that are products need some way of connecting reusable component code to digital products that end-customers interact with, and component libraries are the most common way to do that.

The engineering equivalent of a User Interface kit is a component, or pattern, library.

Component systems are reusable snippets of code, so a component library is a collection of code snippets where you can browse examples and references for implementation into a codebase.

“Dan — you still haven’t answered my question. Where do we start?”

So now you know that buttons are the wrong place to begin. You understand that where you begin must carry some of your organization’s mission and vision. And you understand that engineering and design tools must be connected and functional — as in working together.

But that doesn’t narrow things down enough.

And while I can’t answer the specific problem your team needs to be solving — so that you get mad buy-in on your design system — I can help you narrow your priorities just a bit more.

Tackle the ugliest, meanest opponent in your organization

By opponent, I don’t mean “person.” In your case, the opponent is a nasty problem or challenge in your organization.

Think about it this way: When the bad guy in a movie gets thrown into a prison cell block, what’s the first challenge they face?

Getting bullied by the biggest, baddest, and meanest dude on the cell block. The new inmate has to challenge that guy pretty quickly — and he has to win. Otherwise, he’ll never earn the respect of his fellow inmates.

The same thing applies to design systems that work.

You begin with one of the most complex, nastiest, most intimidating components of the company. And you do so in a way that is immediately impactful to the core values of your organization.

Now you’re going to earn respect.

Respect gets you to cultural transformation. And that’s where design systems flourish.