Design systems aren't just for big companies
The phrase 'design system' conjures images of dedicated teams and hundred-page documentation sites. But the version that delivers most of the value fits in a single Figma file and an afternoon of setup.
Our minimal system has four parts: color tokens (semantic, not descriptive — 'surface' and 'accent', never 'light-gray-2'), a type scale (five sizes is almost always enough), a spacing scale, and a small set of composed components: button, input, card.
The payoff arrives fast. By the third screen, designers stop making micro-decisions and start assembling. Handoff friction drops because engineers map tokens directly to CSS variables. And when the brand refreshes — as every brand eventually does — the change is a token edit, not a redesign.
We now include this setup in every project's discovery phase by default. It's the cheapest insurance policy in product development.