April 13, 2022
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Ryan Peterson
Your design system’s success is predicated on bottom-to-top buy-in: not just from practitioners—the ones using it every day—but leadership, too. However, while there’s a wealth of design system resources for practitioners, leaders are often left out of the design system discussion. How are you supposed to prioritize design system usage when no one’s taking the time to explain their worth from a leader's perspective?
We are. Meet Patterns, a three-day retreat for design, engineering, and product leaders to come together and:
Want to be one of the 50 attendees or nominate someone else to join? Go here. Want the full backstory behind Patterns? Read on.
Since Knapsack’s inception, we’ve been singularly focused on one thing: design systems. From the years of focus on design systems and the people who work with them, one observation stands out from the rest: the design systems that deliver all the benefits people love talking about—brand consistency, accessibility, speed to market, cost savings, etc—do so because the practitioners and leaders are equally committed to operating in a systems-based culture. Companies that adopt design system-informed processes see breakthroughs within and outside of the design system itself.
Design, engineering, and product teams have been designing and building products the same way for decades: designers create high-fidelity comps for developers to try to recreate with code. This approach works, kind of, but it also leads to unavoidable time wasted on mundane button- and pixel-pushing, instead of the work that actually increases ROI.
Setting aside design systems for a moment, there are a combination of factors at play today that impact every companies that delivers value to customers through digital experiences. Those factors include:
As companies compete in markets that are increasingly saturated for forever-decreasing profit margins, to win the digital product game, design, engineering, and product leaders need to deliver results across a variety of priorities:
The best design system won’t solve all of these problems on its own, but it will help you solve many. Building a culture based on collaboration and creative ideation will not only support people goals like retention and recruitment, but also innovation and market differentiation.
For the leader who wants to learn about design systems, there’s a noticeable lack of resources—but we want to change that.
Meet Patterns, the design systems conference for leaders.
Patterns is a curated retreat-style event in serene Santa Fe, New Mexico. We’ve designed Patterns for design, engineering, and product leaders who find themselves without time to spare for creativity or restorative activities. Patterns takes leaders out of their day-to-day rhythms by bringing them together at a one-of-a-kind venue and engaging their creativity via an immersive three-day experience. You can expect:
If you found yourself nodding along as you read this post, we’d love to have you be on of the 50 attendees joining us at Patterns. Go here to apply—hope to see you in Santa Fe!