The biggest differentiator between great #DesignSystems and mediocre ones has nothing to do with components, tokens, voice/tone, or even design principles.
The thing that separates great from good are the governance & maintenance strategies.
By “governance” I don’t mean “enforcement”. That has no place in any mature design system.
What I mean is how do you continually enhance the design system so it works to continue solving the needs of its users. How do you make it a living, breathing thing with contribution from teams across the enterprise?
Many design systems teams try to make all the decisions and roll out changes whenever they think they’re appropriate. That doesn’t work well.
You need constant feedback and contribution from your community of designers and developers.
Because it’s a product for products, design systems should take their operational inspiration from open source communities rather than top-down product companies.
Creating a “DS Librarian” or “Congress” is one great way of accomplishing this.