Deliver progress or die
How to convince leadership to (keep) funding Design Systems
So you got funding to invest in a Design System. Hooray! That’s a major achievement. But as the months tick by and company priorities shift, how do you make sure your Design System project survives?
Convincing leadership to invest in Design Systems in the first place is tough. But that’s not enough to get the job done. Design Systems are a continual effort. They’re never really finished. Of course, as Design System enthusiasts, we understand the value we’re creating. But for those on the outside looking in, it might not be so obvious. That’s why it’s our job to continually deliver progress to our audience. Much like a shark swimming in water, if we stop swimming, we die.
But how do you deliver progress? And to whom? And what does ‘progress’ even mean here?
Leaders and Makers
It takes effort to communicate progress, so it’s important to be really clear about who your audience is. For most companies, your ideal audience is going to fit into two groups: leadership and makers. Leadership represents more of a ‘top down’ approach, while makers represent the ‘bottom up’. However, you need both of these groups to keep a Design System project going.
Makers are your ultimate audience. These are your designers and your engineers. They’re the ones using the Design System and without them there’s really no point. As such, if they’re not convinced your team is doing good things, forget about making any progress, much less communicating it.
Leadership, on the other hand, holds the purse strings. They’re ultimately in charge of what gets funded and what gets scratched. If your team fails to deliver results to them, they’re going to ask (rightly so), ‘why should we keep investing?’
Convincing leaders
This is a job without end. And one that you ignore at your own peril. It’s not enough to convince leadership to fund a Design System project. You have to convince them to keep funding it.
How do you do that? You deliver progress. And not just any progress…high level progress.
For example, leaders are unlikely to care about details such as how many components you created this month. Far better to demonstrate how the Design System is affecting the company’s bottom line. And if you can do this in the form of KPIs, even better.
A few examples of KPIs that might resonate with leaders are:
Reducing the employee hours required to do X by 45%
Increasing overall accessibility and quality for customers by 50%
Raising satisfaction for the new employee onboarding experience by 60%
Remember to focus on what the Design System already accomplished. That way you’re simply asking to continue the great work you’ve already started. This is a stronger position than asking for support for something you haven’t done yet.
And lastly, remember that everyone has a boss. Whoever you’re talking to has convince their superior that Design Systems are worth the continued investment. Make sure you give them the appropriate ammo to be successful.
Convincing makers
Leadership may hold the purse strings, but makers determine whether your Design System will even work. After all, a Design System that no one uses is really just a collection of documents having an existential crisis. As such, makers need to be energized just as much as leaders. And they need to see that you’re making continual progress.
However, convincing makers is a different game from convincing leaders. For starters, they often fall into two separate camps: Designers and Engineers. Both groups care about similar types of things, but each have their own unique perspective.
Either way, when you’re talking to makers, KPIs are a useful a tool. But, unlike leaders, makers are going to care about KPIs that are both high level as well as in the weeds.
While makers are likely to care about the same thing leaders care about, they’re also likely to care about more detail oriented stats like:
Increasing the number of components that are available from X to Y
Increasing the satisfaction rate of designer/engineer handoffs by 80%
Increasing the adoption rate of Design System libraries to 90%
Tailoring your content to match your audience will ultimately define your success in energizing your team.
The ‘when’ and ‘how’
While there really isn’t a set answer for how often to meet with leaders and makers, I find that once a month is a good starting point. Because leaders and makers are very different audiences, I tend to meet with each group separately.
While this may sound like a lot of meetings, it’s difficult to avoid. Design Systems aren’t made in a vacuum. They require funding and adoption.
When presenting to leadership, it’s good to go as far up the totem pole as you can. Reducing the number of bosses that need to be convinced is never a bad thing. But remember that the higher you go, the less time people have. So keep your presentations short, sweet and to the point. The golden rule: don’t waste anyone’s time and they’ll show up at your next meeting.
With makers, you can afford to get a bit more detailed. In addition to demonstrating progress, this is a good time to alert people to new releases and encourage any feedback. You can even treat this time as a sort of brown bag. That being said, running your meetings efficiently will help ensure that no one is tempted to answer email at the same time.
Whatever you do, cater to your audience. Ask yourself what they would be interested in…not what you think they should know. Do this and you’ll find that you have your team and leadership’s ongoing support.
