No! Design Systems designers don’t just create components all day.

I talk to many product designers who are interested in focusing on the design systems side of things.

Many ask me, “Do you just create components, Establish foundations, and write documentation all day?”

There seems to be this misconception among designers who don’t have much information about design systems that this is what I do all day.

I’m unsure if it comes from online courses or boot camps.

Yes, we do work on these things throughout our week…

However, I typically spend a lot of time throughout my working day in Figma files with the product designers on my team who are utilizing the design system I’m building for feature work.

I’m helping them use the components properly and educating them so they can design their screens for their sprints.

I’m watching and asking questions to see if there are any frustrations or tension with what we currently have in the library and looking to see if we need to expand our variants.

This is one of the parts of being a design systems designer that I find very helpful, rewarding, and exciting. I see the tool I’ve poured so many hours into being adopted and used to build products and meet business goals.

Yes, we create components, establish foundations, and write lots of documentation and rules, but being a design systems designer is much more than that.

It’s what Joey Banks told me once, “We are customer service people for our designers.” We get to educate and teach those on our team how to utilize the tool we are building correctly so they can easily build their features.