What a Design System Actually Is (Explained by Someone Who Builds One)

About this episode

The episode explores the true nature of design systems and their importance in product development.

Most people think a design system is a Figma file with some brand colors and button styles. It's not. It's the infrastructure that connects how your brand looks to how your product actually gets built, maintained, and scaled. In this episode, Symon and Marcello are joined by Avi Debnath, a senior product designer at Intuit who works on the design platform serving TurboTax, Mailchimp, and QuickBooks. Together they unpack what a design system actually contains, how real teams use one, why governance is the part nobody wants to talk about, and what mid-market companies should know before building their own. This is Part 2 of a 3-part series on design systems.

People in this episode

Hosts: Symon, Marcello

Guest: Avi Debnath

Topics covered

• design systems
• product design
• brand governance
• mid-market companies
• design infrastructure

Keywords

• design system
• Figma
• brand colors
• button styles
• product maintenance
• scaling
• governance

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Intuit

Products: TurboTax, Mailchimp, QuickBooks

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