Design · 7 min read
Design systems that survive handover
A system nobody maintains is documentation. Here's what makes one stick after the agency leaves.
Rhea KapoorCreative Director · 4 March 2026
Takeaways
- Ship tokens and contribution rules, not only components.
- Name an owner inside the client team before launch day.
- Make the correct path the easiest path in code.
01
Tokens before components
If colour and spacing live in one place, a rebrand is an afternoon. If they live in 200 components, it's a project.
“A system nobody maintains is just very tidy documentation.”
02
Write the rejection rules
Document what the system is not for. Systems die from unprincipled additions, not from missing components.
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