Design systems
EssayBootstrap, Again
shadcn/ui is the best starter kit the web has had in a decade. I think that's exactly why a lot of teams are about to repeat what they did with Bootstrap in 2013.
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Systems thinking with craft, in writing.
Design systems, agentic Figma workflows, and design engineering: plain talk for teams scaling past the point where everyone knows everyone.
Nothing in this set yet.
Design systems
ShortPut the decision beside the frame
Figma Specs puts the written decision on the canvas, next to the frame. The doc the agent cannot see is the doc that gets ignored.
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Design systems
ShortWrite the anti-patterns the agent will read
Guidelines on a published library go to the agent when that library is on. Write the anti-patterns. Keep the file short. Extra context can spend credits.
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Agentic workflows
ShortIf the agent cannot see the package, it draws a new button
Code sources attach a GitHub repo or an npm package to the library. Closed beta, a small group. If you are not in it, write the prop names into the guidelines file now.
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Agentic workflows
ShortMCP can place the layer. The review is still yours.
MCP can create a code layer and edit a spec. Plan limits still apply. The merge still happens in the repo, in review.
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Design systems
ShortConnect both GitHub orgs before you ask the agent to use the system
As of 5 Oct, Organization and Enterprise plans can connect more than one GitHub organization to the same Figma plan. Do that before you ask the agent to use the system.
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Agentic workflows
ShortPayload is a prototype with a backend
Payload scaffolds a backend inside Figma Make and code layers. Treat it as a prototype. The system you govern is still the library, the guidelines, and the package.
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Design systems
ShortOne Q1 list for design and engineering
Five items design and engineering can finish before January. The centralized design system object stays off the list until you can open the map.
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Design systems
ShortAI credits are a budget line now
The agent spends credits. Guidelines add context to the call. Specs spend. Code layers are free on paid plans only through 4 Nov. Someone has to own that number.
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Design systems
ShortLeave the design-system preview off the Q1 roadmap
The object that holds the library, the code, and the guidelines is still a preview. Leave it off the Q1 roadmap until you can open the map.
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Design systems
ShortWhat Figma's October means for your next quarter
On 15 Oct, Figma put a library, a code source, and guidelines on the same map. What is on, what is still a preview, and what I would put on a Q1 list.
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Design systems
ShortBootstrap, again
shadcn/ui is a better start than Bootstrap ever was. Owning the files is still not owning the decisions. Use it as scaffolding, then build the system only you could build.
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Agentic workflows
EssayDepth Doesn't Fan Out
Agents let a design system team work on everything at once. The decisions that matter most still need someone to stay with one problem for days, and fewer of us get to do that.
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Design systems
ShortA year of design system learnings
365 shorts, one for each day of 2026. Open the day you are on. July finishes the forms. December is the upkeep.
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Agentic workflows
EssayFast by Default, Slow on Purpose
Agents have given every designer a second System 1, one that never gets tired. That makes slow thinking worth more than it was, and a design system is the best place I know to keep it.
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Design engineering
ShortThe ROI of design-dev collaboration
Leadership funds systems when you speak in rework avoided, not better Figma. Four cost buckets you can estimate this week.
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Design engineering
ShortHandoff is a teamwork problem
Better specs won't fix handoff if design and engineering don't share rituals, language, and trust.
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Design engineering
ShortDesign × development collaboration
Handoff fights are a teamwork problem before they're a tooling problem. Shared language, rituals, and ROI.
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Design engineering
ShortThe craft is business and syntax
I led Aurora, used by dozens of teams and millions of users. The work was never only pixels, it was reducing friction so teams could scale, govern, and ship.
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Design engineering
ShortThe inconsistency tax
One consistency fix cut reclamations ~90%. Quick hacks compound; so do systems, pick which compounding you want.
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Design engineering
ShortComponent architecture 101
Primitives, compositions, features, governance, draw the boundaries so squads don't fork into a junk drawer.
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Design engineering
ShortPerformance is a design-system outcome
Lighthouse 34 to 77 wasn't magic. Part of it was system discipline, fewer one-offs, less CSS chaos.
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Design engineering
ShortBeyond the single source of truth myth
One JSON in a drawer nobody opens isn't governance. Synchronized sources with automated drift detection are what actually ship.
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Design engineering
ShortDesign engineering vs front-end
Same tools often: React, TypeScript, Tailwind. Different outcome: intent surviving scale, not just features shipped.
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Agentic workflows
ShortCollaborative AI: you direct, the agent structures
Bad collaboration lets the agent invent the product. Good collaboration compresses the tax, so you spend time on taste and adoption.
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Agentic workflows
ShortThe planner, executor pattern for complex UI
Big UI fails in one-shot prompts. Structure first with a planner agent, ship task-by-task with an executor, you keep governance.
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Agentic workflows
ShortFigma as an API
Figma isn't a picture of your product. It's layers, variables, components, and agents that diff tokens against your repo.
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Agentic workflows
ShortThe end of manual handover
Your designers export PNGs. Your engineers guess what you meant. Agentic workflows make the seam machine-readable, tokens, structure, intent.
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