How Not to Build a Design System: Lessons from the Trenches, 26 September | Event in Leeds | AllEvents

How Not to Build a Design System: Lessons from the Trenches

Skipton Group

Highlights

Fri, 26 Sep, 2025 at 10:00 am

1 hour

1 Whitehall Quay

Free Tickets Available

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Date & Location

Fri, 26 Sep, 2025 at 10:00 am to 11:00 am (GMT+01:00)

1 Whitehall Quay

1 Whitehall Quay, Leeds, United Kingdom

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About the event

How Not to Build a Design System: Lessons from the Trenches
Building a design system is often portrayed as a clean, linear process—but the reality is far messier.

About this Event

In this candid and practical talk, we’ll walk through the wrong turns, unexpected hurdles, and hard-earned lessons from our journey of creating a design system while simultaneously building the applications it was meant to support.

From struggling to get stakeholder buy-in, to the chaos of naming design tokens, to the challenge of aligning teams across design and engineering—we’ll share the missteps that slowed us down, the compromises we had to make, and what we’d do differently if we could start over.

This talk is for anyone who’s in the thick of building a design system (or thinking about starting one) and wants to learn from real-world experience—not just the polished case studies. Expect honest stories, practical takeaways, and a few laughs along the way.

At the end of the talk, they’ll be time for questions and refreshments will be available

Key Takeaways:

  • Why timing and communication are everything when introducing a design system
  • How naming things (especially tokens) can become a surprisingly big blocker
  • The pitfalls of building the plane while flying it—developing the system and apps in parallel
  • What finally helped us gain traction and alignment across teams

Event Location: CGI, 1 Whitehall Quay Leeds LS1 4HR

Refreshments: will be provided, more information to follow.


If you have any questions or require support, please reach out to TGVlZHNEaWdpdGFsRmVzdGl2YWwgfCBza2lwdG9uICEgY28gISB1aw==



Agenda


🕑: 09:30 AM - 10:00 AM
Arrivals & Networking

🕑: 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Presentation

🕑: 11:00 AM - 11:30 AM
Q&A

🕑: 11:30 AM
Event Close


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Ticket Info

Tickets for How Not to Build a Design System: Lessons from the Trenches can be booked here.

Ticket type Ticket price
General Admission Free
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Event Tags

Nearby Hotels

1 Whitehall Quay, 1 Whitehall Quay, Leeds, United Kingdom
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Host Details

Skipton Group

Skipton Group

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How Not to Build a Design System: Lessons from the Trenches, 26 September | Event in Leeds | AllEvents
How Not to Build a Design System: Lessons from the Trenches
Fri, 26 Sep, 2025 at 10:00 am
Free