A design system that lives only in Figma is a wish list. A design system shipped as a versioned package is a contract.
Our rule on every engagement: tokens originate in one place — usually a Style Dictionary config — and compile out to platform targets. Tailwind for web, JSON for native, CSS variables for legacy.
When designers want to change a color, they change one source value. The package republishes. Every product that pins the latest version picks it up on the next deploy.
We pair this with Storybook stories that double as component contracts. If the story renders, the component renders. If the visual regression test passes, the contract holds.
On the Lumen Retail engagement, this loop took new screens from a 9-month average to a 9-day average. The 'design system' wasn't the magic. The publish loop was.
