Episode 080 Deep Dive: Visualizing Design System Health with Ben Callahan, Robin Di Capua, and Taylor Cashdan

Ben Callahan is joined by Robin Di Capua and Taylor Cashdan, members of the Redwoods Design System Community who spent nearly a year building the Redwoods Compass. Robin has worked as a designer since 2009, has focused on systems since 2016, and recently joined the design system team at GetYourGuide in Zurich. Taylor has spent six years as a systems practitioner across enterprise, startup, and consulting teams.

The survey went to more than 1,100 practitioners and received 52 responses to two questions, plus a spider chart homework assignment. During the session, participants took the Compass live and compared their gut-check charts with its results. The conversation covers voluntary adoption versus mandates, surprising gaps between charts, legacy systems in the public sector, taking the Compass as a team, and where community fits in the framework.

Show Notes
00:04 — Welcome and sponsors
01:09 — zeroheight's maturity model and the Redwoods Compass
02:47 — The survey questions and spider chart homework
05:05 — "None tell me whether the programme is healthy"
05:58 — Origin story: from readiness to health
07:25 — The six Compass categories
09:44 — Setting up the FigJam exercise
12:32 — Taking the Compass: Authority
14:55 — Alignment
17:44 — Resource Lifecycle
19:06 — People
21:02 — Investment
21:33 — Infrastructure
23:54 — Defining design system health
24:31 — Voluntary use and fit as health signals
25:28 — Jesse Gardner on resisting a mandate at New York State
27:14 — Comparing spider charts
30:06 — Leo Vogel on ChatGPT's estimate vs. the Compass
30:58 — Mike Polowick on a drastic gap in People
33:34 — Jesse Gardner on legacy sites and public sector funding
34:54 — Taking the Compass as a team
37:43 — System health vs. effectiveness for your product
39:09 — Using divergence to surface expectations
40:35 — "Too busy" as unrecorded health work
41:59 — Jeremy on quick vs. considered answers
44:59 — A memorable survey answer and four acquisitions
45:49 — Mike Polowick on where community fits
48:19 — zeroheight panel and wrap-up

Where to Find the Hosts
Ben Callahan is Founder of Sparkbox (https://sparkbox.com) and Redwoods Design System Community (https://joinredwoods.com). Read his writings, have him present at your event, or engage with him as a coach or consultant at https://bencallahan.com

Robin Di Capua is a designer on the design system team at GetYourGuide in Zurich. Connect with him on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3VYboQI

Taylor Cashdan is a design systems practitioner who has worked across enterprise, startup, and consulting teams. Connect with him on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/4cZhbKq

Get the Raw Data
Access the complete survey data from Episode 080 to conduct your own analysis: https://bit.ly/4c18Fx5

Review the FigJam Notes
Dig into the collaborative notes we took as a community during the deep dive: https://bit.ly/4wZmHH7

Join the Conversation
The Question explores design systems topics through community research and deep-dive discussions. Participate in future episodes and contribute to the next survey: https://bit.ly/answerTheQuestion

Music licensed through Soundstripe.
Code: PC5Z0DRTDVMQITVR