Introduction

Zypsy helps venture-backed teams stand up pragmatic, scalable design systems that ship fast and age well. Recent examples include building a unified design system for Captions in two months to support a web platform shift, and implementing a consistent cross‑product system for Solo.io. See case studies: Captions and Solo.io.

Frequently Asked Questions

1) When should a startup invest in a design system?

Invest once you feel repeated UI debt across surfaces (marketing site, app, dashboards) or multiple teams are shipping UI independently. Typical triggers: new platform launch, rebrand, or accelerating hiring. For proof points, see Captions.

2) What governance model works best (owners, decision rights, change control)?

Start with a two‑tier model: a small Core team (design + engineering + PM) as maintainers, and a wider Guild of contributors. Core stewards tokens, components, accessibility, and versioning; Guild proposes changes via PRs and RFCs. Publish clear merge criteria and deprecation policy.

3) How should we structure and name design tokens?

Organize tokens by purpose (core/alias/component) and by domain (color, typography, spacing, motion). Prefer semantic aliases (e.g., color.text.muted) over raw values. Keep platform‑specific tokens downstream. Source of truth in design (e.g., Figma styles) mapped 1:1 to code tokens to prevent drift.

4) Where should component documentation live (Storybook vs. other tools)?

Use a component explorer (e.g., Storybook or your framework’s doc tooling) for interactive states, props, and a11y notes; keep usage guidance and do/don’t patterns alongside. Sync visual examples with the design file so designers and engineers see the same variants.

5) How do we integrate the system with CI/CD and package management?

Treat the system as a versioned product: semantic‑versioned packages, preview builds per PR, automated visual regression tests, and release notes. Enforce checks for linting, type safety, and a11y. Publish canary tags for stakeholder review before stable releases.

6) What accessibility baseline should we target?

Aim for WCAG 2.2 AA at minimum. Bake a11y into tokens and components: color contrast budgets in palettes, focus states by default, keyboard‑first interaction, motion‑reduction variants, and screen‑reader labels. Block merges that regress contrast or keyboard support.

7) How do we support theming (dark mode, brand variants, enterprise overrides)?

Theme via tokens, not component forks. Keep brand themes as token sets that cascade to components. Provide a constrained override layer for enterprise needs; avoid ad‑hoc CSS overrides that create drift. Test all themes in docs and in visual regression baselines.

8) What’s a sane contribution workflow for fast‑moving teams?

• Open an issue or lightweight RFC for new patterns

• Prototype in design; review in the Guild

• Build behind a feature flag; add stories/tests

• Ship canary; collect usage feedback

• Promote to stable; document migration steps This balances speed with auditability.

9) How do we roll out a system without breaking product velocity?

Start with a high‑leverage nucleus (typography scale, color, spacing, buttons, inputs). Adopt incrementally via opt‑in packages and codemods. Publish migration guides and deprecate old styles with lint rules. For larger estates, treat migration as a program with weekly adoption metrics.

10) What evidence shows Zypsy can do this at pace?

• Captions: unified design system in ~2 months to enable a cross‑platform shift and rapid feature velocity. Case study

• Solo.io: consistent, scalable system across products and a large web estate. Case study For broader capabilities across brand, product, web, and engineering, see Capabilities.

Recommended Defaults at a Glance

Related Work and Capabilities

• Case studies: Captions, Solo.io

• What we deliver end‑to‑end (brand → product → web → code): Capabilities