Design system workflows break quietly — through slow decisions, invisible ownership, naming inconsistencies, and processes that grow heavier than the work they support. Key metrics to track workflow health include time-to-contribution, contribution volume, team satisfaction, documentation completeness, decision-making speed, and system adoption. Common failure patterns include single points of failure in decision-making, undocumented components, naming mismatches across Figma/code/docs, and over-engineered processes. As teams grow, governance must evolve from informal communication to structured RFCs and decision logs — but equally important is removing outdated processes when adding new ones. The goal is a workflow that's observable, adaptable, and trusted by everyone contributing to it.
