Showerthought: Why we pushed back on building a complete UI kit upfront

Honestly, on my last gig, there was this huge push to craft every button, card, and form field in our style guide before we even started the app. Tbh, I completely disagreed because I remembered a past mess where we spent months polishing parts nobody used. Ngl, it got pretty heated in our meetings when I kept saying we should start small. I had to sit down with the project leads and explain how waiting for feedback from actual users would save us time. They were convinced a full kit would make things faster, but I argued it often leads to rework. We agreed to launch with just the core pieces and see what stuck. Now, looking back, adding bits as we needed them kept our process flexible and less stressful. It was a tough call, but seeing the project move smoothly proved my point.

2 comments

2 Comments

burns.brooke6h ago

Started with a simple system and only added parts when we got stuck. It kept the team from wasting time on stuff that never got used.

sarah_ross5h ago

Yeah that "only added parts when we got stuck" move is key. It stops teams from building extras way before they actually need them.