Design Systems Burned Me Out

What looked like the dream project turned into a quiet grind — and taught me more about boundaries, trust, and the human side of systems than any design doc ever could.

Nov 21, 2023

Lilac Flower
Lilac Flower

I didn’t expect it to be exhausting. At first, it felt like the perfect kind of project: high impact, highly visible, and a chance to solve problems at scale. The kind of work that looks great on a portfolio. The kind that finally justifies all those messy Figma files, rogue buttons, and weirdly named text styles.

But somewhere along the way, it stopped feeling like design.

I was spending more time in meetings than in Figma. More time managing opinions than managing components. What started as a clear goal—unify the UI, improve consistency, reduce rework—turned into a blurry mess of priorities. One team wanted velocity, another wanted control, and leadership just wanted to know when they could “see it.” And underneath all of it, I was quietly drowning in Slack threads, documentation debt, and the creeping feeling that I’d become more of a design system therapist than a designer.

The hardest part wasn’t the technical stuff. It was the in-between stuff: the vague asks, the unclear ownership, the endless negotiation. I was constantly translating between teams, trying to get buy-in without overpromising, trying to document standards no one had actually agreed on yet.

And then there was the emotional weight. When you build a system, you’re not just creating components—you’re shaping how other designers work. And when they push back or ignore it or just… go around it, it feels weirdly personal. I knew it wasn’t about me, but still. When you’ve spent weeks building something meant to help, and it’s treated like a blocker? That stings.

I didn’t realize how burned out I was until I caught myself fantasizing about working on a landing page. Just one page. With a clear goal. Something I could actually finish.

That’s when I started to rethink my approach. Not to design systems in general, but to how I work on them. I stopped saying yes to every request. I stopped trying to solve everything at once. I started treating the system like a product of its own—with roadmaps, focus, and real prioritization. I asked better questions. What’s the actual pain here? Who is this for? What’s the tradeoff of doing nothing?

And I stopped trying to get everyone on board. Not everything needs to scale. Not every team needs the same thing. Some variation is healthy. Alignment doesn’t mean uniformity.

I still believe in design systems. I just don’t romanticize them anymore. They’re messy, political, deeply human things. And the best ones aren’t just well-documented—they’re well-lived. Built by people who care enough to ask hard questions, and patient enough to not answer them all at once.

Vahan Kirakosyan

Product designer

If you like what you see or have any questions, feel free to send me an email anytime.

Vahan Kirakosyan

Product designer

If you like what you see or have any questions, feel free to send me an email anytime.

Vahan Kirakosyan

Product designer

If you like what you see or have any questions, feel free to send me an email anytime.

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Available for work

Let’s create something great together.

I'm not just here to design products; I'm here to connect with people.

Available for work

Let’s create something great together.

I'm not just here to design products; I'm here to connect with people.