Why Every Design System Needs an Onboarding? At Hi Interactive, we work with companies that are at very different stages of design system maturity. Some already have established libraries and workflows; others are just starting from scratch. In both cases, one thing is always missing at the beginning: clear onboarding.
An onboarding is not just a presentation deck or a welcome email. It’s the foundation for alignment, knowledge sharing, and sustainable collaboration. It ensures that new team members, whether designers, developers, or product owners, understand how the system is organized, how to use it, and who to talk to when questions arise.
Without it, knowledge gets lost, processes become inconsistent, and the design system quickly turns into a mess of components no one fully understands.
Our Goal: A Reusable Template
We wanted a simple, adaptable onboarding template that we could reuse and tailor to each client’s reality. Every organization has different needs and workflows, but the core of a good onboarding stays the same:
- It gives clarity on how the design system works.
- It connects people to the right resources and roles.
- It provides a shared understanding of how to contribute, maintain, and evolve the system.
So we built a Figma-based onboarding template, a living document that we can adapt for each new design system project.
What the Template Covers
1. Introduction and Purpose
The onboarding starts with a clear explanation of why the design system exists and who it serves. We define its main goals and how it supports the product and brand strategy. This helps everyone, from marketing to engineering, understand the bigger picture.
2. Structure and Source of Truth
We show how the system is organized across tools (Figma, documentation site, Git repo, etc.) and which one acts as the source of truth. This is crucial: early alignment avoids the classic confusion of “Which file should I use?” or “Is this the latest version?”.
3. People and Responsibilities
The template includes a simple roles map, who’s responsible for what, and who to contact in different scenarios.
- Need to add a new component? → Contact the Design System Owner.
- Want to report a bug or suggest an improvement? → Go to the Component Maintainer.
- Need support with accessibility or tokens? → Reach out to the Accessibility Lead or DevOps team.
This turns the onboarding into a real communication guide, not just a static document.
4. Component Lifecycle
Every design system evolves. The onboarding explains how a component moves from idea to production the onboarding should have a template to help cover those steps and help teams have knowledge about their status:
- Proposal
- Design and Review
- Development
- Documentation
- Release and Maintenance.
By making this transparent, teams understand not only how to use components but also how to contribute responsibly.
5. Maintenance and Collaboration Processes
We include clear steps for how updates are made and how collaboration happens between design and development. This section helps prevent bottlenecks and creates consistency between visual and coded components.
6. Handoff Guidelines
The onboarding also details how handoff works, what developers need from designers, and vice versa. We highlight tools, file organization, and delivery expectations, ensuring that everyone speaks the same language from the start.
7. Library Management
Who owns the library? How are updates published? What’s the review process before merging changes? These are all part of the template because governance is key. Without defined ownership, a design system loses reliability over time.
8. Communication and Evangelization
Finally, the onboarding provides guidance for how to communicate changes, announce releases, and keep people engaged. It also supports those who act as design system evangelists inside the company, giving them structure to onboard new team members or external collaborators.
For those who get lost in the way for the final step it includes suggestions on how to experient and start to use the design system.
How We Use It in Consulting Projects
Every time we start a new design system project with a client, we customize this template to reflect their context:
- Team size and roles
- Tools and platforms
- Maturity level (from zero to advanced)
- Communication channels (Slack, Teams, Jira, etc.)
This way, we avoid reinventing the wheel and can focus on what truly matters, creating a scalable, maintainable system that the client can own and grow.
For example:
- A startup might only need a lightweight Figma version for now.
- A large enterprise may need multiple levels of documentation, including version control and governance layers.
The template adapts to both.
Why It Matters
In consulting, we often join teams mid-way. There’s history, context, and sometimes confusion. The onboarding template helps us and the client start from a common ground. It’s not just about showing “how things work.” It’s about building confidence, making sure everyone feels equipped to use and evolve the design system.
When the onboarding is clear, we see:
- Faster adoption.
- Fewer mistakes in usage or updates.
- Stronger collaboration between design and development.
- More consistent interfaces across products.
What’s Next
Our goal at Hi Interactive is to make design systems accessible, maintainable, and human-centered, and onboarding is where that journey begins.
Key takeaway:
A design system is only as strong as the understanding behind it. A clear, reusable onboarding template turns knowledge into a shared language, and that’s what keeps design systems alive.
