At Perplexity, the design system lives in the codebase, not Figma. Designers contribute directly to the frontend, creating a single source of truth that eliminates drift between design files and production code, forcing a highly practical and collaborative process.

The idea that design systems stifle creativity stems from the high cost of re-coding components after a design change. In a world with a single source of truth, where design changes automatically update the code, this cost disappears, allowing systems to be radically changed without engineering overhead.

Before scaling paid acquisition, invest in a robust brand system. A well-defined brand DNA (art direction, voice, tone) is not a vanity project; it's the necessary infrastructure to efficiently generate the thousands of cohesive creative assets required to test and scale performance marketing campaigns successfully.

The line between B2B and B2C user experience has vanished. Users expect the same seamless, elegant digital interactions in their professional tools as they get from consumer apps. A modern design system enables B2B companies to deliver this consumer-grade experience, even with complex product catalogs.

While brand consistency is a benefit, the primary business impact of a well-built design system is operational efficiency. It drastically accelerates speed to market for new features and slashes onboarding time for new hires because the system's intelligence is effectively self-documenting.

Technical tools are secondary to building a successful design system. The primary barrier is a lack of shared vision. Success requires designers to think about engineering constraints and engineers to understand UX intent, creating an empathetic, symbiotic relationship that underpins the entire system.

The founders avoid creating a rigid, atomized design system because the product is still iterating too quickly. They accept a "messy" component library and technical debt as a trade-off for speed. Formalizing a design system only makes sense once the product's UI has stabilized.

The rapid pace of change, accelerated by AI, demands brands become more fluid. Rigid, static brand guidelines are obsolete, replaced by generative systems that can evolve with user needs and market trends while retaining a core identity.

Before implementing a CDP or any digital tool, a brand must first establish two foundational elements: a long-term vision (the "what") and a core purpose (the "why," focused on customer value). The technology is merely a vehicle. Without these guiding principles, even the most advanced platform will fail to deliver meaningful results.