October 27, 2025

Announcing Maturing Design Systems

I can’t believe this, but after years of conversations, reading, collaborating with internal teams, coaching design system leads, and facilitating large community conversations, I’m so very proud to announce the upcoming release of my book, Maturing Design Systems, published by Smashing Books.

Book cover titled, Maturing Design Systems

A few years back, I met up with Vitaly in Berlin at a coffee shop to talk about the big concepts that are now officially in this book. The conversation was easy, talking about design systems over a flat white and an espresso, dreaming a bit about the impact of reaching more teams with these ideas I know can truly help. It’s an absolute honor to partner with Smashing and to have had some of the most amazing minds in the design system space provide critique and feedback along the way.

I didn’t know what this journey would look like. As many of you know, writing is hard. But making time to write this much was a unique challenge for me. With shorter form pieces, I can keep the whole concept in my head at once. But 50,000 words is a lot to remember… I found myself developing new skills to manage where in the arc of the story certain ideas fit best. Despite the challenges, I have had such encouragement from many folks—often at just the right moment to push me forward.

Thanks to all of you who have edited, written forwards or reviews, or just kind messages about the impact of a sentence or a paragraph. Even just those words have made it worth it!

I’ll be messaging on the social channels as soon as there is a place for you to order. For now, subscribe to The Question if you want to be notified as soon as it’s available.

And, as always, stay in learning mode, Ben

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