In design system work, some people can work on the settled solutions while others can venture out, seeking the new. Both are worth investing in.

Here’s how.

I’ve written about the Pareto principle (often shortened to “the 80/20 rule”) before, which states that “roughly 80% of consequences come from 20% of causes.” Lots of natural phenomena are distributed accordingly, like population, wealth, income, and many other things.

As it relates to design systems, I find the same to be true: about 80% of any product you need to make can be made with 20% of the normal effort you put in. That 20% is the design system, a collection of common elements that make you faster. Then, you can spend your remaining 80% of time on the 20% that really needs to shine. This is where the creativity goes. Don’t spend your effort trying to be creative and innovative about the boring stuff. Stop making slightly more beautiful dropdowns or spending hours on beveling your buttons (not a euphemism). Let the system take care of all the common stuff.

So, what specifically do you spend that 80% on? Whatever will make this experience special for your user.

Next time you (or product teams you work with) design a new page or screen, use these guidelines:

1. For every 5 components on the screen, 4 (80%) should come from the design system and 1 (20%) should be created custom.
2. For the 4 components that come from the system: spend no more than 20% of your allotted time implementing and configuring them. For example, if you’re giving yourself 60 minutes to design a screen, spend no more than 12 minutes implementing these components from your design system. Any longer is too much.
3. For the 1 component that you make from scratch, make this the best thing you’ve ever designed or built (or as close to it as possible). Pour all your creativity into this. Don’t worry about constraints. Don’t worry about how this fits into the system. Make something amazing for the person who’s supposed to use it.

There are some people who love #2 and hate #3. There are other people who hate #2 and love #3. And of course, lots of people somewhere in the middle. Healthy design system work makes room for all of them.

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