Solving the Design System Problem When Your Products Live for 30 Years

When David arrived at Siemens he found not a lack of design systems but dozens of them, many locked inside long lived industrial products that will never be updated. He explains how Siemens created a single design language without enforcing one tech stack, how the team handles legacy products that stay in market for decades and why design systems break the moment acquisitions occur unless they are built to evolve. This is a rare look at design systems at true industrial scale.
Outcomes
• Create a migration model that improves consistency while accepting untouched legacy products
• Build a tech agnostic design language that survives acquisitions and diverse engineering environments
• Set clear expectations so teams deliver the expected experience without dictating delivery methods
• Track design system adoption and report progress at board level to maintain executive support