You’d think design systems are a utopia of planning, modular code and governance but I’m sorry to tell you that one of the many things that will take up a lot of your time in a more mature system is Snowflakes:
A ’snowflake’ in a Design System is a one-off component that could be needed for a specific project, but there is an understanding that it may not be reused or may only be required by one team within an organisation.
Snowflakes, in my experience, come around as teams really start to integrate a design system across the board. As Stu mentions in the article, it is tempting to make a new component to service the needs of stakeholders, but having components that can be altered with utility classes is a really good way of handling this situation.
By the way Stu is currently available which is mind blowing. They’re easily one of the best front-end developers in design systems. In fact, one of the best in general. Hire them to give your team super powers!!
Check it out