The Centralized Bottleneck Trap

When an organization assigns all design system responsibilities to a single centralized team, that team can easily become a major bottleneck.

If six product squads need new components or fixes for upcoming launches, and only three system designers/engineers are available to review, design, and code them, product delivery grinds to a halt. Frustrated squads will bypass the system to meet their launch dates.

To avoid the bottleneck trap:

• Establish an RFC (Request for Comments) process where feature squads propose and author new components.
• Create a federated contribution model allowing external engineers to submit PRs to the core library.
• Maintain clear review SLAs (Service Level Agreements) so contributors receive feedback within 48 hours.