The RFC (Request for Comments) Proposal Process

In mature engineering organizations, any significant change to the design system begins with an RFC (Request for Comments). An RFC is an open design document that describes a problem, explores alternatives, and proposes a specification before writing code.

The lifecycle of a design system RFC typically includes:

• 1. Problem Statement: What user or squad pain point does this address? (e.g., 'Squads lack an accessible multi-select dropdown').
• 2. Prior Art & Research: How do other systems (Shopify Polaris, Material, Primer) solve this?
• 3. Proposed API & Spec: Visual Figma specs, accessibility keyboard maps, prop types, and token dependencies.
• 4. Open Community Feedback: A 7–14 day review window for designers and engineers across the company to critique the proposal.
• 5. Decision & Merging: Approved proposals enter the system roadmap; rejected proposals clearly document why.