A design system that nobody uses six months after handoff is a design system that failed. The problem is rarely the design — it is the gap between Figma and production.
We close that gap by treating the component library as the source of truth. Designers and engineers work in the same primitives. Anything in Figma that does not have a built component is a sketch, not a design.
The other piece is governance. Who owns updates? Who reviews proposals? If the answer is "everyone and nobody," your system will rot. Pick one or two stewards and give them real time to maintain it.
Design systems are not a project. They are a long-running responsibility. Plan for it.