I want to tell you about a project I know way too well. A web application that grew over three years from a 10-screen MVP to something with over 200 views, seven developer contributors, and a UI that looked like it was designed by a committee of people who had never met each other. Because that's basically what happened. Buttons were five different shades of blue across different screens. Form inputs had three different behaviors depending on which part of the app you were in. The same component had been built independently by three different developers, each slightly differently. And by the time anyone recognized the problem, untangling it was a six-week project nobody wanted to own. A design system from day one would have prevented most of this. What a Design System Actually Is (And Isn't) Let me clear something up. A design system is not a style guide PDF. It's not a Figma file with your color palette. It's not Bootstrap.…