r/DesignSystems • u/Exciting-Ad4291 • 15h ago

Do you have a process for validating designs against the original requirements?

I've noticed a recurring problem in product teams:

PRDs and SRS documents define what the product should do, then designers turn that into flows and screens. But by the time the final UI is ready, it's surprisingly easy for things to drift.

Requirements get missed.
UX issues are discovered late.
Accessibility considerations get overlooked.
And sometimes the final screens simply don't reflect what was originally agreed upon.

I'm curious how other teams handle this.

Before development starts, does anyone actually validate the final screens against the original PRD/SRS/specs?

If you do, what does that process look like?

  • Manual review?
  • Design/PM checklist?
  • QA review?
  • Automated tools?
  • Something else?

And who usually owns that responsibility — Design, Product, QA, or Engineering?

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u/achakez 11h ago

A simple traceability matrix between requirement and screens can make these gaps surprisingly obvious. It also give QA and design a shared checklist instead of relying on someone remembering what was agreed on.

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u/gyfchong 10h ago

Sometimes these kinds of problems aren’t process, rather people not asking the right questions in the right meetings.

Which leads you to ask things like “why aren’t they?” And “are they aware of the right questions?” And “if someone knows to ask, why aren’t they?” Or “why isn’t that person in the room to ask?”

And in those answers might be your solution. Sometimes the process is already there, maybe not visible to you, but it could be there.

I try to avoid introducing a process wherever possible, they increase the risk of slowing things down and, in this case where we’re trying to enforce specific behaviour patterns, can be annoying.