1. Context and problem (why now?)

RA

Riya Agarwal

Engineering Manager @ Paylane | Building teams that ship | Ex-backend engineer

5 Oct 2026 System Design Deep Dives

1. Context and problem (why now?) 2. Goals and non-goals 3. Proposed design 4. Alternatives considered (at least 2) 5. Failure modes and rollout plan 6. Open questions #2 non-goals and #4 alternatives are where good design docs stand out.

7 reactions2 comments

Comments

RM
Rohan Malhotra5 Oct 2026
Non-goals are underrated. They prevent so much scope creep.
DJ
Dhruv Joshi5 Oct 2026
Using this template for my next design at work.

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