For years, my job ended at the Figma file. I wrote specs, recorded walkthroughs, and then watched the build drift away from the design, one small decision at a time.
Handoff is where good design goes to lose its details.
Now the design system lives in code. I set up tokens, components and rules once, then build screens directly with shadcn/ui and Next.js. Engineers don't receive a picture of the product. They receive the product.
This doesn't mean every designer must become an engineer. It means we own one more step of the journey. My Computer Science background helps, but the real shift is a mindset: if it isn't in code, it isn't done.