Saying Goodbye: The End of Specify

Back in 2018, Antoine, Pierre-Antoine, Louis, and I set out to improve how designers and developers collaborate, focusing on design systems. Over the past six years, we’ve achieved so much that I’m incredibly proud of. We built an amazing team, developed products we poured our hearts into, and created a brand that people connected with. We believed we could truly make a difference for designers and front-end developers, and we did our best to elevate the industry’s knowledge of design systems and design tokens. Whether by contributing to the DTCG, sponsoring big conferences like Clarity and Into Design Systems, or speaking at events, we always aimed to move the industry forward.

The Journey: Navigating a Changing Market

The market we entered evolved rapidly. When we started, Sketch had just overtaken Adobe, and a whole ecosystem of tools like InVision, MarvelApp, Abstract, Zeplin, and Avocode was thriving. But things shifted quickly—many of these tools disappeared or pivoted as Figma rose to dominate the space, incorporating many of their features directly into its platform.

In response, we built a tool-agnostic platform to streamline design decisions and reduce friction. I truly believe we became one of the best platforms out there, helping many teams every day. But in the end, it wasn’t enough to create a sustainable business.

Despite our best efforts, we couldn’t find our product-market fit.

What’s Next for Specify?

Specify will officially sunset on November 15th. Some of us are exploring the idea of offering open-source alternatives, so the community can continue to benefit from the work we’ve done. If that’s something you’re interested in, feel free to reach out, or follow Antoine or me on 𝕏 for updates.

Thank You to Our Team

I want to express my deepest gratitude to everyone who worked on Specify. Honesty and passion have always been our core values, and I’ve been lucky to work with such talented and dedicated people. While I regret the end of this journey, I’m grateful to have had the chance to grow alongside all of you:

• Antoine

• Pierre-Antoine

• Louis

• Allan

• Louis

• Yann-Edern

• Thibaut

• Maud

• Nicolas

• Khalil

• Alexis

• Florent

• Nathanaël

• Anna

• Araksya

• Patricia

A big thank you to Joy, Jean-Patrice, Jean-Baptiste, Sia, Alex, Clément, Alexandre, François, and Didier. And to everyone else I haven't mentioned who has helped me, directly or indirectly, on this amazing journey.

A Heartfelt Thanks to Our Community

Finally, to our community: thank you for your support over the years. Some of you have been with us since the very beginning, and your belief in us means the world. I’ll always be grateful, and I hope our paths cross again in the future.