The Generic Drupal Web Components project aims to create a library of web components that are accessible, framework agnostic, possible to style, and easy to use with data provided by Drupal. In support of the Decoupled Menus initiative, an initial menu component was created as a proof of concept. This talk will focus on the lessons learned creating this menu component, and how this model could be followed to create a full design system that could be maintained by the Drupal community at large. Topics will include:

- How using web components allows us to offer a single set of components that can be used in a variety of front ends, from popular JavaScript frameworks like React, to Drupal's Twig based templating engine.
- Structuring components to allow a variety of styling options, while still taking advantage of scoped styles.
- State management and approaches to handling data from a wide variety of data sources.
- Thinking ahead to the possible impact of a community driven design system.
- Learning from similar efforts within the Drupal ecosystem.
- Keys to success for this project, and how you can help.