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Creating a Scalable Design System for a Rapidly Growing MLOps Startup

Design system creation, developer alignment, product scalability




Background
In March 2023, I joined Qwak as the startup’s first in-house designer to partner closely with the PM and Head of Product on a full redesign of the platform.


Qwak was building an MLOps platform for ML engineers and data analysts, and as the team prepared for their next funding round, design became a strategic priority. I was brought in to lead both the rebrand and the creation of a new, scalable design system - ensuring visual consistency, product usability, and faster time to market.










Challenge
The platform was growing quickly, but design debt was piling up. Developers worked in silos with no shared design language, and the UI lacked cohesion.

My goal was to create a unified design system that would:

  • Support a platform redesign without disrupting existing workflows
  • Scale with the product as it evolved
  • Gain adoption across engineering and leadership - all under tight timelines





Approach


Building Foundations with Engineering

I partnered with front-end developers to co-create the system from the start. We selected the JOY UI component library as our foundation - giving us a scalable structure, consistency between design and code, and faster implementation.

This decision ensured strong design-dev alignment from day one and reduced the risk of design drift.



Desinining in Figna for Speed and Clarity
I built the system in Figma - using:

  • Interactive prototyping for early usability testins
  • Component libraries to accelrate design
  • Real-time collaboration to keep engineering and leadership in sync

My workflow made it easy to test, iterate, and ship - all without bottlenecks, even as a solo designer.






Outcome

The new design system became core to Qwak’s rapid scaling and rebrand. Key outcomes included:

  • A unified visual language and streamlined design process
  • Faster design-to-dev cycles, thanks to reusable components and a clear source of truth
  • Scalable design patterns that supported evolving features without slowing teams down



Reflection

This system wasn’t just a UI upgrade - it was a shift in how Qwak designed and built products. It enabled clearer communication, faster iteration, and long-term scalability.

© 2025 SHIMRIT RUDIN