01 Building Qwak’s Product Foundation
Creating the systems and patterns to scale · 2023–2024
A new foundation for a growing ML platform
Overview
When I joined Qwak after its Series A, the product had grown without a design foundation. As the first and only product designer, I needed to create a system that could support the move toward enterprise - aligning workflows, reusable patterns, and the visual language without slowing the team down.
Contributions
Built Qwak's first design system with shared patterns, giving design and engineering a foundation for new work.
Simplified and aligned core workflows while preserving familiar patterns that already worked for users.
Prioritized the areas creating the most friction in onboarding, product development, and enterprise sales.
Chose scalable systems over pixel-perfect screens, intentionally leaving lower-impact areas imperfect.
(Before) Models buried inside projects · (After) Models accessible through a persistent hierarchy
Evolved Qwak’s website as the product and company matured
Outcome
Qwak gained a design foundation that made the product easier to learn and faster to build on. New teams needed less guidance, engineers could reuse established patterns instead of solving UI problems from scratch, and sales had a more cohesive product to present to enterprise customers.
Bringing Qwak’s personality into the brand experience
Takeaway
Building a foundation isn’t about fixing everything - it’s about knowing what to standardize, what to preserve, and what can stay imperfect while the product keeps moving.
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