Code management platform
A Russian alternative to GitHub/GitLab for a bank. Design system took 8 months — today it's two weeks.
Today I'd do it this way
In 2023 the longest part of the project wasn't the functionality — it was the design system and navigation. Eight months on tokens, components, IA, prototypes, unification — even with a third-party DS as a starting point. Today that same scope is two weeks via a token-spec-first approach + a Figma plugin. I ran this experiment on my own portfolio — one evening. See the lab case below.
How it was done then
Summary
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Built a code management and CI/CD platform for a bank — a Russian alternative to GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, SonarCube. Full control over SaaS and On-Prem projects.
The longest part wasn't the features. It was the design system and navigation.
Platform products have dozens of screen types (lists, details, diffs, statuses, inspectors, dashboards), each with its own state set. Without a strict system every designer reinvents the pattern — then you spend cycles unifying retroactively.
Navigation was worse. Entity hierarchy (org → projects → repos → branches → reviews → pipelines) demanded several navigation levels simultaneously: global, contextual, breadcrumb, in-page tabs. Every new requirement raised the question "which level does this go in" — and every answer depended on how neighbouring entities were already designed.
What I'd do differently
Design system first, not last. With a strict token + component structure, platform-product assembly speeds up by an order of magnitude — even without AI tools. With them — by two orders. The experiment with my own portfolio (one evening for a full system) proves it. On a project the scale of the code platform — two weeks max.
The rule for platform products: never start drawing screens without a system. The temptation of "ship features first, polish later" costs eight months of cleanup later. Today the price of the rule is a few days up front. Back then — half the project.