Case Study

Discover

In the Discovery phase, I authored a focused business plan to anchor every subsequent decision about the platform. This plan fulfills four strategic purposes:

1. Define Direction & Scope – It translates market pain points and competitive advantages into a clear product vision, ensuring each platform module (Design System, IAM, QA, DevOps, DX, and Engineering Style Guide) exists for a measurable, revenue‑linked reason—not as isolated tech experiments.

2. Justify Architectural Decisions – By documenting the “why” behind every choice (e.g., NPM‑only distribution, modular multi‑repo structure, Quick Reaction Force templates), the plan provides an audit trail that protects the project from scope creep and keeps stakeholders aligned on value, budget, and timelines.

3. Operationalize Competitive Advantage – One key differentiator in the larger studio plan is our freemium, open‑source model. The platform embodies that advantage: each module can be shared publicly to showcase code quality and accelerate client onboarding, turning the platform itself into a live demonstration of transparency and expertise.

4. Create a Dual‑Purpose Asset – Should this side hustle scale, the platform is already positioned as a commercial offering; if not, it still functions as a portfolio centerpiece that proves senior‑level skills in TypeScript, DevOps, UX‑centric architecture, and Agile product management—valuable for job‑hunting or consulting engagements.

By front‑loading this strategic thinking, the business plan ensures the platform remains laser‑focused on market needs, defensible in its design choices, and flexible enough to serve both entrepreneurial growth and personal career goals.

Define

"Establish a development platform supported by a single developer that allows new projects to go from '0 to Hello World' in five minutes or less."

Requirements

The platform needed to:

• Deliver speed and quality without compromises—templates must be instantly ready like Quick Reaction Force (QRF).

• Enforce consistency through standardized coding practices and style guides.

• Be maintainable and operable by a single developer.

• Enable integration of any area of expertise into a React application within minutes, using NPM as a facade.

Restrictions

NPM as the sole integration method: The platform's components must be exclusively installed and integrated through NPM. This ensures modularity and reusability, making it straightforward to integrate platform modules into any new or existing React application. This applies to applications within the studio/org or any React application of a client. Below is an example.

Example: The platform’s QA module can be set up and running in a new client's app within five minutes simply by installing it through NPM.

Key objectives:

• Accelerate Developer Onboarding: Minimize initial setup time to under five minutes.

• Seamless Integration: Enable any part of the platform to be partially integrated into another React application within five minutes.

• Reduce Technical Debt: Implement centralized coding standards across all TypeScript projects.

• Boost Productivity: Automate routine tasks related to code formatting, dependency management, and CI/CD workflows.

Develop

A distributed platform using NPM as a central hub was developed, allowing seamless interaction among various critical project execution areas:

• Engineering Styleguide Enforced uniformity in coding standards, including linting, formatting, and commit conventions, ensuring consistent code quality and reducing overhead during code reviews.

• DevOps Unified GitHub Actions to automate workflows such as continuous integration (CI), continuous deployment (CD), and routine maintenance tasks, providing consistency and efficiency at an organizational scale.

  • Lint workflow

  • Document workflow

  • Release workflow

  • Here is an example of a CI/CD pipeline running the workflows

• Identity and Access Management (IAM) Centralized authentication managed through Auth0 by Okta, ensuring consistent, secure access management across multiple applications.

• Design System A comprehensive library of reusable UI components, styles, and guidelines to ensure visual and functional consistency across all projects.

• Quality Assurance (QA) Centralized solutions for automated testing frameworks, methodologies, and strategies to ensure reliable quality control across all projects. This includes standardized testing libraries, configurations, and CI integration for automated validation.

• Developer Experience Enhanced developer productivity through utilities like axios wrappers for simplified API interactions, reusable React hooks for common tasks, and streamlined form-handling libraries.

Each area was organized into its own repository, providing flexibility in management, scalability, and delegation. This structure allowed each area to independently decide on adopting a monorepo setup, such as Turborepo, where beneficial. Automation through Dependabot and GitHub Actions ensured dependencies stayed secure and compliant with automated daily updates.

Deliver

One of the most significant advantages of this platform is its modularity and ease of partial integration. Each component, such as the Engineering Styleguide, Identity and Access Management (IAM), Quality Assurance (QA), and other platform modules, can be individually integrated into any React application—be it internal, external, or client-owned—within five minutes or less.

Results and Impact

The implementation of this platform significantly improved operational efficiency:

• Rapid Initialization: Project setup consistently achieved within five minutes or less.

• Enhanced Productivity: Over 85% reduction in repetitive setup tasks.

• Adaptability and Scalability: Simplified knowledge transfer and enhanced collaboration between internal and external contributors.

• Improved Security: Dependabot daily checks, combined with automated merges via Dependabot automerge, minimize security risks by ensuring prompt and continuous updates of dependencies.

Looking Ahead

The platform will continue to evolve, with ongoing integration of additional tools such as DangerJS and continued migration from JavaScript to TypeScript. Continuous refinement aims to sustain rapid onboarding capabilities, facilitating scalable and efficient development operations.

Another aspect to look ahead to is the ultimate goal of expanding the freelance studio, allowing the hiring of specialists dedicated to specific areas of the platform. These specialized teams will be able to effectively manage and maintain their respective components, ensuring quality and long-term stability.