Growth Wall

Growth Wall is a real-time analytics dashboard that transforms complex data into an engaging visual experience. Built for a fast-growing SaaS company, it serves as both an internal metrics display and a compelling demonstration of product value.

The challenge was to create a system that could handle thousands of real-time events while maintaining visual clarity and emotional resonance. The result is a living data sculpture that celebrates user activity and company growth.

As the lead Design Engineer, I was responsible for the entire product lifecycle: from initial concept and user research, through system design and implementation, to deployment and performance optimization.

I worked closely with the data team to architect a real-time streaming pipeline, collaborated with marketing on the visual language, and partnered with leadership to define success metrics.

Research & Discovery

I started by interviewing stakeholders across the company to understand how they currently tracked and communicated growth. I discovered a gap between raw analytics tools (complex, overwhelming) and public-facing metrics (overly simplified).

Technical Architecture

The system processes events through a multi-stage pipeline:

• Real-time event ingestion via WebSocket connection
• Client-side aggregation and windowing for performance
• Declarative animation system for smooth transitions
• Intelligent batching to prevent visual overload

Visual Design

I explored multiple visual metaphors before settling on a flowing particle system that evokes growth and movement. Each event type has distinct visual properties (color, size, trajectory) that make patterns immediately recognizable.

• Real-time performance: Processes 10,000+ events per minute while maintaining 60fps animation smoothness
• Adaptive complexity: System automatically adjusts visual density based on event volume to prevent overwhelming the viewer
• Emotional design: Subtle celebratory animations for milestone events create moments of delight without disrupting the overall experience

The Growth Wall became a focal point of the office and a powerful sales tool. Internal teams reported feeling more connected to user activity, and the visualization helped communicate product-market fit to investors.

Metrics:

• Displayed at company all-hands meetings weekly
• Featured in 8 investor presentations
• 95% of employees report increased awareness of product metrics
• System handles 500k+ daily events with 99.9% uptime

TODO: Demo video, GitHub repository (if public), live deployment link