> Aaron SananesAaron Sananes

When TB Auctions began acquiring multiple auction brands, each brought its own legacy systems, unique auction rules, and established brand identity. Our early SaaS platform could manage auctions but wasn’t built for multiple storefronts with different requirements.

Migrations often took up to 12 months per brand, slowing growth and putting user trust at risk. The challenge was to build a scalable platform that unified all brands while preserving their individuality, in an acquisition-heavy environment with shifting priorities and limited resources.

With limited design resources and a shifting leadership team, the approach had to be pragmatic: build a strong foundation in Atlas, create a flexible multi-brand design system, and deliver improvements step by step through live brand launches.

I took ownership of the auction planner and item creation flows, rebuilt them for scale, and partnered closely with the front-end architect to align Figma design tokens with Next.js components. This ensured Atlas, web storefronts, and mobile apps all spoke the same design language.

At the same time, I onboarded and mentored junior designers, collaborated with developers on CMS and marketing templates, and worked with product managers and data analysts to run weekly A/B tests — using the largest brand first to reduce risk.

This dual focus — designing products (Atlas + storefronts + mobile) and building the design system that scaled them — created a foundation flexible enough for nine brands and ongoing acquisitions.

I served as both product designer and design systems architect. I designed the core workflows for Atlas (our internal platform) and customer-facing storefronts and mobile apps, balancing internal efficiency with external trust.

I built a multi-brand design system in Figma with code-mapped tokens that unified all channels—Atlas, web, mobile, email, and marketing—while preserving each brand's identity. Working closely with engineering, I implemented this in Next.js, validated through A/B testing, and mentored junior designers to ensure consistent execution.

Migrations dropped from 12 months to weeks, enabling TB Auctions to scale quickly without losing trust. We launched nine brands on a unified platform — Atlas powering internal workflows, storefronts, mobile, and marketing — with each brand keeping its own identity.

The design system became a shared language across design and development, cutting publishing from days to hours and improving conversion on brand launches.

This project was more than just delivering a platform. It was a five–year journey that stretched my skills as a designer, developer, and mentor.

Looking back, the biggest lesson was learning to stand firm. In the past, I would have focused on keeping everyone happy. Here, I had to say no, push back when foundations weren’t strong enough, and advocate for scalable solutions over quick fixes.

It also taught me how to balance multiple roles at once — design, engineering, and mentoring — while planning ahead instead of reacting to daily challenges. And working through leadership changes reinforced the importance of keeping focus on the product vision, even when priorities shifted around me.