Growth & Strategy
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Short-term (< 3 months)
Picture this: You're three weeks into a website project, the client wants "just one small change" to the homepage layout, and you realize you'll need to rewrite half the CSS. Sound familiar?
This was my reality for years. Every project felt like starting from scratch, even when I was essentially building the same components over and over. Hero sections, testimonial grids, pricing tables – I was coding the same elements repeatedly, just with different content.
The breaking point came during a B2B SaaS project where the client requested four different landing page variations for A/B testing. What should have been a quick content swap turned into weeks of custom development. That's when I discovered the power of modular page components.
Here's what you'll learn from my transition to component-based design:
Why the traditional custom-code approach is actually holding you back
How I built a reusable component library that works across projects
The exact workflow that cut my development time by 70%
When modular components work (and when they don't)
Implementation strategies for both SaaS and e-commerce projects
This isn't about following the latest design trend – it's about building a sustainable system that scales with your business and keeps clients happy.
Industry Reality
What every designer thinks they need to do
Walk into any design agency or freelancer's workspace, and you'll hear the same mantra: "Every project is unique, so everything needs to be custom-built." The industry has convinced itself that custom code equals quality, and reusable components mean compromising on creativity.
Here's what most designers and developers believe they need to do:
Start every project from a blank canvas – Because surely this client's hero section is completely different from the last one
Write custom CSS for every element – Reusing code is seen as "lazy" or "unprofessional"
Rebuild common patterns repeatedly – Contact forms, testimonial sections, pricing tables get coded fresh each time
Spend weeks on "pixel-perfect" implementations – Every spacing, color, and animation meticulously crafted
Deliver everything as a monolithic website – One big, interconnected codebase that's impossible to modify
This approach exists because we've been taught that custom work justifies higher prices. Clients expect "bespoke" solutions, and agencies use custom development as a selling point. The problem? It's creating a bottleneck that's killing productivity and scalability.
The dirty secret is that most websites use the same 15-20 component types. Hero sections, feature grids, testimonials, CTAs, footers – the patterns are remarkably consistent across industries. Yet we keep reinventing the wheel because we think customization means starting from zero.
This traditional approach worked when websites were simpler and update frequency was low. But in today's world of rapid iteration, A/B testing, and constant optimization, the custom-everything mindset becomes a liability rather than an asset.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
I used to be that designer who prided himself on writing every line of CSS from scratch. Each project was my digital masterpiece, crafted with pixel-perfect precision. Then reality hit during a project for a B2B SaaS startup that needed rapid iteration capabilities.
The client was in the competitive project management space and needed to test different value propositions quickly. They wanted to A/B test hero sections, swap out testimonials, and modify pricing presentations based on user feedback. What seemed like simple content changes turned into development nightmares.
Their first request was innocent enough: "Can we test three different headlines on the homepage?" In my custom-coded world, this meant duplicating the entire page, modifying the CSS classes, and ensuring all the intricate animations still worked across variations. What should have been a 30-minute content update took three days.
The second wake-up call came when they wanted to repurpose successful sections from their homepage on other landing pages. My beautifully crafted hero section was so tightly coupled to the homepage structure that extracting it required rewriting significant portions of the code.
Then came the breaking point: they needed four different landing pages for different customer segments, each testing variations of the same core components. Hero sections with different copy, testimonial grids with different customers, pricing tables with different features highlighted.
I realized I was essentially building the same components over and over, just with different content and minor styling variations. The traditional approach wasn't just inefficient – it was actively preventing the client from iterating at the speed their business required.
That's when I started researching component-based design systems and modular architecture. The goal wasn't to cut corners, but to build smarter systems that could adapt and scale without requiring complete rebuilds.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
After that painful SaaS project, I completely restructured my development approach around modular components. Instead of building pages, I started building reusable systems that could be assembled in infinite combinations.
Step 1: Component Audit and Categorization
I analyzed 20 recent projects and identified recurring patterns. Turns out, 90% of business websites use the same core components: hero sections, feature grids, testimonials, pricing tables, CTAs, team sections, and FAQ blocks. The content changes, but the structure remains remarkably consistent.
I categorized these into:
Layout components – Headers, footers, navigation
Content components – Hero sections, text blocks, image galleries
Conversion components – CTAs, forms, pricing tables
Social proof components – Testimonials, logos, case studies
Step 2: Platform Selection and Architecture
I migrated from pure custom development to Webflow and Framer, platforms that naturally support component thinking. Instead of fighting against modular design, these tools embrace it.
The key was building each component as a self-contained unit with its own styling, behavior, and content structure. No external dependencies, no shared CSS classes that could break when modified.
Step 3: Variable-Driven Design System
I created a design system using CSS variables (custom properties) for colors, spacing, typography, and animations. This meant I could maintain visual consistency while allowing for easy customization per project or component instance.
For example, my hero component uses variables like --hero-bg-color, --hero-text-size, and --hero-spacing. Changing the entire visual theme becomes a matter of updating a few variables rather than rewriting CSS.
Step 4: Content-Agnostic Structure
Each component was built to handle various content types and lengths. Hero sections could accommodate short punchy headlines or longer descriptive text. Testimonial grids could display 3, 6, or 9 testimonials without breaking the layout.
This flexibility meant components could be repurposed across different projects and use cases without modification.
Step 5: Assembly-Line Workflow
Projects transformed from "build everything custom" to "assemble from library." New websites became exercises in component selection, arrangement, and customization rather than ground-up development.
For that SaaS client, creating four landing page variations went from weeks of custom development to hours of component assembly. Each page used the same underlying components with different content and styling variables.
Component Library
Building your reusable arsenal
Platform Migration
Moving from custom to component-friendly tools
Variable Systems
Creating flexible design systems
Assembly Workflow
From building to assembling
Transform your process from custom development to intelligent component assembly. Focus creativity on arrangement and customization, not rebuilding.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
The transformation was immediate and measurable. That SaaS client who triggered this shift saw their iteration speed increase dramatically. What used to take weeks now happened in hours.
Specific improvements:
Development time reduction: 70% faster project delivery
Client satisfaction: Faster iterations meant more testing and optimization
Maintenance efficiency: Updates to one component propagated everywhere
Consistency improvement: Design system ensured visual coherence
But the real win was enabling client success. That SaaS startup could finally iterate at market speed, testing different value propositions, pricing strategies, and messaging approaches without technical bottlenecks.
They launched five different landing pages in the time it previously took to build one. Their conversion optimization program accelerated because technical implementation was no longer the limiting factor.
For my business, this approach became a competitive differentiator. While competitors quoted weeks for "simple" changes, I could deliver iterations in hours. Clients started choosing my services specifically for this agility.
The component library also became a sales tool. I could show prospects exactly what they'd get and how quickly we could iterate, removing much of the uncertainty from the buying process.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
The shift to modular components taught me that efficiency and quality aren't opposing forces – they're complementary when you build the right systems.
Key lessons learned:
Patterns are more consistent than we think. Most business websites use the same 15-20 component types, regardless of industry.
Customization doesn't require custom code. Variable-driven design systems provide flexibility without rebuilding from scratch.
Speed enables better outcomes. When iteration is fast, clients test more and optimize harder.
Constraints breed creativity. Working within component systems forces more thoughtful design decisions.
Maintenance becomes manageable. Fixing a bug once propagates everywhere, reducing ongoing support burden.
Clients value speed over perfection. The ability to iterate quickly matters more than pixel-perfect custom implementations.
Platform choice matters. Tools that support component thinking make this approach sustainable.
The biggest mistake I made initially was trying to create too many component variations. Start with the essential 8-12 components that handle the majority of use cases, then expand based on actual project needs.
This approach works best for businesses that value iteration speed and optimization. It's perfect for SaaS companies, agencies, and e-commerce stores that need to test and refine continuously. It's less suitable for highly custom, art-directed projects where uniqueness trumps efficiency.
For your Ecommerce store
For SaaS startups, modular components enable rapid iteration essential for product-market fit:
A/B testing different value propositions without development bottlenecks
Rapid landing page creation for different customer segments
Consistent design across marketing and product pages
Easy onboarding flow modifications based on user feedback