Slow initial load
The application was noticeably slow on initial load, creating friction for frontline workers who needed fast access during operational hours.
Xenia
- Role
- Full-Stack Engineer
- Type
- Founder’s engineering work
- Stack
- React · Node.js · RabbitMQ
- Duration
- 2+ Years
Engineering work on afrontline operationsplatform.
- Initial load time
- 30s → 7s
- Checklist items without crashing
- 20 → 100+
app.xenia.team
In Brief
The work, inplain terms.
- Who used it
- Restaurants, retail chains, and hospitality businesses use Xenia to run tasks, checklists, audits, and work orders across multiple locations.
- What was difficult
- Slow initial loads, a checklist builder that crashed on larger templates, no way to share checklists with people outside the platform, and no billing or plan gating.
- Usama’s contribution
- Over two-plus years as a full-stack engineer on Xenia’s product team, Usama shipped API response compression, re-render fixes in the checklist builder, public checklist links, and the Stripe billing and plan-gating infrastructure, and contributed to reporting and AI-assisted documents. This was employment at Xenia, not a TechTrinity client commission.
- What changed
- Managers could build larger checklists without the builder crashing, share checklists with guests and other external parties by link, and gate add-on features behind paid plans.
- Outcomes
- Measured performance changes from this work are shown below. The company’s funding is context only, not an outcome of any one engineer’s work.
- What it taught
- In a fast-growing product, performance fixes and billing infrastructure are as important to customers as new features — and both have to ship without disrupting daily use.
The Project
A frontline operations platformfor multi-location businesses.
Xenia is an AI-powered operations execution platform used by restaurants, retail chains, and hospitality businesses to manage tasks, checklists, audits, work orders, and team communication across multiple locations.
Usama joined Xenia’s team as a full-stack engineer. Over two-plus years he contributed to core features across the platform — performance work, the checklist builder, external sharing, billing infrastructure, and reporting.
For context, the company went from Seed to Series A during that time. That growth reflects the whole company’s work and is not presented as a result of these contributions.
The Constraints
A platform running atthe edge of its limits.
Crashing checklist builder
The template builder could crash the browser on larger templates due to unnecessary re-renders — limiting the complexity of templates customers could build.
No external sharing
Users had no way to share checklists or tasks with people outside Xenia — blocking use cases like guest experience surveys in hospitality.
No monetisation infrastructure
Premium features and free features were undifferentiated. There was no billing system, no plan gating, and no way to charge for advanced capabilities.
Usama’s Contributions
Core infrastructure,shipped across two years.
app.xenia.team
Load Time & Rendering Performance
Added response compression across the API layer to cut initial load time (30s → 7s). Resolved systematic unnecessary re-renders in the checklist builder so it could handle much larger templates without crashing the browser (20 → 100+ items).
app.xenia.team
Checklist & Template System
Built and improved the core template builder — the feature used by operations managers to create checklists, inspection forms, and SOPs. The builder supports multiple question types, section grouping, conditional logic, and a live mobile preview so managers see exactly what frontline workers will see before publishing.
app.xenia.team
External Sharing
Built the public checklist feature — allowing templates to be shared with people outside the Xenia platform via a public link. This opened up a use case such as hospitality businesses collecting guest experience feedback directly through Xenia, without requiring guests to create an account.
app.xenia.team
Stripe Billing & Monetisation
Built the complete billing infrastructure — Stripe integration, recurring subscription plans, and feature gating. Before this, premium and free features were undifferentiated. After implementation, add-on features were gated behind the appropriate plan, giving the business a way to charge for advanced capabilities.
app.xenia.team
Recurring task creation with frequency, day, and time configuration.
app.xenia.team
Kanban board view — tasks organised by status across the pipeline.
app.xenia.team
Reporting & Exports
Contributed to the reporting layer — template submission tracking, task compliance reports, and scheduled work summaries. Reports are filterable by location, date range, status, and employee, giving operations managers visibility across all sites.
app.xenia.team
AI-Assisted Documents
Contributed to the documents module with AI assistant integration — allowing managers to generate SOPs, employee regulations, and operational documents directly within Xenia using an inline AI prompt interface.
Outcomes
Two years.Shipped contributions.
30s → 7s
Initial load time
After API response compression
20 → 100+
Checklist items
Without crashing the builder
Public
Checklist links
External parties respond without an account
Gated
Paid features
Stripe subscriptions and plan gating
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