Leave Dates had grown past the point where one-off screens could carry the product. The work started with a foundation pass — tokens, components, patterns — so every subsequent feature would compound instead of cost.

The calendar surface set the visual grammar: dense by default, breathable on hover, every team member legible at a glance. Once it settled, the rest of the product followed.

Settings and admin flows were the second push — moving them out of a spreadsheet mental model and into a navigable surface that small HR teams could actually run.