Anton Polomkin is a Principal Software Engineer at Eptura, a global worktech company that digitally connects people, workplaces, and assets across 115 countries. With nearly a decade of experience in front-end development and user experience design, Anton has built his career on a foundation of technical leadership and innovative problem-solving.
His expertise covers a wide range of modern front-end technologies and best practices, strongly focusing on creating intuitive, accessible, and high-performance digital products. Through his leadership, he has played a key role in streamlining project workflows and enhancing operational efficiency.
This blend of hands-on leadership and forward-thinking makes Anton a trusted technical authority at Eptura and a respected voice in the broader tech community.
What Does Leadership Mean To You In A Field As Technical As Software Engineering And Development?
For me, it’s educating myself on the technology, maintaining my curiosity, and staying plugged into trends in the space. But understanding the tech isn’t sufficient; you’ve got to turn that knowledge into clear direction and wise decisions. A leader ensures that the work the team is doing connects with broader company objectives and mediates between short-term priorities and long-term sustainability.
While an easy solution can satisfy a deadline, a true leader thinks ahead, understands technical debt, and works toward the best solution for future scalability.
Leadership is an ideal synonym for ensuring a stable and focused environment for developers to do their best work. It’s about absorbing the pressure from the upper end, clearing the way, and ensuring the team has the room to address issues.
Technical leadership is all about empowering others, making deliberate choices, and changing things for a better tomorrow! The best leaders do not only build great products — they build great teams.
Predictably, leadership in software engineering is less about dictating the implementation details and more about providing direction while enabling the team to navigate complex technical terrain and develop (both the product and the people). It combines technical skills, strategic thinking, and emotional intelligence.
For example, there was a time when our team faced a major technical conflict during a critical project. We were divided between adopting a cutting-edge, yet relatively untested framework and sticking with our proven, legacy system. Each option had its staunch supporters, and the debate was becoming a roadblock to our progress.
Recognising the situation’s urgency, I organised a focused meeting where everyone could openly share their viewpoints and concerns. I facilitated a structured discussion, ensuring that the pros and cons of each approach were clearly laid out. By setting clear criteria such as performance, scalability and maintainability; we collectively arrived at a hybrid solution that integrated the best of both worlds.
What Makes A Great Digital Product?
In my opinion, data is a key component of digital product development. I believe a good digital product solves real problems. It’s not about how many features you can cram in, it’s about understanding your users, anticipating their needs, and making their lives as easy as possible.
That requires extensive user research, ongoing feedback, and a true emphasis on usability. When a product penetrates its user’s life so deeply, it’s vital to that user.
I also think that simplicity is yet another defining feature. The best products feel native, they reduce friction, disrupt distraction and allow users to do what’s important to them. That doesn’t mean sacrificing functionality; it means designing things so that even complex actions are intuitive. A clean layout, straightforward navigation, and well-thought-through interactions go a long way.
So is accessibility. A great product works for anyone, no matter their ability. That means high-contrast visual designs, easy-to-read typography, keyboard navigation, and screen reader support baked in, not tacked on. Accessibility isn’t just about compliance; it improves the experience for all users.
Finally, I believe that trust and community sustain a product’s success. Transparent communication, great support, and a willingness to listen create a strong connection with users. A great product isn’t just functional; it earns loyalty.
When user insight, simplicity, accessibility, and trust come together, the result is something people rely on, recommend, and return to.
You Have Built Some Complex Systems In Your Time: What Has Been Your Greatest Success?
I had the opportunity to lead the development of the Evo Design System at Eptura, a global work tech company that digitally connects people, workplaces and assets in a unified platform. With 25 million users across 115 countries and trusted by 45% of Fortune 500 brands, Eptura empowers organisations to work smarter, from desk booking and visitor management to comprehensive space planning and employee experience. It’s within this dynamic, innovative environment that my greatest success has unfolded.
Recognised as a strategic priority in 2022, Evo reshaped how our design, engineering, and product teams collaborate, making collaboration smoother and more effective. I built the Evo React component infrastructure from the ground up, including automated pipelines, development and production builds, and a top-tier testing setup.
I also established documentation and coding standards that became the foundation of our front-end guild. As the principal architect of the system’s most complex components, I ensured scalability and readiness to support our Next-Generation IWMS project.
As much as the business succeeded, building the right team was crucial.
I conducted technical interviews to recruit top-notch React engineers and automation-quality analysts. I reviewed every line of code committed and set the bar high while mentoring engineers. I moulded this into an end product by focusing heavily on performance optimisation; I added support for sub-path imports, trimmed the bundle size by 30%, and completely rewrote our build configuration, reducing load times by 45%.
Evo also enabled several high-impact projects. The Floor Plan Viewer, for example, leveraged Evo’s architecture to handle complex interactions like bespoke drag-and-drop while keeping the experience seamless and accessible. I also developed a Micro Frontend (MFE) template, accelerating feature deployment across teams.
One specific moment that truly highlighted Evo’s impact was when it significantly improved collaboration between our product management and UX teams. Previously, aligning design vision with engineering feasibility involved lengthy, back-and-forth discussions, which often led to miscommunication and delays. With Evo in place, the standardised components and comprehensive documentation provided a common language for both teams.
This change reduced ambiguity, enabled faster decision-making, and ensured that product requirements were clearly defined from the outset, making the entire process more efficient and cohesive.
Overall, the Evo Design System not only boosted our engineering efficiency and product quality but also fostered an environment of improved collaboration across departments. It continues to shape Eptura, helping teams make better decisions and build higher-quality products.
What Has Been The Biggest Challenge You Have Faced?
Getting multiple product teams to adopt the Evo Design System was a challenge. Each team had its own workflows and habits, so the shift wasn’t just technical, it required changing how people worked. Aligning them meant clear communication, patience, and direct collaboration.
Setting engineering standards was one thing; making them stick was another. Without lowering quality, the system had to work for ongoing projects and future growth. To achieve this, I ran hands-on workshops where teams saw the system in use, understood its benefits, and learned how to apply it. These sessions were interactive; teams could ask questions, raise concerns, and give feedback.
The result was transformative: the Evo Design System not only increased our development efficiency but also significantly increased efficiency and consistency across all products. Adoption accelerated, and the standardised approach streamlined collaboration between product, design, and engineering teams.
This collective effort turned a difficult shift into lasting change, driving better outcomes and faster time-to-market for our products.
What Makes A Great User Interface (UI)?
A good UI isn’t about decoration; it’s about function. Every element should help users navigate smoothly and complete tasks without effort. Clarity matters. A simple, uncluttered interface keeps the focus where it should be. Information should be presented logically, without unnecessary distractions.
Consistency builds trust. A unified design language: consistent colors, typography, and layout patterns makes navigation predictable and manageable. When users don’t have to stop and think about how something works, they confidently move through an interface.
A good UI works on any device, adjusting smoothly to different screens. It also gives instant feedback, whether through a hover effect, animation, or message, so users always know what’s happening.
Real-world testing is crucial to confirming the success of an interface. Whether through A/B testing, tracking user behaviour, or conducting accessibility audits, practical testing ensures the design not only looks good but also performs well in everyday use. The best UI goes unnoticed. It doesn’t get in the way; it just works.
How Do You Start When Thinking Up A Great User Experience (UX)?
I approach UX with an engineering mindset, focusing on technical and user needs. I work closely with product managers, designers, and accessibility experts to ensure the experience is functional, intuitive and inclusive from the start; accessibility isn’t an add-on; it’s built-in.
I design how components connect, keeping in mind business goals, user needs, and system limits. Performance, security and accessibility, semantic markup, keyboard navigation, and screen reader support are built in from the start.
Early prototypes catch issues before they grow. Testing in actual conditions ensures everything works as it should, without unnecessary complexity.
UX should be clear, practical, and easy for everyone.
How Does Close Collaboration Between The Product Design, Engineering And Product Marketing Teams Contribute To Creating Innovative And Successful Products?
A good product comes from design, engineering, and marketing working together. Each team plays a key role:
- The design makes it intuitive and visually clear
- Engineering ensures it works, scales, and holds up technically
- Marketing positions it so the right people find and understand it
When teams collaborate early, designers account for technical limits, engineers focus on user needs, and marketers shape features based on trends and feedback. This keeps the product focused and avoids costly mistakes.
Clear communication and regular check-ins speed up problem-solving. The result is more decisive when teams understand the whole product, not just their piece.For instance, when we developed an interactive user dashboard for one of our flagship products, this collaborative approach was critical.
The design team created a clean, user-friendly layout that highlighted key metrics. At the same time, our engineers built a robust backend that ensured real-time data updates and smooth performance, while the marketing team provided insights from user research that informed which features and data visualisations would resonate most with our audience.
The result was a dashboard that not only increased user engagement by 20% but also reduced customer support queries because it made complex information easy to digest.
In my experience, when design, engineering, and marketing stay aligned, the product isn’t just well-built; it’s something people want to use.
What Is Next For You?
I recently transitioned from the Platform to the Product team at Eptura, which has opened up new opportunities to work on high-impact projects. I’m currently focused on developing a key product module using the Evo Design System and Floorplan Viewer to create a seamless, user-centric experience. I mentor front-end engineers, helping them tackle challenges and grow their skills.
Outside Eptura, I write about how design systems shape products, speed development, and fit into agile workflows. I also cover accessibility, UI trends, and industry best practices.
In addition, I contribute to the local Front-End community through workshops and meetups and explore how AI can further enhance front-end development, UI/UX design, and overall product innovation.
Through these initiatives, I’m committed to sharing concrete, actionable insights on building scalable digital products and demonstrating the critical role a design-driven approach plays in modern engineering.
