Designing the Operating System for Chabad World Headquarters

More than fourteen departments each operated like independent organizations. Every team needed its own combination of websites, registration systems, ecommerce, CRM, events, dashboards, educational platforms, permissions, communications, reporting, and administrative tools.

Historically, every request became another custom software project. The result was predictable: duplicate engineering work, disconnected user experiences, and fragmented data.

Instead of asking: "How do we build this application?" we started asking: "How do we build a platform capable of building every application?" That shift changed every product decision that followed.

Rather than designing dozens of independent products, we created a configurable platform built from reusable capabilities. Every department could compose products using shared building blocks instead of commissioning custom engineering work.

The architecture was intentionally component-first, designed to leverage a unified backend infrastructure to support both web apps and standalone mobile experiences. Every interface, workflow, and data object was built as a reusable primitive.

The most important product we designed wasn't a dashboard. It was the system used to create dashboards. We developed a configurable portal builder that allowed departments to launch new digital products without redesigning core infrastructure every time.

Interactive presentation detailing the executive updates, metrics, and operational milestones achieved during the first phase of the platform rollout.

Today, dozens of major organizations, initiatives, and portals run entirely off the Merkos Chabad platform. While they share a unified design language and core capabilities, each operates with its own custom backend infrastructure and portal configurations.

Detailed roadmap outlining the long-term goals, product strategy, and ecosystem architecture for the global platform.