The problem

Meridian's dashboard fetched every widget's data in the browser, in sequence, after the bundle had parsed. The bundle contained three charting libraries, two of which were used on one screen each.

What we did

Data moved to the server, where the queries run in parallel and the results stream to the client as they arrive. Charts became a single library, chosen by measuring what each one cost rather than by preference. The widget layout renders immediately with skeleton states sized to the content that will replace them, so nothing moves when the data lands.

The part that mattered most

Neither change was clever. The eleven seconds were the cost of decisions made when the dashboard had two widgets and never revisited when it had twenty.