I'm going to say something the entire marketplace development industry doesn't want you to hear.
The biggest risk in building a marketplace isn't the technology.
It's the questions nobody asks before the technology starts.
Who moves first — buyers or sellers?
How does a transaction actually happen, step by step?
Where does your cut come from?
How will you handle trust between two strangers?
What is the minimum flow that creates real value?
These questions sound simple.
They're not.
And the teams that skip them
always end up answering them later —
at a much higher cost.
At U1CORE we've worked on marketplace products across different industries.
The pattern is consistent:
the projects that go smoothly are the ones where these conversations happened first.
The ones that struggle are the ones where they didn't.
No sprint will save you from a wrong assumption.
No UI kit will solve a chicken-and-egg problem you haven't acknowledged.
The most valuable work in marketplace building
happens before anyone opens Figma.
If you're planning to build one —
start there.
Your SaaS product might be solving the wrong problem. And most designers don't realize it.
Before jumping into Figma, designing dashboards, or creating beautiful interfaces, there's something much more important to understand.
The difference between a Business Problem and a User Problem.
In Part 01 of my SaaS Product Design Masterclass, I'm breaking down:
🔹 1.1 — Start with the Business Problem
🔹 1.2 — Understand the Business Impact
🔹 1.3 — Identify the User Problem
🔹 1.4 — How Business Problems and User Problems are connected, but different.
Here's an important thought:
A business wants to achieve a goal.
A user wants to solve a problem.
Great digital products understand both.
This is where meaningful product differentiation begins — not with UI, but with problem understanding.
🎯 This is Part 01 of my 10-hour practical SaaS Product Design series, where I'll walk through the complete process of understanding and designing a SaaS product.
If you're a UX/UI Designer, Product Designer, aspiring designer, or SaaS founder, this series is for you.
One question: Do you start your design process with business problems or user problems?