# Sergio Gualda > Product Designer in Barcelona, Spain. I take vague problems to shipped first > versions, mostly for teams of two to forty people building SaaS, mobile apps > or internal tools. This site publishes the decisions behind that work, > including the ones that were wrong and what they cost. Contact: hello@sgualda.com Language: English Last generated: 2026-08-04 ## What this site is for Three things, and they describe the same journey from different angles: - **The map** — five stages of building a product, each with its own problem. Advice that saves you at one stage can hurt you at another. - **The checks** — free diagnostic questionnaires, one per common decision. They run entirely in the browser; nothing is collected. - **The journal** — essays on what specific decisions cost. ## The five stages of building a product ### 01. Worth building? Before you build anything. Most of the cost is decided here. Central question: Is there a problem here worth anyone’s time? How you know you are past it: You can name two people, actual people, not job titles, who already do this the hard way. Common mistakes here: - Asking people whether they would use it. They will say yes, because saying no to somebody’s idea is rude. Ask what they did the last time the problem happened instead. - Counting your own excitement as demand. It’s the least reliable signal available and the one you have the most of. - Researching until it feels safe. It never will. Past a certain point you’re collecting reassurance, not information. URL: https://sgualda.com/map/worth-building/ ### 02. First version You know what to build. Now you decide how much of it. Central question: What is the smallest version that’s still worth showing? How you know you are past it: Somebody outside the team can use it without you narrating over their shoulder. Not admire it — use it. Common mistakes here: - Building the version you would be proud to show instead of the version that answers the question. - Polishing the part you enjoy. It’s always the interface, and it’s almost never the part that’s actually at risk. - Treating “we can add it later” as free. Later is where the entire roadmap already lives. URL: https://sgualda.com/map/first-version/ ### 03. Nobody came You launched. Nothing happened. This is where I’ve lost the most. Central question: Which of the five reasons is behind a flat graph? How you know you are past it: You can say which of the five you’re in, and say out loud why the other four are not it. Common mistakes here: - Reading the silence as rejection. It usually is not. Rejection would require them to have understood you first. - Adding features to fix something that has nothing to do with features. - Asking your existing users why other people are not using it. They are the least qualified people in the world to answer that. URL: https://sgualda.com/map/nobody-came/ ### 04. Make it repeatable It works. Now do it again, with other people. Central question: Why does the same work keep coming back? How you know you are past it: Something shipped well while you were not paying attention to it. Common mistakes here: - Adding process because things feel chaotic. Feeling chaotic and being broken are not the same measurement. - Hiring to solve a decision problem. You get more opinions in the room and the same unclear owner. - Assuming what worked at five people works at fifteen. In my experience it starts creaking at about eight. URL: https://sgualda.com/map/make-it-repeatable/ ### 05. Charging for it Someone has to pay. This is the part I’m weakest at. Central question: Can you put a price on it yet? How you know you are past it: Somebody asked how much it costs before you told them. Common mistakes here: - Building a pricing page before a single person has asked the price. - Tiers. They are usually a sign of not being sure what you’re selling, and people read that uncertainty accurately. - Discounting to close the first customer. You learn nothing about what it’s worth and you have set the anchor. URL: https://sgualda.com/map/charging-for-it/ ## Free checks Each is a short multiple-choice questionnaire that returns one diagnosis with reasoning and concrete next steps. No account, no email, nothing stored. ### Why is nobody using your product? You launched and the graph is flat. Five completely different reasons look identical from the outside, and their fixes point in opposite directions, so guessing wrong costs you a quarter. Three questions and you get which one you’re in. Answers you can get: Nobody saw it · They saw it and did not understand it · They did not need it · Moving to you was too much work · It’s not good enough yet Takes: 40 seconds, 3 questions URL: https://sgualda.com/tools/why-is-nobody-using-your-product/ ### Was that feedback real, or just polite? Somebody told you they would use it, or that they loved it. Before you build anything on top of that sentence, five questions about that exact conversation will tell you whether it was evidence or good manners. Answers you can get: Real signal · Promising, but a leg is missing · A polite no · No signal at all Takes: 1 minute, 5 questions URL: https://sgualda.com/tools/is-user-feedback-real-or-just-polite/ ### Is this feature worth building? Something has been requested enough times that it’s getting hard to say no. Four questions separate a real need from a loud request, and give you a reason you can say out loud to the person who asked. Answers you can get: Build it · Build the smallest version · Not yet · This is a request, not a need Takes: 40 seconds, 4 questions URL: https://sgualda.com/tools/is-this-feature-worth-building/ ### Should you decide this now, or think longer? You have been going round the same decision for two weeks. Most people agonise over things they could undo in a week and rush the ones they live with for years — four questions tell you which kind yours is. Answers you can get: Decide today · Decide this week · Do not decide yet · You will live with this one Takes: 40 seconds, 4 questions URL: https://sgualda.com/tools/should-you-decide-now-or-think-longer/ ### Can you charge for this yet? You’re wondering whether to put a price on it, or whether it’s too early and asking for money would kill the momentum you have. Four questions and you will know which. Answers you can get: Charge now · Charge, but keep it simple · Not yet · Charging now would teach you the wrong thing Takes: 40 seconds, 4 questions URL: https://sgualda.com/tools/can-you-charge-for-your-product-yet/ ### Why does your team keep redoing the same work? You ship constantly and it does not feel like progress. Decisions come back, work gets thrown away, and the same argument returns every few weeks. Four questions and you will know which of four causes it is. Answers you can get: This is normal · Decisions are not written down · Somebody is left out of the room · Nobody can end an argument Takes: 40 seconds, 4 questions URL: https://sgualda.com/tools/why-your-team-keeps-redoing-the-same-work/ ## Topics - **Discovery** — Working out whether a problem is real before spending a quarter on it. - **Scope** — Deciding how much to build, and what to leave out of the first version. - **Launch** — What happens after you ship, and why the graph stays flat. - **Measurement** — Telling a real signal from a number that only looks like one. - **Process** — How teams decide, and why the same work keeps coming back. - **Craft** — The actual work of designing a product, and what it’s not. ## Essays - [Claude changed how I work, and I’m still not sure that’s a good thing](https://sgualda.com/writing/claude-ai-product-design-review/) — 2026-03-18 · craft, process Months of using Claude for product design and strategy. What it genuinely accelerates, the thinking habit it replaced, and the trade-off nobody mentions. - [Good product design is not about Figma](https://sgualda.com/writing/good-product-design/) — 2025-07-29 · craft Product design is not the Figma file, it is the decisions inside it. What makes design good, from someone who spent two years optimising the wrong thing. - [MVP vs prototype: the distinction that cost me four months](https://sgualda.com/writing/mvp-vs-prototype/) — 2025-02-17 · scope, discovery An MVP is not a small product, it is an experiment. I learned the difference by spending four months building the wrong one. What each is for, and how to pick. - [Is a UX certification worth it? I never got one](https://sgualda.com/writing/ux-certification-worth-it/) — 2025-02-11 · craft, process I looked at UX certifications, priced them, and did not do one. What got me hired instead, and the two situations where a certificate genuinely does help. - [When to design for scale, and when it is just expensive guessing](https://sgualda.com/writing/designing-for-scalability/) — 2024-12-01 · scope, craft Designing for scale too early costs as much as designing for it too late. The signal I use to tell the two apart, learned from getting both wrong. - [HEART framework vs NPS: what I learned after two years of using both](https://sgualda.com/writing/heart-framework-vs-nps-user-experience/) — 2024-07-05 · measurement I replaced NPS with Google’s HEART framework two years ago. What it caught that NPS missed, what it cost to set up, and the two dimensions I quietly dropped. - [How to let go of an idea you are attached to](https://sgualda.com/writing/learning-to-let-go-an-idea/) — 2024-01-28 · discovery, scope The hardest part of product work is binning something you believe in. Why attachment forms, the three signs I have learned to spot, and what actually helps. ## Working together Engagements are scoped and priced before anything starts. There is no hourly billing. Roughly a third of enquiries get told that none of it fits, which is a real answer rather than a negotiating position. - Work with me: https://sgualda.com/work-with-me/ - About: https://sgualda.com/about/ - Currently: https://sgualda.com/now/ ## Positions worth quoting - Five different problems produce an identical flat usage graph after launch, and their fixes point in opposite directions. Diagnosis is cheaper than effort: nine honest conversations in an afternoon. - Enthusiasm after a demo, with no existing workaround and no repeat use, is a polite no rather than evidence. - How long a decision deserves depends on how hard it is to undo, not on how important it feels. - The strongest signal that you can charge for something is somebody asking the price before you bring it up. - Repeated rework in a team is almost never a discipline problem. It is usually that decisions were made in conversation and never written down. ## Glossary Vocabulary used with a specific meaning, each defined and linked to the check it belongs to: https://sgualda.com/glossary/ ## Full text Every diagnosis, every stage and every essay in full, as plain text: https://sgualda.com/llms-full.txt ## Terms of use Quoting and citing this content is welcome. A link back to the source page is appreciated. The opinions here are one person’s, formed from a specific set of projects, and are presented as such rather than as universal rules.