How I approach a new product listing from scratch

Before I open Figma, I spend time understanding the product well enough to explain it to someone who has never seen it. That understanding drives every design decision.

By Divyanshu Kumar

Before I open Figma, I spend time understanding the product well enough to explain it to someone who has never seen it. That understanding drives every design decision that follows.

Step one: I buy the competing products mentally. I search the category, look at the top 10 listings, and note what every competitor says and shows. Then I note what nobody is saying. That gap is where the opportunity lives.

Step two: I list every question a first-time buyer would have. Not the features. The questions. "Does this fit my boat?" is different from "compatible with 47 watercraft models." The first one is how a buyer thinks. The second is how a spec sheet reads.

Step three: I map those questions to image slots. Main image answers "what is this." Image 2 answers "what does it do." Image 3 answers "does it fit mine." And so on. Every slot has a job before I start designing it.

Step four: I design the A+ content to handle everything the images could not. Comparison between models, install walkthrough, compatibility details, brand story. Each module exists because a specific objection needs removing.

The visual design, the typography, the color, the layout, all of that comes last. The structure comes first. A beautiful listing that does not answer the right questions will always lose to an average listing that does.