When Design Is Solving the Wrong Problem
How I redirected a POS product from interface optimization to business alignment, unlocking a new market segment
Complexity
System Thinking
B2B Systems
The product was improving, but adoption wasn’t
At Sary, I was leading product design for a POS system used by merchants for stock and sales management. The team’s focus was clear: improve the digital interface to drive adoption.
However, despite continuous design and development efforts, the product was not gaining expected traction in the market. Sales teams were struggling, and distribution challenges were slowing progress.
At this point, the assumption across the team was:
improving the product experience would solve the problem.
I stepped back to audit the system, not the features
Instead of continuing execution, I stepped back to question the foundation:
Are we solving the right problem, or just improving the wrong layer?
I initiated a cross-functional session titled: “POS Business Blueprint: What’s Next and Why”
Using a Power vs Interest stakeholder mapping, I identified and gathered key participants:
Product and design
Sales teams operating in Saudi Arabia
Business stakeholders connected to distribution and partnerships
The goal was not to review features, but to audit the full system around the product.
Teams were solving in isolation instead of alignment
I facilitated a structured audit covering:
Product vision and positioning
Target audience and market assumptions
Sales pipeline and distribution model
Roadmap priorities
Operational and legal blockers
A key pattern emerged:
The issue was not the interface. It was misalignment across the system.
Sales teams had critical insights that were not shared
Some existing solutions were not communicated internally
Teams were solving overlapping problems without coordination
The product was being optimized in isolation from its real operating environment.
We stopped optimizing the interface and rebuilt the GTM strategy
Based on this alignment, we made a clear set of decisions:
Pause further investment in interface improvements
Prioritize fixing the sales and distribution model
Develop clear product narratives and documentation for sales teams
Support go-to-market efforts through local partnerships and relationships
A critical insight reshaped our strategy:
Selling the POS to businesses with existing systems had high resistance
Selling to newly established businesses had significantly lower friction
This led to a shift in targeting:
Focus on new merchants in developing areas
Align positioning with early-stage business needs
Reduce onboarding complexity
From feature delivery to market-driven execution
The team moved from feature delivery to market enablement
Roadmap decisions became grounded in real market conditions
Sales teams operated with clearer messaging and structure
The product successfully opened a new market segment in Saudi Arabia
Most importantly, we avoided continued investment in solving the wrong problem.
In complex systems, alignment matters more than iteration
This experience reinforced a core principle in my approach:
Design is not always about improving what exists.
It is about identifying where the real problem lives.
In complex systems, clarity is not created through more design iterations.
It is created by aligning the system around the right problem.
© Ahmed Ramadan 2026
