We built the whole thing before anyone noticed the irony.
Problem statement
The client had just acquired a cluster of smaller AI agentic companies in Saudi Arabia and wanted to build the first marketplace of its kind in the region: somewhere companies, agencies, government bodies, and individuals could browse, buy, and deploy AI agents into their workflows. Two sides: buyers purchasing agents or teams, partners uploading and selling their own. Three work streams: the buyer experience, the partner experience, and the admin layer behind all of it.
My role
I came on when most of the foundation was already in place. I took on the admin stream: agent assessment, partner management, buyer tickets and feedback. Eventually the partner stream too, because the two sides were so intertwined it made more sense to have one person across both. I also built the design system from scratch: fully responsive across desktop, tablet, and mobile, with Figma variables applied across all three streams.
Process
The way I make sense of a project mid-flight is by jumping into the screens. Intro calls help. Standup helps more. Taking on tasks as fast as possible is what actually gives you a picture. The harder problem was that three PM teams weren't talking to each other, and everything was hardcoded. No AI anywhere in an AI marketplace.
Near the end, I ran two workshops to address that directly. We named the irony first, then ideated on where AI would actually change something, not just add sparkle, then categorised and prioritised. I built out the strongest explorations and presented them as future vision.
Outcome
The full product design across all three streams is complete and ready to go. I stayed on an extra month as design lead, preparing the handover in case the client decided to continue. They didn't. But everything is there if they do. The gap analysis workshops surfaced AI integrations that would have changed the experience significantly, and the client was excited about where it could go.
