How to prepare a SaaS project

If your future SaaS already needs three roles, payments, notifications and an admin interface, the first risk is probably not the framework: it is scope. This guide lists what to clarify before writing the first line of code.

The problem before the features

A solid SaaS starts from a precise problem people already pay to solve, badly or slowly. Phrase that problem in one sentence with no feature words in it. If the sentence cannot stand without words like dashboard or AI, the product is not defined yet.

Primary users and roles

• Who uses the product every week? They decide whether it survives.
• Who pays? Not always the daily user.
• Which roles need different rights: customer, operator, administrator?
• Who needs to see without editing: management, accounting, support?

V1 scope

The V1 must prove the product's value with the shortest possible journey. Everything not essential to that journey moves to V2: advanced customization, sophisticated exports, secondary integrations. An honest V1 scope fits on one page.

Data and integrations

• What data does the product create, read and transform?
• Where does existing data come from: files, another tool, manual entry?
• Which integrations are blocking from V1: payment, email, calendar, ERP?
• Who owns the data and where must it be hosted?

Operations and administration

A SaaS is operated daily: creating an account, fixing a record, refunding a payment, unblocking a customer. Decide during framing who performs these actions and with which tools. A V1 without an admin interface is paid for in expensive manual support.

Launch and evolution

Decide in advance what will trigger V2: a number of active users, a recurring request, a paying segment. A product prepared this way evolves through successive decisions, not through piled-up feature requests.