Building a SaaS product is never as simple as having a good idea and hiring a few developers.
It requires rigorous customer discovery, thoughtful design, iterative development, and ongoing support.
In a recent episode of SaaS That App: Building B2B Web Applications, Aaron Marchbanks and Justin Edwards sat down with Wayne Neale, co-founder and Chief Product Officer at Founders Workshop, to unpack the proven 5D framework that has helped hundreds of founders turn raw ideas into revenue-generating software.
Why Process Matters More Than Passion
When a person walks into Founders Workshop and says “I have an idea for an app,” Wayne’s first reaction isn’t to code. It’s to ask questions.
What problem does it solve? Where did the idea come from? Who’s the customer? And crucially: Have you talked to them?
What separates successful founders from the rest? It’s not just vision; it’s their ability to execute systematically, using a process that prioritizes real-world validation over assumptions.
D1: Discovery
The journey starts with D1: Discovery. This phase is all about getting out of your own head and into your customers’ world. Wayne calls it “getting to the truth as quickly as possible,” and it means conducting deep, ethnographic interviews, not focus groups, not surveys.
His team typically speaks one-on-one with 6-8 potential customers, asking about the problem they are seeking to solve, how they currently respond, and what the pain points are in that process. These interviews uncover not only the current ways to solve the problem but which solutions often lead to more trouble.
D2: Design
With insights in hand, the team moves into the Design phase, visually prototyping the solution in a way that allows the customer to react to something tangible. Wayne’s team uses rapid prototyping tools and tests these wireframes and clickable demos with customers. This phase usually includes 4-5 iterations, just enough to achieve roughly 85% usability confidence before moving into costly development.
D3: Development
Next comes D3: Development, where the validated prototype becomes real software. But instead of building a “minimal” version of every feature, Wayne recommends creating a slice that includes functionality, usability, and desirability.
He uses the MVP triangle: a product should work (function), it should feel intuitive (usable) and solve a real problem in a compelling way (desirable). This combination ensures that you’re not just launching code; you’re launching satisfactory solutions .
D4: Deployment
Deployment is where your app meets the market. Here, Wayne stresses the importance of feedback loops: from usability metrics to user behavior analytics. A live product should constantly feed data back into the development process. That’s how iteration happens after launch.
D5: Delivery & Support
Software is never really done. The D5 phase encompasses support, iteration, and evolution. Clients often pivot based on user feedback or scale with funding. Wayne’s team supports both the maintenance of v1.0 and the strategy for v2.0. Some clients transition to staff augmentation, embedding Founders Workshop engineers into their own growing teams. Others continue to rely fully on Wayne’s team. The key is flexibility and long-term thinking.
Beyond 5D: Aligning Other Teams for SaaS Success
While the 5D Playbook provides the foundation for building the right product, other departments must also be strategically engaged early in the journey:
Marketing: Craft the Narrative Early
Your marketing team should be looped in during the Discovery and Design phases to help shape messaging that resonates with early adopters. They can:
- Test positioning and value props with interview participants
- Build waitlists and early access programs
- Create content that reflects user language and real-world problems
Sales: Bridge Insights to Conversion
Sales teams are often closest to the end user. Involve them in the feedback loop:
- Use prototypes as sales tools
- Validate pricing and packaging models with early prospects
- Refine go-to-market strategies based on what real customers want to pay for
Customer Success: Build for Retention
Too often, SaaS products focus on acquisition at the expense of retention. Customer success insights can shape:
- Onboarding workflows
- In-app education
- Metrics to track user engagement and satisfaction post-launch
Operations and Finance: Plan for Scalability
Don’t wait until deployment to figure out how your systems will scale. Finance and Ops teams should weigh in on:
- Infrastructure costs and budgeting
- Support staffing needs
- Usage-based pricing and billing systems
Final Thoughts
So, where do most founders go wrong?
According to Wayne, it’s when they obsess over details too early and build too much instead of focusing on core problems..
The 5D process exists to prevent that: to guide founders toward building products that matter, that work, and that evolve with users. It’s a mindset. A way of respecting your customers, your product, and your future. And when other departments align behind that mindset, the result isn’t just a good app. It’s a viable business.
Wayne’s Background
Wayne Neale is the co-founder and Chief Product Officer at Founders Workshop, where he helps entrepreneurs transform ideas into market-ready, scalable software products. With decades of experience spanning education, UI/UX, startups, and venture capital, he has guided hundreds of founders through the development process using his innovative 5D methodology. As a veteran product strategist, Wayne brings particular insight to the challenges of building B2B web applications, focusing on creating solutions that don’t just look good but deliver real business value and solve authentic customer problems.
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