We once shipped a marketplace for high-ticket asset deals, and in review it looked genuinely good: wide hero photos, clean spec blocks, everything aligned.
Then real listings started arriving. Many came in with no photos yet, specs half-filled, documents still sitting in compliance checks. We had designed the page around a complete, flattering record, so anything partial turned into empty space and ragged cards. Sellers looked at their own listing, decided it looked half-dead, and went back to sending details by email, which is exactly the behaviour the platform existed to replace.
Nothing was technically broken. The design was quietly telling people their listing wasn't ready. Fixing that had little to do with visuals. We had to decide what the page does when data is incomplete: show what's verified, show what's still in progress, and let a gap read as a step instead of a hole.
So now, before anything gets built, we pull the ugliest real record we have and look at the design with that one loaded. If it survives that, it will probably survive the showcase version.
You can run the same check on your own product, on its emptiest and least complete record.