How Hostess.it scaled their two-sided marketplace through 360° redesign and design system

Hostess.it is a B2B2C marketplace platform that connects businesses with promoters and hostesses. Companies use the platform to find qualified event staff for fairs, events, and promotional activities, while workers use it to discover part-time or full-time job opportunities.

The platform serves two distinct audiences with different needs, making design consistency and streamlined experiences critical to growth.

Hostess.it faced two core problems holding back growth.

First, the onboarding experience for both companies and promoters was inefficient and unclear. Users dropped off before completing activation, limiting the platform's ability to grow its two-sided network.

Second, the development team lacked shared design guidelines and patterns. Without a common visual language, prototyping and shipping new features was slow and inconsistent across the platform.

— Improve the onboarding flow for companies and promoters to increase activation rates

— Define a consistent design system with guidelines and patterns for the development team

— Create a common visual language across the entire platform to ensure consistency

Delivered a complete 360-degree platform redesign paired with a fully documented design system. The redesigned onboarding flows reduced friction for both companies and promoters, improving activation rates. The development team gained a shared reference with interactive documentation, enabling faster prototyping and more consistent feature delivery across the platform.

Flow mapping and audit
We started by mapping out all current flows for each user profile. Every step was reviewed to identify friction points and inefficiencies across the platform.

Onboarding redesign
We removed unnecessary steps from the onboarding process and updated unclear ones. The goal was to reduce friction and get users to their first value moment faster.

UI component inventory
In parallel with flow work, we inventoried all existing UI components and mapped each one to the sections of the platform where it appeared. This gave us a full picture of inconsistencies and redundancies.

Design system creation
We created a consistent visual language for the platform and built interactive documentation that includes all components, their properties, and usage guidelines. This gave the development team a shared reference for building new features.

Platform redesign
We applied the new design system across the entire platform. Every screen was redesigned to follow the updated visual language and improved user flows.

The project deliverables included:

— Complete flow maps for all user profiles

— Redesigned onboarding flows for companies and promoters

— UI component inventory

— Design system with interactive documentation

— Component library with properties and usage guidelines

— Full platform UI redesign

Full platform redesign risk
Redesigning an entire platform at once is inherently risky. It required alignment across the whole team and careful planning to avoid breaking what already worked while improving the overall experience.

Two-sided marketplace complexity
Serving two distinct user types (companies and promoters) meant every decision impacted two different experiences. Balancing both sides added complexity to every design choice throughout the project.

Aligned stakeholders early
The Hostess.it team was fully aligned that a complete redesign was the best path forward. This shared conviction made it possible to move fast without constant re-negotiation of scope or direction.

Parallel workstreams
Running the flow redesign and component inventory in parallel saved time. It also ensured the design system was grounded in real platform needs rather than abstract patterns.

Data-driven iteration mindset
The redesign was positioned as a starting point, not a final destination. Continuous data analysis was built into the plan for ongoing improvement after launch.