The Enterprise Design Conundrum
Enterprise software is in the middle of a design-led revolution. The days of hints of colour over default-rendered HTML blocks are long over. Software no longer requires you to ‘find’ what you’re looking for as design patterns are reaching higher levels of maturity.
Intuitive interfaces have entered our enterprise lives, much more striking in similarity to their consumer app cousins. Consumer apps that were made to delight the hundred-folds of consumers, have started inspiring technical, industry-specific, function-specific software, that will be used by probably a mere fraction of people whose lives, figuratively and literally, depend on it.
Why does this matter? Because quite simply, your next hire could very well be someone who will own how your product is presented to your customer.
Product-ification, Glorified?
Product management (the mini CEO-ness, if you may), is one of the most desired job roles out there. And for all the right reasons. If you can align your thinking to look at the larger picture(s), and have an understanding of how things work, learning the ropes can be smooth sailing.
Enterprise product management, however, is a mindset change. For that matter, any business software management requires a mindset change — at least over their consumer software counterparts.
For someone who has made the shift from one to the other, or for someone working in an organisation building software for both the business end and the consumer end, the differences are obvious. The active involvement of sales teams in the product definition process is the first glaring difference. Vastly differing feedback across customers is another. Especially, considering you’re building something ‘slightly’ different for each customer, with the hope to satisfy a whole market. Especially, in early days (roughly, when you have fewer than 50 paying or anchor customers), when product management can tend towards being a nightmare, rather than a fantasy, on the glorification scale.
Conundrum #1 — is enterprise product management a glorified title for project management?
Where Does Design Fit In?
Everywhere. This is design. I would go out on a limb here and say that in an enterprise product business, design, user experience and product management are, simply, interchangeable. Of course, in this context design refers to macro implementation and not graphics, icons, colours or the general look-and-feel aspect of things alone.
Successful implementation of a product requires a) a contextual understanding of what is being built (the business case), b) empathy towards who will be using the product (the user/customer), and c) knowing how the product will be used (the use case). Interestingly, designers are (supposed to be) equipped with detailed knowledge of these. Design education curriculum consists of super-specialised modules like systems thinking, usability, human factors, humanities, research methodologies, to name just a few, that enable designers to think macro and implement micro.
Conundrum #2 — do designers make for great product thinkers? Conversely, do good product managers need to be able design thinkers?
The UX In Enterprise
Enterprise products are not built to delight. They are built to supplement a day in the life of a business user. They are built to be able to support a process. Unlike consumer apps, enterprise software is not built around coaxing the user to make split-second decisions — e.g., buying food online — and therefore, is not driven by design. As a result, enterprise software can very well be built around technology that gets the job done.
However, enterprise products are also made to delight. They are built to ensure that a day in the life of the business user does not lapse on productivity. They are built to be able to support a process, and at the same time, increase efficiencies and minimise errors. Unlike consumer apps, enterprise software is built around coaxing the user to make informed decisions and take actions that have a sustained business implication — e.g., manage customer communication — and therefore, is driven by design. As a result, enterprise software can never settle at just getting the job done, and needs to be at the cutting edge of technology.
Conundrum #3 — is UX really the intersection of technology, business and design? Or is there something else?
The Clincher
What’s the purpose of this post, you might wonder. Over the years, I have been asked to help a number of startups with design hiring. My question has always been the same — what is the purpose of hiring a design person? More often than not, startups are unable to make a distinction and it mostly comes down to some combination of ‘all of the above’.
Which, to me, is unfair — both on your prospective hire, as well as your own business. If you’re building enterprise software, you need a culture fit and not a skill fit to lead product and design efforts. You need someone with just about the right grasp on sales, marketing, business, service and technology — not to perform these functions, but to understand their respective considerations and communicate more effectively within the team. In other words, someone who sees the team itself as internal customers and empathises with them to the bone. You need someone who can plan macro and break it down into micro actions, without being in a constant ‘when will this be done’ rut. You need someone who can bring the art in your product — not just visual, but the art of being able to make the customer join along in your grand product vision. You need someone who can understand where the product is at, and what the product is capable of, with brutal honesty — and work the way up from there.
As a startup, there’s no undermining the amount of luck needed to get a good hire. And this case is no different. With luck, you might be able to find 3 different pieces of the whole. At worst, you might be able to find a single person that checks all the boxes (!). In either case, it might never be possible to extend your routine hiring processes to this role.
In other words, your mindset needs to eventually reflect the same fit that you expect from the ‘design’ hire.
Closing words — all the best!
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Cover photo by Helloquence on Unsplash
