Ways to adapt UX Thinking to the Enterprise
There are a few techniques we can use to overcome the challenges we will face doing enterprise UX.
Think “functional persona” instead of “user persona”
Traditionally we’re taught that a persona represents a particular user. In the enterprise world, however, users are often spread across various business units and even continents. A marketing manager in the U.S. may have completely different needs from one in Kenya or Mumbai.
A more practical approach is to examine the functional areas within the platform (for example: create, edit, review, submit, approve and reject) and then create personas that address each area (hence, functional persona). To do that:
- Collect information from users representing each functional area. Ask them about their tasks needs.
- Map out the workflow for each industry using a user journey map or a workflow diagram.
- Identify common themes. Examine each industry’s workflow and start looking for common themes that you can highlight.
- Build your functional persona with the info you collected in the previous step.
Be proactive about politics
Enterprise environments bring with them a much longer chain of command and the influence of many leaders or stakeholders. Many of these leaders will want to take on the role of “decider” who gives final approval for product decisions.
- Talk to all leaders vying for the “decider” role
- Talk to your product team
- Present your process vision to all executives
Think in terms of account settings
The account settings (e.g. admin interface or admin module) is often the enterprise software designer’s best friend.
The sheer number of users and possible enterprise use cases means you can’t cram all the functionality into the default UI.
To help decide correctly, return to your “functional personas” and user flows. Functionality common to most of your user groups should move up in priority as candidates for the default UI. Everything else becomes lesser priority in the admin bucket.
Work with sales teams to identify upsell triggers in the product
As you work on new features, talk to your sales directors or their representatives. Oftentimes, the sales team’s understanding of the market will reveal which features are a right fit for an in-app upsell flow.
Work with sales teams to internalize buyer vs. end-user needs
Talking to the sales team early in the specification process also offers a better understanding of the actual buyer and end-user. In some cases they’re the same person, but very often for enterprise software, they’re different people. Get to know the buyer and end user needs early so that everything from the functionality, color choices and language is balanced accordingly.
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