Productivity

Over the past few years, I’ve had the privilege to work in the enterprise software space at MuleSoft and watched some amazing shifts in the industry. One of the most interesting ones has been watching a growing group of folks to bring the same level of experience from consumer software to the enterprise.

This is great for users. Enterprise software is often riddled with ridiculously annoying user flows and horrible design. But, expectations have changed. More and more, winning in the enterprise means being able to win on user experience. And there also appears to be a growing focus on this in the community at large.

More and more, winning in the enterprise means being able to win on user experience.

Yet, the consumerization of IT analogy isn’t 100% apt. Designing for the enterprise differs in scope, process, goals, and resources. It is very difficult to do well. There are tight timelines and budgets, stakeholders who are not design savvy, and multiple, conflicting priorities.

No love at first sight

Take any single piece of Salesforce’s user interface. There isn’t much to like on the surface. The visual design is from a decade ago. It feels like there is too much information. The forms can be confusing at first. Yet, if you are a Salesforce user, this is irrelevant because it is the most productive system to run your business. You can easily access all the information you need, whether it’s your customers, pipeline information, or revenue.

Take any single piece of Salesforce UI. There isn’t much to like on the surface.

The power of Salesforce comes from it’s consistency. If I learn the basic paradigm, I can be productive across the whole platform. You know how to create or edit one object? You know them all. You know how to change one form or layout? You can change them all.

It consolidates all the data into a single platform, giving users a single view into the business, enabling them to be highly productive, and delivering an edge over competitors who offer more disjoint solutions. The experience drives more data into the Salesforce platform and more usage. And vis a versa.

Salesforce is productive — but it’s not simple.

(Although don’t get me started on Salesforce reports. There is nothing productive or simple about it.)

Productivity vs. Simplicity

The tradeoffs between simplicity and productivity are key to understanding great enterprise software. Think about it as a set of trade-offs represented by a simple curve. On the top left, you might have an interface with a single botton. It is very simple, but very low productivity. And on the bottom right, you may have the most complex form imaginable which does everything — if you can figure out how to get it done.

Consumer software must focus on the lowest common denominator as it is pursuing a broad audience. This creates a focus on simplicity, while minimizing the amount of things you can do with the tool. Enterprise software, on the other hand, must focus on ensuring its users can achieve the most with their software, at the cost of simplicity. This creates a higher barrier of entry, but day in, day out productivity with the tool is more important than the learning curve.

Great design boosts simplicity

The first conclusion of the above chart is that great design can increase simplicity without compromising productivity. There are many tools in the toolbox to do this such as:

• Creating reusable/consistent paradigms across your application
• Expert modes
• Intelligently surfacing only relavant data
• Dividing applications into a set of smaller apps

The second conclusion from the above chart is that feature bloat decreases simplicity. Yes, your users may be able to do more, but next thing you know, you’ve got Microsoft Office and not Google Docs. (Of course, that’s not all bad, since you may have a multi-billion dollar business on your hands.) The trick is to find the right trade-off point in this curve. To do this, you need to have a clear vision and a lot of user empathy, no matter what point on the curve you choose.

Companies that focus on productivity —Microsoft, Salesforce, Adobe, AutoDesk — haven’t always been the sexy ones, but, they are changing the how the world is run. They’re replacing old nasty business apps, enabling artists, and powering small businesses. And while they are not the most simple products in the world, users love them for that.