The World is not prepared for modern Millennials
Why experience is the key to keep your business grow.
Millennials — generation born between 1980–2000. Confident, conscious about their choices, striving for self-realization, expecting what’s best. Generation Y fastly informs the world about their existence, not only in high-developed countries. In technology and communication era they set trends, change work culture and fight for their rights.
There are two subgroups of gen Y — Early Millennials (1980–1987) and the Old Millennials (1988–2000). Their lifestyle varies depending on the ability of teamwork, the perception of success or leadership styles. Latest studies showed also that among Millennials we see another consumer segment coming — the HENRY’S. Fascinated about technology, striving for adrenaline, curious and more likely to collect experiences than things. Despite small differences between these groups, they share many common characteristics, and one of them is the urgent need for change.
It’s an old–fashioned business for us
I’m a Millennial, the early one and I see products around me as oldschool as hell. Things are moving, big guys are trying to adapt but instead of doing jumps they make geriatric steps into stable, eventual setback. By ignoring changes in the community along with the new groups of consumers, business now crashes into the wall with old market conventions not adjusted to new receivers.
Millennials are not only the main consumers in 2017 but also employees and leaders for what their business environment is for sure not ready yet. You can say there are startups, tech companies, disrupters but these are still relatively small markets and small firms compared to energy, healthcare, FMCG. Business models are like fossils and those who are evolving them are winning the market.
The world needs to understand that services are in urgent need to be re-designed because they’re constraints with the aim to challenge the ruling millennials. The examples can be multiplied but our demand is just one —
Let’s just see how it looks like in some markets and how it could be..
New banking experience
We want to handle things easily now, without regular visits in banks or bizarre phone interviews taking a lifetime. Banking services should be redesigned completely, taking the customer experience into the new level. It shouldn’t be an unpleasant to-do thing on your list and we may see it starts to change. Some banks tried their best to meet our expectations with various results. As for the positive changes observed in Poland, they took pretty good care about the user experience. Looking at banks like PKO, mBank or ING and actually most of polish institutions, maybe there is some hope left in this area.
Poland made a leapfrog years ago and took the lead with their revolutionized m-banking experience by creating a well-designed customer journeys. Clear and easy to navigate interface with the ability to top up your mobile bears fruit with high user’s rates and tons of downloads. What’s worth to mention, we can take a fast look on our assets by using a graphic index of finances. Apps are using machine learning to propose a wire for bills or alert you when you’re spending too much for entertainment as most of the providers have included financial analytics and budgeting. You can give your friend his money back with one step (or even an sms) and a fingerprint. You can take money from the ATM with one tap when you don’t have a card with you, thanks to the service called Bliq. Oh did I mention that it costs zero for the account itself and for the transfers?
Mobile banking experience still needs an intense set of changes. While in Poland we can enjoy some really good solutions, in the US modern mobile experiences came in after Applepay and they still didn’t get there. While private banking made a little step to catch the rest of the world in business solutions you still have to go through complicated process of x steps. Login — confirm with a code from text — add recipient — confirm with a code from text — set a wire — confirm with a code from text — ready? — confirm with a code from text — oh no something went wrong — you’re receiving a phone call but you hear nothing due to low voice quality. Write down your code!! Fast, cause I won’t be repeating…. It happens to me all the time at least in Chase and Citibank. Maybe I’m doing something wrong, should it look like that?
Paypal? Pfff 😤 try to find something in this “great” modern interface, expect big spreads because you can not use another currency and don’t be surprised when they block all your money from the ecommerce business or kickstarter for a month..
We want to transfer money in 3 seconds, being able to do everything through our mobiles without getting lost among 60 not really relevant options. Fortunately companies like Revolut and Stripe are doing great job but the financial world has to finally dare to introduce new solutions and let the old ones get out of date.
Automotive change of mindset
A trouble-facing sector in the millennial era was the automotive industry and the car business looked in the future with fear. With the driving culture changing, we often choose Uber, bikes or public commute. However, latest data showed that millennials are now the fastest growing segment of car buyers. But for how long though?
The new generation is used to have everything simplified, intuitive and easy to navigate with pleasant experience. The driving experience has to be comfortable, therefore it’s considered now as a part of the relaxation process. And while some brands focus mostly on the body of the car, hoping that it will satisfy the Millennials’ needs, interiors ergonomics and most of all interfaces are a nightmare!
Buying experience? It’s not clear and easy at all!
You just need to go through 3 steps to customize your Tesla and all financing options are served in a clear, understanding way at the end. And what about other brands?
I bought a new Toyota lately and the way it looked like was far away from what I’m used to see in other sectors where I buy stuff. I had to go through complicated process of choosing from 3 body options. There was practically no difference! Then I had to choose among 5 engines and gearboxes, addons, trunk, media center, textiles, materials on the steering wheel and I ended up customizing the interior…After that, my sales consultant was trying to upsell me something that I completely didn’t need. The contract had 56 pages, all costs were unclear and some of them were hidden. At the end, the representative tried to convince me to buy an additional windshield insurance… such a bad experience! I just wanted to buy a car, not to get a doctorate from automotive engineering.
It’s called the Millennials’ best brand not without a reason. Tesla turned this whole car experience upside down. The energy revolution took it to the whole new level and offered buying experience that is clear and pleasant. They also change the way we interact with car by adding huge and extremely responsive screen that gives us all the info about the car.
As this tesla famous screen is working the way it should it still looks like from 2009, Skeumorphic look, unreadable icon, blinks, shadows, energy flames.
In my toyota I had a chance to choose a modern multimedia center…with the interface that worked like it was from 1995.
After clicking the button you have to wait at least a second till something happens on the screen. Input lag for touch and physical buttons takes way too long, the interface that tries to imitate reality, with disgusting animation and 15fps frame rate is even worse. It’s definitely not the experience similar to the one on my iPhone so as the result I’ve chosen a good old line display with great responsiveness.
The success of Tesla made the copycats work harder. But we observe how the automotive industry struggles with technology inside the car. Even the world famous BMW looks and works like it was from 2009 with the blue energy ornamentation where millions of details and unnecessary animations distract the user from getting the option he needs. And one of their worst idea was to equip the car with a joystick to navigate the screen.
Superbly inconvenient — was simply a distraction for the user who had to manoeuvre the cursor using that “great” invention.
I have reviewed dozens of car displays looking at readability, usability, information architecture and graphical interface. These were the only cars that were made in 2016 and 2017 and I think we are doomed..Why car giants can’t implement something from the mobile era? The only hope is the android auto that should arrive soon.
Take a look and compare. Hope they won’t ruin it like Samsung did it in the mobile android.
They start their real jobs...
..and terrify future employers, accustomed to loyal employees and the old work culture. Self realization, achieving our goals and great work environment — this is what we’ve came for.
Born in the mobile era, we know perfectly the world of Facebook, Snapchat, Dropbox or Slack that are user-friendly and well-designed. And then it comes the big day, when we have to be people in the know of Microsoft Office package and its dark corners. While Windows 10 was a great announcement — the world of office suite is fossilized like a mammoth in the Royal Museum of the Natural History — even repainted and well-preserved one is still a fossil.
Complicated interfaces and unintuitive click paths make us believe that the know-how of Office is the key business ability.
Most apps we come across in work is old-school and not in a good, accessible way. It might be pretty painted but it’s all just a mask.
Take Salesforce — one of the biggest sales platform or Oracle.
Developers, Finance, HCM/HR, IT, Marketing, Marketing cloud, Sales, Sales cloud, Salesforce IQ, Salesforce lightning, Service, Service cloud, Supply Chain, community, community cloud, Pardot, app cloud, Iot cloud…count 56 more — U Mad?
The options in products are so hard to find that you’re basically getting a headache trying to handle it and not to get lost. And even if you managed to do that — there’s plenty of options you won’t even use because they’re irrelevant. It shouldn’t be the sign of our generation.
In this bitter reality, we’re able to find few exceptions. Slack is taking over the world with it’s awesomeness expressed by fruitful user experience, visual identity and distinguishing marks. They achieved huge success in the Millennial era and their business model is broadly discussed. We all know that but others definitely should pay attention.
Connected utilities
Something we deal with on a daily basis. Maybe you don’t need a car or a mobile banking app but the routine of life will certainly get you. And it will come with the upcoming bills for utilities. In the world of smartphones, millennials probably see the electric meter for the first time when they move from their parents’ house and start paying their own bills.
There is no solution that will work as a portal into the modern powered home for us and there’s almost no good enough user experience to help you deal with this down-to-earth limitations. There is no trust to the electricity, water, gas or garbage collection providers. Are they supporting us to live more sustainable? They have an incentive for us to use more electricity and produce more recyclable garbage to make their stock go up rather than trying to make money on something else like education or on-demand information.
So where is the water coming from? From the sink? (😂) maybe from a drying lake? And how much gallons did I spend for the morning shower? One kWh is ¢20 — so how much is the kWh? Wouldn’t it be better to have the data introduced while using your laptop or TV? Where’s the transparency and comprehension?
There is currently no modern experience that lets you control your utilities and it’s mirroring interactions that millennials have in their daily used sectors eg social media, travel booking or e-commerce not mentioning elegant and understandable interfaces.
There are companies that start to enter the area of connected energy and of course nothing can change through the night but surprisingly — the biggest fish on the market seem not to notice the problem, so it’s still lacking popularity. And how easy it would be to make a transfer and handle such things through your mobile with only one click of the button? It would save time and it would be adjusted to new generations.
Keep us in
Millennials are the biggest and fastest evolving group in every country. Ignored by the investors and the market — we still have small amount products that fits our needs. Most companies with outdated business models just passively observe the market, hoping they survive hard times without the need to spend money and time for research and new solutions. They stucked in the past, without any hope for changes.
As an innovative company, we’re surprised how many lines of business, often with an immerse financial backup don’t care about these future leaders and still don’t care about the new market area.
Millennials — running multiple startups, opened to new solutions, individualistic, and opposed to unfair company politics won’t even notice your old-fashioned firm. They’ll be busy building companies that can actually replace them.
I’m happy to hear your opinions on my frustrations as well as the words of disagreement.
Shoot me
