6 Reasons Why Designing B2B Software is Hard
We all know that building enterprise software is hard, that selling to the enterprise separates the men from the boys, that enterprise buyers are different and thus sales cycles are long and complicated. As if that’s not enough, we also hear how enterprise (B2B) is behind the consumer space (B2C) when it comes to usability and design. Why is that? Why are there so many more B2C startups which have great UX and why there are so few delightful enterprise applications?
Let's start with the obvious reasons:
There are more startups in B2C than in B2B, thus more designers focus on B2C - this is a simple numbers game. It is true that the number of B2B startups seeking funding is getting closer to the number of B2C startups (B2B 48% vs B2C 52%), but this is only recent. Plus, there are many more B2C startups and super simple consumer projects that are bootstrapping. The pains and needs of consumers are more understood, thus the barriers-to-entry are lower.
B2B companies tend to have a mindset where the appreciation for great design is lower - B2B entrepreneurs often focus solely on problem solving rather than on providing delightful user experience. Engineering mindset rules, left brain wins over the right brain. This creates a vicious cycle. Creative talent is less attracted to working in a hard-core engineering culture, thus B2B companies can't hire great designers. Catch 22.
 The little less obvious reasons:
3) The buyer is not the user
Jason Fried of 37signals points this out. When the buyer is not the user there is less pressure on great usability because the buyer is not the one continuously bugged by usability glitches and thus doesn't care.
4) Usability isn't a priority
Usability hasn't been a priority beacuse it hasn’t been scrutinized during the buying process. Historically, freemium and free trials didn't really exist in the world of B2B. It is much easier for a salesperson to paint a rosy picture of great usability with a shiny slide deck and datasheets. Just look around B2B websites - how often do you need to request a demo where an experienced sales engineer takes you through a designed-to-wow walk-through? Smoke and mirrors. This is changing, Zendesk, Box.net are great examples, but the market has a still long way to go.
And the least obvious reasons:
5) The designer is not the user
This is a big one. Understanding the user is the fundamental first step for any designer on the path to great UX, and bridging this gap in B2B is very hard. If a young, talented designer designs a sleek game, a new social networking app, or even a task management app, she can design, test and quickly iterate because she is basically following what is known as genius design - she represents to a large extent the target user persona and designs the product for herself. On the other hand, designing something as complicated as, for example, a business intelligence application is a whole different ball game. Designers need to understand how a VP of Sales, or a Head of Marketing think and what goals they have. Yet, these are roles in which the designers have likely never been. This is why Alan Cooper invented personas, and why UX designers follow user-centered design practices, conduct extensive user research and write context scenarios - to bridge the user-knowledge gap, or I should probably say...abyss. And this is really hard.
Really great designers are not motivated by money. They seek recognition, they are working on perfection, on changing the world. It is harder to get excited about a new Enterprise Budgeting solution with a limited potential user base than it is to get excited about designing a "cool" social networking app for potentially millions of users. B2C users provide more praise and are more passionate about products, which in turn fuels the B2C designers’ passion. B2B users tend to be less vocal, thus killing the passion of the B2B designers. Another Catch 22.
 We face all these challenges at GoodData as well, but we are lucky - our leadership is design-oriented, including our CEO Roman Stanek, who is also an amazing photographer. We managed to build a strong UX design culture that attracts top-notch designers. Our UX process is cutting edge, with personas, scenarios, customer experience maps, service blueprints, usability testing and myriad listening channels.
We can't afford not to delight our users. Making users happy long term is the foundation of any SaaS business. We are transparent, our platform has open APIs and anybody can sign up to experience our product, allowing us to listen to the users and gain great feedback.
And what about the passion? That’s easy, because we ARE changing the world. We are fundamentally changing the experience of business intelligence. Our goal is to be behind every business decision ever made. And we will be.
How are you solving these design challenges? What else are you finding hard about B2B design? Let me know!!!
  Hubert heads Product Management at GoodData. He is passionate about design and is laser focused on continuously delivering great products with delightful user experience. Follow him on twitter @hpalan.
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