Intrinsic versus Accidental Product Complexity

The consumerization of the B2B enterprise software user has been widely noted. B2B users want software that delivers value and is easy to use and personalize. Fair enough. The problem: much of today’s B2B software is complex and not easy to use.?

Product complexity, in the context of B2B software, is about the level of cognitive dissonance and effort required by a user to accomplish a desired outcome. It is important to make the distinction between intrinsic product complexity and accidental product complexity. Intrinsic product complexity is complexity which is inherent to the problem which you are solving and for which it can be difficult to simplify the software that solves the problem. Accidental product complexity is complexity unnecessarily introduced into the software due to factors such as poor user interface design, lack of integration with adjacent ecosystem software, and inadequate software personalization and configurability.?

There are a number of techniques that can reduce product complexity.?I summarize a few of the more important techniques that should be in the complexity management toolkit of product managers and designers.

• Workflow simplification: An obvious, but often overlooked, technique for complexity management is workflow simplification. Reimaging how an existing business process can be re-engineered and streamlined is a hallmark of good software. Too often in the B2B space products automate existing workflows without rethinking and optimizing them. An example is illustrative here. A SaaS company I work with has a product that requires access to publically-held company historical financial data. They required users to upload this data through a cumbersome, error-prone interface. This was creating friction for users. The team pivoted and made the simplifying workflow assumption to automatically import company financial using the Yahoo Finance API. Other examples of workflow simplifications are offered here.
• Integration: B2B SaaS apps do not live in isolation and must increasingly integrate with adjacent apps in their ecosystem. This integration includes user, workflow, and data flow integration so that users can freely navigate and interoperable across adjacent app workflows and share data. A great deal of accidental product complexity can be avoided by seamlessly integrating with adjacent applications that share workflows and data. TripIt , the trip planning tool, offers a great example of simple integration. It allows users to auto-forward confirming email trip reservations to the site which automatically ingests and organizes all of your trip plans.
• Pre-configurations: A great deal of product complexity has to do with the breadth and depth of choices offered to users, including app look-and-feel. Pre-configured solutions that set reasonable default values for product choices can shield a lot of initial accidental product complexity until a user is more comfortable and aware of the choices. è°·æ­Œ Apps offers a good example of this with its pre-configured, default views of calendars, documents, etc. that are easily editable.?Virtually every successful SaaS company has scaled by some use of simplifying assumptions and?pre-configured,?best practices solutions?to manage complexity.
• User role segmentation:?Many times, a small initial feature set is sufficient for a new user to accomplish their initial outcomes. This allows new users to not get overwhelmed by navigating accidental complexity brought on by exposing unnecessary or advanced features to new users. Similarly, the role users play often dictates the jobs they must complete and, in turn, the features they need to access in order to complete their jobs. Accordingly, accidental complexity often occurs as users are presented with interfaces and features that are not relevant to their roles. Intuit QuickBooks is a good example here. Roles such as Admin, Standard User, Time Tracker, etc. each dictate the features accessible to the user.?
• In-app training and support: Certain features have inherent complexity and may be difficult to use without some form of in-app user assistance (training, support). In such cases, offering in-app training and support by integrating tools such as Appcues , Intercom , Userpilot , and WalkMe? can often reduce inherent software complexity.?

Managing and reducing product complexity is critical to today's B2B user. It is important for product managers and designers to be intentional about reducing software complexity, especially accidental product complexity.

That’s what I think. What do you think? What techniques have you used to reduce product complexity??

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