Why B2B Products are Hard to Design and How to Improve Them

B2B and Saas products are designed to improve workflow efficiency for businesses. They help streamline complex processes, optimize team collaboration, and ultimately drive business success. While designing for B2B can be tricky due to complex workflows and user unawareness, it's crucial to understand user needs and design flexible, future-proof solutions.

What is B2B?

B2B, also known as business-to-business, is an experience designed for how people work. Most professionals working on a computer have systems and products they use daily.?Designing products for how people work helps businesses and organizations become more efficient or drive growth.

For example, recruiting processes can be very long, from when you upload a resume to when you get hired.?To manage the hiring process, most businesses use some form of Applicant Tracking System to handle candidates.?

A well-designed system can improve candidate approvals to move to the next step. The candidate workflow matches internal processes and keeps the business moving forward.

Why B2B Products are Essential

B2B products help organizations run efficiently and drive their business. Companies operate by people using tools to do their job.?Designing B2B products well can lead to more efficient processes and workflows.

Unfortunately, a lot of B2B workflows are painful to use and tedious. That's why design is so important for these experiences.

Examples of B2B Products and Companies

Some companies that make B2B products include Salesforce, Hubspot, and Qualtrics. These products focus on sales, marketing, and e-commerce surveys. However, these are just a few examples. Consumer-focused companies also address B2B use cases.?

Any company that sells to a business has a B2B use case. For example Dropbox has a consumer use case, but also has enterprise level security and permissions to address B2B scenarios.

Challenges Designing B2B Products

Workflows and user interfaces can be complex

These products are difficult to design because they can be complex. You'll have to dive in and learn how users do their work.

An example is when I worked on a Telecom product for Radio Access Network Engineers. Planning 5G networks was something I needed to familiarize myself with. These are unique workflows for a specific type of user.?

As a result, you'll end up diving into the unknown with no points of reference. And worse, sometimes, these users aren't always aware their workflow is inefficient.?

Users aren’t always aware their workflows can be improved

For example, if you ask them about their workflow, they might tell you everything is fine. Observe how they work. You'll notice the convoluted hacks needed to do their job. Some of the day to day challenges are things they won't even see.

As a result, it's best to observe the user in their natural setting to see how they work. This observation will help you get the complete picture of what they're doing.?In this video, Chris Nodder explains why site visits are best for these kind of situations.

Workflows span different products and integrations

A lot of work is done using different systems and integrations. If you consider your own work, you might notice that you use Workday to take time off, ADP to manage your paycheck settings, and another internal built system for expense reports.

Imagine a user that has to work with many different systems and integrations because of the nature of their work.

Workflows aren’t easily measured through traditional metrics

Some B2B products don’t allow for traditional metrics, and some workflows are hard to measure. You can’t always measure in the most direct way. You’ll have to determine how to measure efficiency or ease of use.

??Now that we talked about some challenges let's talk about how we can solve them.

Overcoming Workflow Management Challenges

It's important to note that the user isn't just working with your product. Usually, your product is just one of the many they use throughout the day or week.?

When designing products with workflows, it's essential to understand how users work. Every step should be captured and mapped out.??

When designing these kind of products, sitting with a user is highly recommended. You can use the mapping to ask questions about each step and what they hope to do. You're trying to understand their job- especially if you're unfamiliar with the role.?

You're also trying to understand the "Why" behind it. You want to uncover any hidden desires or motivations. These hidden gems might lead to innovative solutions later.?

Defining Success in Your B2B Design

B2B products sometimes prevent in-product measurement. But you can still measure the success of your design.

After mapping current workflows, start formulating ideas on what you want to improve.?

Some ideas are:

• Automating tasks
• Standardizing a process
• Introducing more in-context help
• Integrating with other systems
• Reducing workflow steps

Every project is different. You might want to measure something different for your project.

?Boost Efficiency by Designing Future-Proof Workflows

Now that you know what your users want to do. You've defined success. It's time to create the design. Design for the optimal flow, not just what the user does today.

To future-proof your workflows, design them with flexibility and scalability in mind. Designing it this way is much more challenging than it seems.?Workflows should be flexible because there's more than one way to do something.

One common pitfall is creating a single entry point to do specific tasks. Entry points and other views should be contextual to the task at hand.?It might make sense to have a single entry point, but ensure context is taken into account.

Design with System Components and Patterns

Another option to future-proof your design is to use modular system components. If a design component is improved, the workflow updates.

You'll also want to use common design patterns in B2B experiences. Design patterns will ensure usability and reduce some of the complexity for the user. For enterprise-level patterns, you don't have to reinvent the wheel. Simplify the experience as much as possible.

You can check out my software and web patterns course if you're looking for an overview of patterns.

In Conclusion

The last suggestion is to keep improving. Iterate, analyze, observe, and update when you notice more inefficiencies. You will likely find more areas to improve over time.?

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Thank you for reading this edition of The Experience Standard. If you're interested in learning more about design, you can see more writing on dianecronenwett.com , and check out my courses on LinkedIn Learning.

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?? Designers who want to grow their design skill set

?? Individual contributors (ICs) interested in becoming confident leaders driving and leading strategy

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