User Experience for B2B Platforms

🔬 How To Run UX Research In B2B and Enterprise. Practical techniques of what you can do in strict environments, often without access to users. 🚫 Things you typically can’t do 1. Stakeholder interviews ← unavailable 2. Competitor analysis ← not public 3. Data analysis ← no data collected yet 4. Usability sessions ← no users yet 5. Recruit users for testing ← expensive 6. Interview potential users ← IP concerns 7. Concept testing, prototypes ← NDA 8. Usability testing ← IP concerns 9. Sentiment analysis ← no media presence 10. Surveys ← no users to send to 11. Get support logs ← no security clearance 12. Study help desk tickets ← no clearance 13. Use research tools ← no procurement yet ✅ Things you typically can do 1. Focus on requirements + task analysis 2. Study existing workflows, processes 3. Study job postings to map roles/tasks 4. Scrap frequent pain points, challenges 5. Use Google Trends for related search queries 6. Scrap insights to build a service blueprint 7. Find and study people with similar tasks 8. Shadow people performing similar tasks 9. Interview colleagues closest to business 10. Test with customer success, domain experts 11. Build an internal UX testing lab 12. Build trust and confidence first In B2B, people buying a product are not always the same people who will use it. As B2B designers, we have to design at least 2 different types of experiences: the customer’s UX (of the supplier) and employee’s UX (of end users of the product). In customer’s UX, we typically work within a highly specialized domain, along with legacy-ridden systems and strict compliance and security regulations. You might not speak with the stakeholder, but rather company representatives — who regulate the flow of data they share to manage confidentiality, IP and risk. In employee’s UX, it doesn’t look much brighter. We can rarely speak with users, and if we do, often there is only a handful of them. Due to security clearance limitations, we don’t get access to help desk tickers or support logs — and there are rarely any similar public products we could study. As H Locke rightfully noted, if we shed the light strongly enough from many sources, we might end up getting a glimpse of the truth. Scout everything to see what you can find. Find people who are the closest to your customers and to your users. Map the domain and workflows in service blueprints and . Most importantly: start small and build a strong relationship first. In B2B and Enterprise, most actors are incredibly protective and cautious, often carefully manoeuvring compliance regulations and layers of internal politics. No stones will be moved unless there is a strong mutual trust from both sides. It can be frustrating, but also remarkably impactful. B2B relationships are often long-term relationships for years to come, allowing you to make huge impact for people who can’t choose what they use and desperately need your help to do their work better. [continues in comments ↓] #ux #b2b

Don’t Automate Complexity... Simplify and Error-Proof Instead When problems arise, it’s tempting to think automation is the magic fix. But automating a broken or complex process just means you’re speeding up the production of errors. The smarter approach? Simplify the process and error-proof it (Poka Yoke) before thinking about automation. Here’s why simplification often beats automation and how you can apply it. Why You Should Simplify Before Automating: 1️⃣ Faster, Cheaper Improvements Simplifying a process through standardization and removing unnecessary steps often solves problems more quickly and at a lower cost than automation. 2️⃣ Avoid Automating Waste If your process is full of waste (like waiting, overprocessing, or rework), automating it only speeds up inefficiency. Fix the process first, then think about automation. 3️⃣ Built-In Error Proofing With Poka Yoke solutions (like jigs, fixtures, or guides), you can design processes to prevent errors from happening in the first place—without needing expensive sensors or software. 4️⃣ Flexibility and Adaptability Simplified processes are easier to adjust and improve, while automated systems can be rigid and costly to change once implemented. How to Simplify and Error-Proof a Process: 🔍 Map the Current Workflow: Identify unnecessary steps, bottlenecks, and areas prone to errors. ✂️ Eliminate Waste: Remove any steps that don’t add value to the product or service. 📋 Standardize Work: Create clear, repeatable instructions that everyone can follow. 🔧 Introduce Poka Yoke: Physical Error-Proofing: Use jigs, fixtures, or alignment guides to prevent incorrect assembly. Visual Cues: Use color-coded labels or visual templates to guide operators. Sensors or Alarms: Only when needed, use low-cost technology to detect errors in real time. Example of Simplification and Poka Yoke in Action: A warehouse team was dealing with frequent errors when picking products for orders. Instead of implementing a costly automated picking system, they: 1. Introduced a color-coded bin system (Poka Yoke) to help operators select the correct items. 2. Simplified the picking route to reduce unnecessary walking and waiting time. Result: Picking errors dropped by 80%, and productivity increased by 15%—all without expensive automation. When to Consider Automation: Once the process is simplified and stabilized with minimal variation, automation can enhance speed and efficiency. But it should support an optimized process, not mask its problems.

I strongly believe that technology can drive processes in a way that builds and strengthens trust between clients & vendors. Tech platform services have made processes in project procurement faster, data-driven, and transparent. Tasks like vendor scouting, assessments, and comparisons that once took weeks can now be done in days. Trust is built when decisions are backed by data and transparency—stakeholders understand why a vendor was chosen. Responsiveness is equally critical; when clients promptly address vendor queries, it fosters confidence on both sides. I remember we worked with a client struggling to find the right vendor for a specialized CapEx project. Through Venwiz, they: - Identified pre-verified vendors in a flash. - Assessed vendor capabilities with over 20+ custom data points. - Used the platform to share updates and ensure alignment with vendors. The result? A faster, more objective, and transparent process that strengthened trust on both sides. For me, the intersection of technology and trust makes decisions more objective and better informed. But these are my experiences, would love to hear your thoughts/additions. #Procurement #CapEx #Trust #Technology

I went to an AI UX workshop last night expecting recycled LinkedIn advice about "building AI trust through transparency." Instead, Isabella Yamin tore down LinkedIn's job posting flow using her CarbonCopies AI framework in real-time, while founders shared raw implementation struggles. It completely changed how I'm rethinking Maibel's onboarding flow. Here's what I stole from B2B SaaS principles to redesign emotional AI for B2C: 1️⃣ Progressive disclosure with purpose LinkedIn's fatal flaw? Optimizing for completion ease > Outcome quality. Recruiters are drowning in irrelevant applications because AI never learns what "qualified" means. The personalization paradox: How do we give users enough control without overwhelming them? Users don't want "frictionless". They want INFORMED control. 📌 At Maibel: I was falling into the same trap, making emotional coaching setup so simple that the AI couldn't understand user context. Now? Progressive complexity with clear trade-offs. Show users how their choices impact outcomes. → Want deeper insights? Add more context. → Want faster setup? Here's what the AI can't personalize. 2️⃣ Closed-loop data intelligence: What Platfio gets right They've built a platform for software agencies where where every data point feeds back into the entire system. User preferences in marketing flows shape proposals. Campaign performance shapes future recommendations. Every interaction becomes intelligence for future recommendations. 📌 At Maibel: Most wellness apps store emotional check-ins like digital journals. I'm turning them into predictive feedback loops. Emotional intelligence isn’t static but COMPOUNDS. Today's reflections shift tomorrow's suggestions. Patterns fuel prevention. Users' inputs on Monday could predict AND prevent Friday's breakdown. 3️⃣  Multi-modal creativity: Wubble's transparency approach Translating images and files into music - who'd have thought? They've cracked multi-modal creativity where users become co-creators, not passive consumers. The breakthrough moment for me: What if users could see how their visual environment contributes to emotional context? 📌 At Maibel: Users upload images of their day and see how AI analyzes emotional cues: cluttered workspace = overwhelm, junk food = stress eating. Multi-modal understanding users can contribute to and influence. 💡 The bottom line? B2B Saas gets one thing right: Every interaction has to earn trust. In B2B, failed AI means churn. In emotional AI, failed trust breaks belief in tech entirely. 📌 Here's what we're doing differently at Maibel: → Progressive complexity → Context-aware feedback → Multi-modal participation → Intelligence that compounds with every input. It's not just about building WITH AI. I'm designing systems that learn understand YOU before you even need to explain yourself. Kudos to Isabella, Shivang Gupta The Generative Beings, Shaad Sufi Hayden Cassar and everyone who shared deep product insights.

If AI adoption is uneven in your company, that’s not a tooling problem. It’s a UX leadership problem. Not because the interfaces are bad. But because we keep designing features, while the real challenge is adoption across roles, teams, and workflows. A recent OpenAI enterprise report, based on aggregated usage data and a survey of 9,000 workers across nearly 100 companies, makes this shift unmistakably clear: AI inside organizations is no longer experimental. It’s becoming infrastructure. But here’s the uncomfortable part. The biggest performance gap isn’t between companies. It’s between frontier users and the median—inside the same organization. That gap shows up as uneven speed, uneven quality, and uneven decision-making. And UX leaders should care, because this isn’t a model-access issue anymore. It’s an operating model issue. The teams pulling ahead aren’t just “prompting better.” According to the OpenAI report, they’re doing less visible, more structural work: ▶️ Standardizing reusable internal GPTs instead of one-off experiments ▶️ Turning on secure connectors so assistants actually understand organizational context ▶️ Treating enablement as a design problem, not a training afterthought ▶️ Measuring workflow impact over time, not just feature satisfaction This reframes the role of UX leadership. Experience quality is no longer defined only by UI polish. It increasingly depends on governance, enablement, and shared institutional knowledge. And the next wave makes this unavoidable. The same report points toward a shift from requesting outputs to delegating multi-step workflows. At that point, accountability, visibility, and coordination become core experience questions. Who decided what? What did the system actually do? Where does review, escalation, and “definition of done” live? If we don’t design for those answers, uneven adoption will quietly harden into uneven capability. And that’s how organizations end up with AI-powered teams—and AI-blind ones—sitting side by side. If you’re exploring the Empathic Web, AI, and design leadership, follow me for more. #UX #DEsign #UXDesign #UXLeadership #EnterpriseAI #DesignLeadership #OpenAI #AdoptionUX #FutureOfWork #ProductDesign Virtual Identity

Leading UX maturity transitions isn't for the faint of heart. Your organization's UX maturity plays a big part in your career trajectory. When you're working in a low-maturity company: - You spend countless hours evangelizing why research matters - You're siloed from other departments - Process-building takes precedence over actual research But here's the flip side—low maturity orgs also offer a unique opportunity. You can shape the UX culture from scratch! 🪜Meet them where they are In low-maturity orgs, start with quick wins that deliver obvious value. Focus on usability fixes that create immediate impact. Don't begin with foundational research that takes months to pay off. Remember: You need to earn trust before you can make bigger asks. Think simple 5-user usability tests that identify critical conversion blockers. The ROI will be so clear that executives will ask for more research. 🪜Build champions across departments UX maturity isn't just about your team—it's about the org's mindset. Identify potential allies in product, engineering, and marketing. Invite them to observe user sessions. Keep it low effort. Bribe them with snacks. Go where they are. Make it fun! 🪜Create a visible maturity roadmap Be explicit about where you are and where you're going. Show what each stage of maturity looks like and the business benefits of progressing. This helps manage expectations and gives everyone a shared vision. Don't expect to jump from stage 1 to stage 5 overnight. It's a marathon, not a sprint. 🪜Invest in documentation & processes Make it really easy for anyone to answer, "What do we know about X users?" Start by putting everything in one place. Could be Drive. Or Confluence. Or a cool repository tool like Looppanel. Just make sure that insights are easy to find and reuse. Here’s a guide to setting up a repository from scratch: https://bit.ly/4bs9c9V Have you led UX maturity transitions? What were the learnings?

That’s the thing about feedback—you can’t just ask for it once and call it a day. I learned this the hard way. Early on, I’d send out surveys after product launches, thinking I was doing enough. But here’s what happened: responses trickled in, and the insights felt either outdated or too general by the time we acted on them. It hit me: feedback isn’t a one-time event—it’s an ongoing process, and that’s where feedback loops come into play. A feedback loop is a system where you consistently collect, analyze, and act on customer insights. It’s not just about gathering input but creating an ongoing dialogue that shapes your product, service, or messaging architecture in real-time. When done right, feedback loops build emotional resonance with your audience. They show customers you’re not just listening—you’re evolving based on what they need. How can you build effective feedback loops? → Embed feedback opportunities into the customer journey: Don’t wait until the end of a cycle to ask for input. Include feedback points within key moments—like after onboarding, post-purchase, or following customer support interactions. These micro-moments keep the loop alive and relevant. → Leverage multiple channels for input: People share feedback differently. Use a mix of surveys, live chat, community polls, and social media listening to capture diverse perspectives. This enriches your feedback loop with varied insights. → Automate small, actionable nudges: Implement automated follow-ups asking users to rate their experience or suggest improvements. This not only gathers real-time data but also fosters a culture of continuous improvement. But here’s the challenge—feedback loops can easily become overwhelming. When you’re swimming in data, it’s tough to decide what to act on, and there’s always the risk of analysis paralysis. Here’s how you manage it: → Define the building blocks of useful feedback: Prioritize feedback that aligns with your brand’s goals or messaging architecture. Not every suggestion needs action—focus on trends that impact customer experience or growth. → Close the loop publicly: When customers see their input being acted upon, they feel heard. Announce product improvements or service changes driven by customer feedback. It builds trust and strengthens emotional resonance. → Involve your team in the loop: Feedback isn’t just for customer support or marketing—it’s a company-wide asset. Use feedback loops to align cross-functional teams, ensuring insights flow seamlessly between product, marketing, and operations. When feedback becomes a living system, it shifts from being a reactive task to a proactive strategy. It’s not just about gathering opinions—it’s about creating a continuous conversation that shapes your brand in real-time. And as we’ve learned, that’s where real value lies—building something dynamic, adaptive, and truly connected to your audience. #storytelling #marketing #customermarketing

I recently spoke with a sales leader about a common challenge: how overly complex internal processes slow down sales reps. “Our reps are spending more time navigating internal workflows than selling,” they mentioned. This is a widespread issue—when every step of a deal requires approvals or confusing steps, it keeps reps from engaging with prospects effectively. To fix this, simplifying the sales process goes beyond just removing steps; it’s about empowering your team and creating clear, action-oriented pathways. Here’s how: 1. Cut Down Approval Layers: Allow senior reps to make decisions within defined limits, reducing reliance on time-consuming approvals. This speeds up deal cycles and encourages ownership. 2. Use Clear Playbooks: Ambiguity breeds inefficiency. Standardized, easy-to-follow sales playbooks eliminate confusion and help reps move deals forward confidently, knowing what to do at each stage. 3. Automate Admin Tasks: Manual data entry and updating deal stages take up valuable time. Automation tools handle these low-value tasks, allowing reps to spend more time selling and less on busywork. 4. Streamline Communication: Simplify who’s responsible for what. Clear communication lines and fewer meetings reduce delays, ensuring that when reps need answers, they get them fast. 5. Empower Your Reps: Equip your team with the authority to make pricing decisions or offer discounts without having to escalate every time. Giving them the ability to act quickly builds trust and boosts productivity. By making these changes, you’re not just reducing steps—you’re unlocking the full potential of your sales force, enabling them to focus on what matters most: closing deals and building relationships. Simplified processes mean faster, smoother sales cycles and ultimately better results for your team. #SalesOptimization #SalesEfficiency #SalesLeadership #SalesProductivity #SalesProcess #AutomationInSales #SalesTeam #LeadConversion #RevenueGrowth #BusinessEfficiency

The move from SAP ECC to S/4HANA isn’t just an upgrade—it’s an opportunity to rethink how business processes are orchestrated. Instead of keeping workflows embedded within the ERP, leading organizations are externalizing their process layer, making it more agile, scalable, and future-proof. Why Externalize the Process Layer? Historically, SAP ECC tightly integrated business logic and workflows into the core ERP, making processes: 🔹 Rigid & difficult to change (custom code deeply embedded) 🔹 Expensive to maintain (high rework during upgrades) 🔹 ERP-dependent (limited flexibility across systems) With S/4HANA and modern architectures, organizations can decouple process execution from the ERP and manage it in an external process orchestration layer. How Does This Work? 🔹 ERP as a "System of Record" – S/4HANA holds master/transactional data, while process execution is externalized. 🔹 Loosely Coupled API & Event-Driven Architecture – SAP BTP, Kafka, Event Mesh, and middleware enable seamless orchestration. 🔹 Business-Driven, Adaptable Workflows – External BPMN-based process orchestration engines replace embedded SAP workflows, improving agility. Key Benefits ✅ Cross-System Orchestration – Seamless integration across SAP and non-SAP applications. ✅ No More Hardcoded Workflows – Business-driven process adjustments instead of rigid SAP coding. ✅ Third Party AI Integration – Maximum flexibility to embrace innovative new AI technologies in your business processes. ✅ Future-Proofing & Easier Upgrades – SAP updates won’t disrupt business workflows. Challenges to Consider ⚠️ Governance & Ownership – A clear CoE for process automation is recommended. ⚠️ Latency & Performance – Well-architected API/event-based integrations are key, paired with a highly scalable orchestration engine. ⚠️ Standardized Process Modeling – Full support of the BPMN standard ensures clarity and consistency. Is This Right for Your Organization? ✅ Ideal for: Enterprises with complex, cross-system processes (manufacturing, logistics, financial services). ❌ Less critical for: Companies with highly standardized SAP-centric processes. Final Thought: The shift to S/4HANA is a chance to modernize, not just migrate. Let SAP be the system of record, while a best-of-breed process orchestration layer drives agility, innovation, and scalability. How is your organization approaching process orchestration in its S/4HANA journey?

▶️ Is patient engagement critical for effective digital adoption? Effective patient engagement is rapidly emerging as a cornerstone of technology-driven healthcare models. Patients who are actively engaged are more likely to adopt digital tools, adhere to treatment plans, and take an active role in their care, leading to improved outcomes and the successful integration of digital health solutions. While #patientengagement has been practised for years, #healthtechnology has transformed the landscape, making it easier for patients to stay connected with their care teams. Technology integration has diversified patient engagement, enabling interactions across multiple touchpoints and enhancing the patient experience. It is also important to understand that technology is not "one size fits all," and every patient has their own place on the spectrum of technology skills and #healthliteracy. Some steps to improve adoption can include: 🔷 Patient portals should focus on user-friendly interfaces with clear instructions to ensure patients are comfortable using the tools and do not get overwhelmed. 🔷 Privacy and security concerns are paramount for patients, healthcare organizations need to address these concerns by implementing transparent data protection measures. 🔷 Healthcare providers should ensure that patient engagement tools don't complicate the patient's healthcare routine. 🔷 Clear guidance and ongoing support are pivotal to ensuring patients can integrate these tools seamlessly into their lives. 🔷 Health hashtag #techtools should be affordable. Providing transparency about potential costs and highlighting the long-term benefits can facilitate patient engagement. 🔷 Build hashtag #inclusive platforms that transcend access, language, and culture barriers. 🔷 Engage patients and hashtag #hcps while designing new tech solutions, gathering continuous feedback to ensure innovations meet user needs. Fostering a patient-centered culture is crucial. We can empower and motivate patients by initiating educational programs, providing adequate support, and developing user-friendly, inclusive, and cost-effective platforms with transparent data privacy guidelines. By addressing the adoption challenges, we can move towards proactive and preventive care management, driving better #healthoutcomes for individuals and communities.