Summary
The speaker opens by recounting their frustrating experience with the British Airways system, highlighting typical enterprise system issues where users become perpetual first-time users due to complexity and poor design. They reference the British Royal Navy's transition from coal to oil and the consequent rise in Admiralty staff, linking it to Parkinson's Law, introduced by Cyril Northcote Parkinson, which explains bureaucratic growth driven by self-serving work multiplication. The talk discusses the challenge of complexity in enterprise software, citing Larry Tesler's question about who must bear this complexity, and stresses that users often shoulder burdens born from legal, technological, and organizational constraints. Using examples from airport radar systems, expense reports, traffic control, and a major telco’s system overhaul, the speaker illustrates the trade-offs between ease of use and power, the need for training for expert users, and the benefits of rethinking entire value chains. They recount how simplifying tools combined with clear, measurable business outcomes like reducing training time or errors can drive adoption and improvements. The speaker also highlights working closely with organizational stakeholders, pacing projects, and integrating UX with product management through methods like impact mapping and value proposition design, advocating for goals that focus on value delivered rather than vague notions of 'great UX.' Overall, the talk calls for patience, strategic thinking, and a holistic grasp of technology, politics, and business to create meaningful improvements in enterprise user experiences.
Key Insights
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Enterprise users are often perpetual first-time users due to complex and infrequent system interactions.
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Parkinson's Law explains bureaucratic growth as self-reinforcing work creation among middle management.
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Complexity in enterprise systems often shifts the burden onto users rather than eliminating it.
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Training and revising procedures can sometimes be better solutions than redesigning interfaces.
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Powerful tools require users to become part of the system through mastery, trading ease for control.
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Simplification efforts must be tied to clear, measurable business outcomes to gain organizational support.
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Redesigning entire value chains can lead to major UX improvements rather than incremental tweaks.
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Designers need strategic, technical, and political savvy to influence platform and organizational decisions.
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Users are generally not interested in learning new systems deeply, especially for infrequent tasks.
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Combining impact mapping with value proposition design helps keep product teams focused on real value.
Notable Quotes
"Enterprise experience is often about broken technology and users having to keep their cool under pressure."
"You want subordinates, not helpers, because helpers can become rivals – that’s Parkinson’s Law."
"Once automation is running, support staff get cut and users have to manage more complex systems themselves."
"Users aren’t interested in learning intricacies of systems they use infrequently – they want fit for task."
"If the system is difficult, sometimes all you can do is watch a movie and feel better later."
"Designers have to be part business, part political, and part technical to influence big system changes."
"Great user experience is not a goal. You need specific, measurable goals like reducing training time by four."
"Simplifying systems takes patience and happens slowly, often involving years of work and negotiation."
"When users are expert in their domain but novice to the system, usability is critical to reduce errors."
"Sometimes fixing tax systems by leveraging existing data completely removes user burden and errors."
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