Member-only story
How can you ensure paying customers don’t worsen the new user experience?
The eternal challenge of B2B Design, and how reframes can help
“But how is a new user supposed to use this?”
In a previous B2B Design role, I felt like a broken record. The PM would tell me to design something for one of our paying customers, which felt like it was only for them.
A network map that only supports a defunct format. An import spreadsheet function for 500 items that seems impossible for new users to figure out.
The problem is that this request would come from a paying customer with specific, customized needs.
This is one of the biggest challenges in B2B Design: How do you balance designing for new users and paying customers, when their needs are fundamentally different?
How do you push back when the business is motivated to keep paying customers happy?
Here’s how this typically unfolds, and what you can do about it.
Not “Short-term profits”: Tangible vs intangible
“Businesses need tangible outcomes, not just ideas.”
That statement from a design leader changed how I viewed this problem. I used to view this as…
