{"id":12729,"date":"2016-02-26T20:50:37","date_gmt":"2016-02-27T04:50:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/?p=12729"},"modified":"2020-04-22T06:37:08","modified_gmt":"2020-04-22T13:37:08","slug":"the-greatest-challenge-of-enterprise-ux-designers-describe-solutions-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/blog\/the-greatest-challenge-of-enterprise-ux-designers-describe-solutions-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"The Greatest Enterprise UX Challenge and Solutions (Part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Designing in the enterprise can feel like fighting a hydra. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Outdated processes. Unavoidable politics. A culture that feels almost immune to design. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Designers need to overcome all of the above before they even start to tackle the difficult task of creating clear products capable of complex tasks. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To address the multi-layered challenge of enterprise design, we spoke with a select group of UX designers across a variety of industries. We asked them to focus on the most pressing challenge they face and describe their own solutions.<br \/>\n<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These are their stories. For more advice, you can also check out <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/blog\/the-greatest-challenge-of-enterprise-ux-designers-describe-solutions-part-2\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Part 2<\/a> where designers from Salesforce, Crazyegg, 3M, and Core Logic describe their best practices. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">1. Gaining more access to end-users<\/span><\/h2>\n<h3><a href=\"http:\/\/designaday.tumblr.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jack Moffett<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> &#8211; Manager of Apps Development, Inmedius (a Boeing company)<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-12730\" src=\"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/image0015.png\" alt=\"image00\" width=\"716\" height=\"442\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/image0015.png 940w, https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/image0015-486x300.png 486w, https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/image0015-290x180.png 290w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 716px) 100vw, 716px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The greatest challenge I currently face is gaining access to our users. When a UX team is embedded within an enterprise context, one must work through multiple layers of bureaucracy to get to the end-users.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Get approval from the UX team\u2019s management. I\u2019m not referring to the UX manager, but the manager (or multiple managers) above her.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Get approval from the project manager.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Get approval from the customer management. In large enterprise corporations, a different division of the organization is still referred to as a customer. This may require a chain of approvals as well.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With so many stakeholders, you can run into several roadblocks, but it usually comes down to money. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How much time will the users be \u201cnon-productive\u201d, and is there a timecode they can bill to? Are there travel expenses for the UX team members? Whose budget is this coming out of? Can\u2019t you do it over WebEx?<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Solutions<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We are starting small, conducting a series of 1-hour, remote focus groups. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We invite developers, managers, and testers so they will see and understand the value of the feedback. As we build better products with the feedback, we will receive approval for more involved usability studies.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In concert, my team has started tracking our User Exposure Hours against the minimum suggested by Jared Spool in his article, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/articles.uie.com\/user_exposure_hours\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fast Path to a Great UX &#8211; Increased Exposure Hours<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which is 2 hours every 6 weeks. This metric helps us explain the issue to management and track our progress as we improve.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I encourage my team to value our progress, rather than to be discouraged about our current imperfections.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2. Breaking down the silos<\/span><\/h2>\n<h3><a href=\"http:\/\/anitacheng.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Anita Cheng<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> &#8211; IA\/UX Developer, City of Los Angeles (Dept of Building and Safety)<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-12737\" src=\"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/image071.jpg\" alt=\"image07\" width=\"707\" height=\"471\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/image071.jpg 795w, https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/image071-450x300.jpg 450w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 707px) 100vw, 707px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They definitely don\u2019t teach you in any UX classes how to handle silos. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When you\u2019re working with large systems, no one person knows all of the answers. Your users won\u2019t be in one place, the requirements won\u2019t be in one place, the code probably won\u2019t be in one place either. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gathering all the information you need is even harder in an organization where a UX process is totally new, like a government entity.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Solutions<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Build trust incrementally. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To get the information you need, your managers\/stakeholders need to entrust you with people who can help (Users, developers, subject matter experts, etc.). If you don\u2019t gain their trust, they won\u2019t give you the information you need. No good UX is possible in that environment.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sometimes you need to prove your proficiency by going at things a little backwards, such as producing prototypes and iterating with preliminary user research. Then as the organization trusts you more with each iteration, they give you more and more resources that you need to make the product even better. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It isn\u2019t a perfect system, but little consistent steps over time adds up to a lot of progress in an industry where UX is sorely needed. <\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">3. Seeing the elephant<\/span><\/h2>\n<h3><a href=\"http:\/\/davemalouf.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dave Malouf<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> &#8211; Principal UX Strategist, HPE Helion<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12733\" src=\"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/image0310.png\" alt=\"image03\" width=\"635\" height=\"477\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/image0310.png 635w, https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/image0310-399x300.png 399w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 635px) 100vw, 635px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As the proverb goes, 8 blind monks separately interpret their piece of a elephant quite differently. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Enterprises are all about scale. Scale isn\u2019t a mountain though. Mountains are easy. Scale for enterprises are river systems like the Amazon, Nile, Mississippi where any single source can impact anything along the way. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Things shift, dialog, mutate, converge, diverge, etc. No amount of user research, or value validation processes can really work when you have ecosystems at this level of scale.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Solutions<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Set up reflexive processes that allow systems to adapt over time based on feedback loops that monitor customer metrics. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These reflexive processes can include simple things like monitoring dashboards against analytics of the system. Based on where the analytics indicate user friction, you can conduct intervention interviews with users at these key touchpoints. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Applications like <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.io\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Intercom<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> go a long way in helping you make these types of connections. However, these types of systems only work for SaaS or other publicly available applications. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For the world I\u2019m in where your software is behind customer firewalls, you need other types of analytics that are bit more human. Keep in close relationship with account &amp; support teams. Attend customer meetings with your team. Send out surveys to end users as they allow, etc. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To be open, tune in to all of your \u201csenses\u201d. The more instruments you have running, the more you defuzz your elephant. Only then will UX have real strategic value inside the organization. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/section><section class=\"related-books-section\"><h3>Grab design ebooks created by best designers<\/h3><p class=\"section-desc\">All for free<\/p><ul class=\"related-books-list\"><li><figure><a href=\"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/ebooks\/practical-user-research-enterprise-ux\/\" class=\"action-get-ebook\" data-name=\"Practical User Research for Enterprise UX\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"262\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/book-knowledge-1-262x375.png\" class=\"attachment-ebook-cover size-ebook-cover wp-post-image\" alt=\"book knowledge 1\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/book-knowledge-1-262x375.png 262w, https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/book-knowledge-1-210x300.png 210w, https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/book-knowledge-1.png 332w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 262px) 100vw, 262px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><a href=\"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/ebooks\/practical-user-research-enterprise-ux\/\" class=\"btn btn-ghost action-get-ebook\" data-name=\"Practical User Research for Enterprise UX\">Download<\/a><\/li><li><figure><a href=\"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/ebooks\/ux-design-collaboration-enterprises-planning-kickoff\/\" class=\"action-get-ebook\" data-name=\"Design Collaboration for Product Teams\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"262\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/book-knowledge2-262x375.png\" class=\"attachment-ebook-cover size-ebook-cover wp-post-image\" alt=\"book knowledge2\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/book-knowledge2-262x375.png 262w, https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/book-knowledge2-210x300.png 210w, https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/book-knowledge2.png 332w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 262px) 100vw, 262px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><a href=\"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/ebooks\/ux-design-collaboration-enterprises-planning-kickoff\/\" class=\"btn btn-ghost action-get-ebook\" data-name=\"Design Collaboration for Product Teams\">Download<\/a><\/li><li><figure><a href=\"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/ebooks\/interaction-design-trends-2015-2016\/\" class=\"action-get-ebook\" data-name=\"Interaction Design Trends 2015 &#038; 2016\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"262\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/book-knowledge-262x375.png\" class=\"attachment-ebook-cover size-ebook-cover wp-post-image\" alt=\"book knowledge\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/book-knowledge-262x375.png 262w, https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/book-knowledge-210x300.png 210w, https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/book-knowledge.png 332w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 262px) 100vw, 262px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><a href=\"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/ebooks\/interaction-design-trends-2015-2016\/\" class=\"btn btn-ghost action-get-ebook\" data-name=\"Interaction Design Trends 2015 &#038; 2016\">Download<\/a><\/li><li><figure><a href=\"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/ebooks\/free-ui-ux-design-trends-2015-2016-ebook-bundle\/\" class=\"action-get-ebook\" data-name=\"The Definitive 2016 UX Design Trends Bundle\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"262\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/the-book_bundle1.png\" class=\"attachment-ebook-cover size-ebook-cover wp-post-image\" alt=\"the book bundle1\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/the-book_bundle1.png 262w, https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/the-book_bundle1-210x300.png 210w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 262px) 100vw, 262px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><a href=\"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/ebooks\/free-ui-ux-design-trends-2015-2016-ebook-bundle\/\" class=\"btn btn-ghost action-get-ebook\" data-name=\"The Definitive 2016 UX Design Trends Bundle\">Download<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/section><section class=\"related-books-section-single\"><section class=\"post-content-wrapper\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"262\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/the-book_bundle1.png\" class=\"attachment-ebook-cover size-ebook-cover wp-post-image\" alt=\"the book bundle1\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/the-book_bundle1.png 262w, https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/the-book_bundle1-210x300.png 210w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 262px) 100vw, 262px\" \/><\/figure><article><h3>Do you want to know more about UI Design?<\/h3><p>Download 'The Definitive 2016 UX Design Trends Bundle' <span>FOR FREE!<\/span><\/p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/ebooks\/free-ui-ux-design-trends-2015-2016-ebook-bundle\/\" class=\"btn btn-flat btn-darker action-get-ebook\">Download e-book for free<\/a><\/article><\/section><a href=\"#closeEbookPanel\" class=\"icon-close action-close-ebook-panel\">Close<\/a><\/section><section class=\"post-content-wrapper\">\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">4. Design debt<\/span><\/h2>\n<h3><a href=\"http:\/\/cloudforestdesign.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nadine Schaeffer<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> &#8211; Principal at Cloudforest Design<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-12738\" src=\"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/image081-819x1024.jpg\" alt=\"image08\" width=\"565\" height=\"706\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/image081-819x1024.jpg 819w, https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/image081-240x300.jpg 240w, https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/image081.jpg 824w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 565px) 100vw, 565px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Many of the leaders in enterprise software have been around for decades. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The giants of enterprise (IBM, Oracle, Cisco, HP, SAP, etc) were founded decades before the term \u201cuser experience design\u201d was even coined. Naturally, their internal processes and organizational structures were usually solidified and codified long before design was a twinkling in executive eyes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This simple fact means that engineers and product managers crafted thousands of software screens, and the application frameworks to power them, long before designers were part of the process. Then, somewhere in the past decade, most enterprise companies got the memo to add design to their process. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But the question so often remains: how? How do designers integrate design thinking and processes into structures that were often calcified long before their arrival? <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The mountain of mediocre legacy interfaces is often a daunting and even depressing challenge.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Solutions:<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since no magic bullet exists to solve design debt, I\u2019d instead like to suggest a toolkit of tactics instead:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>1. Form alliances and work ahead. <\/b><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Politics are an inevitable part of large enterprises. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By moving outside of the design team and integrating with product management and engineering, designers get a seat at the tables where critical decisions are made.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ideally, designers should work with product management to define requirements and ahead of development teams to rapidly prototype solutions quickly. This tactic proves the worth of design and quickly wins the respect of engineers who spend less time on throwaway code. Product managers also see their plans come to fruition more quickly. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All these efforts, of course, help free up time for developers and designers to fix legacy debt. <\/span><br \/>\n<b><b><\/b><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b><b>2. Triangulate and prioritize the pain.<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Often enterprise systems are enormous piles of poorly integrated interfaces from different points in time (sometimes resulting from poorly integrated acquisitions). <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No design team could possibly solve all the problems at once. So, engage in qualitative research to discover the worst pain points and review quantitative data to see what features and areas are most trafficked, then develop a design plan to tackle the most egregious offenders first.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b><b>3. Create scalable design systems.<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Enterprise legacy products are often too cumbersome for any set of designers to tackle screen by screen. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Instead, focus on style guides, component libraries and interface guidelines to let developers without assigned designers on the team be able to &#8220;self serve\u201d design solutions wherever possible. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/developer.apple.com\/library\/ios\/documentation\/UserExperience\/Conceptual\/MobileHIG\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Apple<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/design\/spec\/material-design\/introduction.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Google<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> started this trend, but many companies such as <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/developer.salesforce.com\/lightning\/design-system\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Salesforce<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ibm.com\/design\/language\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IBM<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and even the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/playbook.cio.gov\/designstandards\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">US Government<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> have started releasing their design guidelines publicly to enable rapid prototyping, brand consistency and overall better design.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">5. Disjointed UX workflows<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/austinknight.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Austin Knight<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> &#8211; UX Designer, Hubspot<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12732\" src=\"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/image027.png\" alt=\"image02\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/image027.png 500w, https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/image027-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/image027-200x200.png 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">UX for a long time wasn&#8217;t a formalized profession. You had web designers, developers, researchers, all with tools tailored to each profession. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As you expand into the enterprise (and especially B2B products), the inefficiencies between using so many tools really adds up. At <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hubspot.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hubspot<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, our projects also involve many specialized designers (IxD, visual, UX) in the collaboration and handoff process. Our designers and developers are also located in multiple offices around the world. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When you consider all the different people working in various tools and mediums, you start to see the spiderweb of design processes. <\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Solutions: <\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The most obvious solution is finding a design platform that focuses on the complete UX workflow. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In terms of supplementary tools, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/slack.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Slack<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is extremely powerful for everyday communication. We\u2019ve created channels for specific design specializations (Visual, IxD, etc). We also use <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/chromeboxx.weebly.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chromeboxx<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to allow for live sketching sessions across continents. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But outside of tools, you need larger cultural and organizational initiatives. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We hold informal recurring \u201cdesign study halls\u201d where anyone can discuss problems, resources, potential solutions. During these study halls, support people have even explained certain design elements they hated. Those unexpected discussions serve as the springboard for new design projects we wouldn\u2019t otherwise have considered. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On a project level, over-the-shoulder sessions are incredibly insightful. I\u2019ll show my work to people I trust (not just designers, but a couple engineers and PMs) and start gaining insights that I completely missed because I\u2019m too deep in the work. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On a recent design, for instance, I progressed really far with a navigation element. I brought it over to our growth marketer originally for copy feedback, but he actually gave even better feedback on the dropdown interactions. I had totally missed that the background colors I used were washing out the animation. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Better tools will certainly help, but you need to first see outside your own ideas.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Additional Advice<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For more advice, you can also check out <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/blog\/the-greatest-challenge-of-enterprise-ux-designers-describe-solutions-part-2\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Part 2<\/a> where designers from Salesforce, Crazyegg, 3M, and Core Logic describe their best practices.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;d like best practices for end-user research, check out the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/ebooks\/practical-user-research-enterprise-ux\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">free guide<\/a> below by Jive Software&#8217;s UX Director Rian van der Merwe. He describes useful tactics for getting buy-in, conducting the right research, and documenting research. All the advice is based on his 10+ years of UX experience<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/ebooks\/practical-user-research-enterprise-ux\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-12739\" src=\"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/fb-promo4.png\" alt=\"fb-promo\" width=\"720\" height=\"377\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/fb-promo4.png 940w, https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/fb-promo4-573x300.png 573w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Top enterprise UX designers explain their greatest challenge and solutions. Companies include Boeing, Hubspot, and HP. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":12740,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,174,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-enterprise-ux","category-ux-design"],"yoast_title":"The Greatest Challenge in Enterprise UX (Part 1)","yoast_metadesc":"Top enterprise UX designers explain their greatest challenge and solutions. Companies include Boeing, Hubspot, and HP.","acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.4 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Greatest Challenge in Enterprise UX (Part 1)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Top enterprise UX designers explain their greatest challenge and solutions. Companies include Boeing, Hubspot, and HP.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/blog\/the-greatest-challenge-of-enterprise-ux-designers-describe-solutions-part-1\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Greatest Enterprise UX Challenge and Solutions (Part 1)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Top enterprise UX designers explain their greatest challenge and solutions. 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