Overhead view of tangle of highways to illustrate complexity

Explaining the Law of Conservation of Complexity

Working in both user experience and product management, we see patterns form around our work and interactions with others. One such pattern is that simplifying a system for users often means moving the complexity to another part of the system. When removing user complexity, that complexity will not be removed from the system but will move from users to the development team.

As a product manager, this becomes crystal clear when you are standing between a user experience designer and an engineer, both looking to you to decide if moving complexity from the user to the system is worth a week or more of the development team’s time. Continue reading “Explaining the Law of Conservation of Complexity”

Image os the server rack with wires to represent complexity

The Benefits of Sweating the Details in Enterprise Applications

Ease of use has become the hallmark of a well-designed app. Whether a consumer mobile app or a SaaS product targeted at businesses, we expect our software to be easy to use—with one possible exception. Some believe the enterprise applications that many businesses run on are exempt, not requiring a strong user experience.

Many companies today still run on legacy software, with old and outdated interfaces and user experiences that are lacking, to say the least.

Continue reading “The Benefits of Sweating the Details in Enterprise Applications”