How to build empathy into software.

Design by tech bros, for the tech bros isn’t enough, as we pursue product lead growth in the Industrial Fortune 500. These folks are late adopters for a reason. The old playbook doesn’t map to the new territory.

Remember how the Snapchat UI took you (a savvy Silicon Valley millennial) a second. A line operator at Pepsi did not grow up with the App Store, Gmail and Salesforce. They don’t have the “The hamburger patty symbol = more options” mental model. They can’t see with your 8pt font. They are afraid of your technology.

The analogy should be the respect with which we teach our parents how to use technology. The early use cases must be simple. It needs to solve a real problem. The on-boarding process needs to understand the edge cases and not skip over steps.

It’s their world, we are just living in it.. IF we want the big contracts, we must build empathy into our approach, the process and the product.