Designing for Distributors

Last week I attended EMC Forum in Moscow to do a presentation about future directions in user interface technology. I presented a lot of the material contained in my recent blog post describing the shift to Flex technology.

My presentation contained, for example, much of the feedback that we've received from customers:

• Minimize storage-speak (e.g LUNs, cache, snap copy)
• Provision / report in application terms (e.g. Exchange mailboxes, database tables)
• Self-service wizards
• Big icons (e.g. Mac OS X / Win 7)
• etc..

The presentation,however, was also unique on two fronts:

1. It was the first time I had experienced live translation to a different language
2. There wasn't a customer in the room

Point #2 represents an interesting transition for me. In the design of next generation user interfaces and workflows, I have always kept in pretty close contact with the customers that will be pushing the buttons on the user interface. This is par for the course and traditional.

This presentation, however,  was given to EMC distributors and partners.  Many of our newest screen flows have been purpose-built for them. For me personally this has been a big departure from the traditional software requirements gathering process. Would our distributors contribute signficant requirements in the next generation of user interface design?

The answer is a resounding yes, and the purpose of my presentation was to vet some of the following requirements to the distributors in the Russian market:

• Licensing screens need greater emphasis in the user experience. Expiring licenses are an opportunity for ongoing distributor interactions with customers.
• Context-sensitive installation/serviceability/repair videos minimize the amount of customer requests for distributor involvement.
• Integration with online user communities serves as a less expensive communication mechanism between customer and distributor.  The same can be said for chat capabilities.
• Context-sensitive online parts replacement, capacity upgrades, and other types of ordering streamlines revenue opportunities for distributors and partners.
• Application-aware storage provisioning wizards reduces the amount of time that distributors must spend on learning product capabilities (e.g. training).

The reaction to the presentation was spirited. I could not decipher all of the discussion (in Russian), but I did get the sense that many of the partners in the room were currently distributing enterprise-class systems, and a handful of them stated that any user interface would have to provide the familiar knobs and dials that allowed for fine-grained tuning of storage system internals.

However, many of the distributors would not only welcome this simplicity, but they could also envision leveraging this type of user interface to move into newer markets where the customers were less storage-savvy.

This last point was the kind of feedback I was hoping to hear, and it validates a lot of the feedback we've been getting in the U.S.A.: There seems to be a widening swath of customers who want enterprise class storage functionality, delivered by solution-savvy distributors, via a simple-to-consume interface.

So I left Moscow pleased to see evidence that this theory might be global.

The last day of my trip was spent speaking at the 6th annual SECR Software Engineering conference in Moscow. I left the conference with the impression that software development expertise in Russia and Eastern Europe continues to be on the rise. I also had a great night out with all of the speakers, including the creator of C++, Bjarne Stroustroup.

Steve

Information Playground

Twitter: @SteveTodd

EMC Intrapreneur

Comments

[Ivan]

Steve, it's very interesting for me to see your impressions - as for the person who did this presentation together with you, but I speak the same language as the audience :)
For partners, the main question was - how much profit can they get from our product after point of sale, as due to simplicity of the interface, due to ease-of-use concept and product ecosystem end customers will probably need less support from the, comparing with "traditional" EMC storages. (Another question was about the price, of course). So, yes, for us this is a question to think on, how to highlight for partners on the Russian market how they can benefit from the product features.