The 3 Users
Envisioning and building out the small business application suite over the last four years represents one of the purest forms of software development. I really state that without bias. Any effort that begins with only open ended questions (and a totally open mind), has the customer at the center of the universe and is powered by the efforts of a deeply dedicated group of professionals, represents to me the best in discovery and invention. That’s the R&D perspective J. Even more important and what really matters at the end of the day is the benefits the invention provides the users. The small business application suite of products was built with three key users in mind:
1) Small business users
2) Accounting Professional users
3) Independent Software Vendors
Each feature and design decision went through a stringent litmus test of value for these three users. And within each use case, were multiple scenarios that we were solving for:
- For the small business we were focused on building automation across software boundaries as I stated earlier. Our goal was to provide the right information, to the right person, at the right time without the need for any type of workarounds. For this purpose we focused heavily on the roles and day to day activities of the owner, the office manager, the book keeper, the sales person, the marketing person, and the service person within a small business organization. Of course as any of us who has spent any time with a small business know, many of these roles are performed by the same person and therefore ensuring consistency in ease of use and functionality was super important to us.
- For the accounting professional we wanted to provide the most useful view of the financial transactions of their clients using SBA. To help them identify any transaction issue, to help them share data with the greatest of ease, to help them reconcile and close the books most efficiently and to provide them all the data they needed to file taxes and paperwork on behalf of their clients
- For the ISVs we wanted to provide the cleanest most efficient interface to extend and enhance our products, to enable the best customizations / integrations with their solutions and the most effective design and development environment
Now that our first major release in its entirety (the whole suite) is in the market, I have received valuable feedback and comments from these users. I will consolidate and devote my next posting to reflecting a cross section of the feedback we have received from our user base. I will also provide links to the professional reviews of our product set and then I will provide my perspective on all of this J.
Ralph Waldo Emerson is believed to have said that “the rewards of a job well done, is to have done it”. Sure that makes sense and I agree that there is an intrinsic satisfaction at accomplishing something big. But I think even more gratifying is to see others benefiting from it. The next post will provide context on just that……
