I think for companies who are adopting them, they want … there’s this notion that if you are an employee of a company, and you’re using your own device that you’re going to be more productive. It seems to make logical sense. You have your own device that you are an expert at using. You know how to use it. You don’t have to learn something different. You’re going to keep that device up-to-date with new software because it’s also your personal device, so maybe you want the latest security patches on your own device. You’re going to be the expert at using it. You’re going to use it for your pleasure as well as for your work, so maybe we’ll get more time out of you if you’re using your own personal device. I think, actually, Forrester had done some study last year where they anticipated about 45-60 minutes per week was the employee time savings gained from using your own device anytime, anywhere. There are certainly some notion that you could be a more productive employee if you’re using your own device.

I think there’s also a notion that you might be more satisfied if you’re using your own device, that you don’t have to carry around that second tool that you also have to make sure you have your battery on. When there’s one plug available, and both of your devices are drained, which one’s the first one you’re going to run to charge? Your work one or your personal one? I think there’s a little bit of that notion that employees’ satisfaction is part of the equation. I think the other one that isn’t quite as clear is there really cost savings here? Is bringing your own device, are you actually going to save money? It seems like you’re going to if you have your employees paying for their own devices, but in the end, does that really equate?

I think there’s certainly some reasons why companies are going for it, but then there are some reasons why they’re not, and I’ve seen this with some of our own customers. There’s caution around BYOD. There’s security issues that companies are worried about, and there are certainly solutions out there to help mitigate that with mobile device management software and others, but there’s also this notion of well where does the line get drawn between your personal data and your company data. If I am taking this call here, and I’m not at my company’s campus. I’m somewhere else. Does my company know that? Can they use that information against me? I think that’s where some companies are hesitant. When it comes to being a product manager in this space, then we basically have to deal with the idea that we’re going to have some customers who have their own BYOD policies which means there’s going to be a plethora of devices.

We may not be able to dictate what kinds of devices people are going to be using. They’re going to pick whatever one they prefer. We’re also going to have to support all sorts of configurations of those devices, so you want to go and make some modifications to your own personal device. Well, we may act as software providers with some of the data that’s on your device, and so as a result, we may not … we’ll need to be able to support everything that you’ve done to that device, but then on as a product manager in this space, we also have the other side of the spectrum, where there may be a more finite set of devices that a company wants to support, so we, too, need to be aware of that and make sure that our software works well in those situations, even if they’ve chosen to go the path where they’re providing their own devices, so we kind of have to plan for all of it and prioritize what’s the most important set for us.

We have to do this, but at the same time, there’s huge overhead. We still have to test and make sure that the quality is there for our software. One of the strategies that we tend to use for prioritization is just getting a good, solid sense of who our customers are, what’s their target, what kinds of devices are they using now? What are they targeting to use in the future, and helping use that to help guide our decisions? Because we simply can’t support every device under the sun and new devices are coming out on a regular basis, and new software for those devices are coming out on a regular basis, so we do have to understand where our market’s going and be able to respond to them effectively.

Once you’ve nailed it, maybe at that point, you want to introduce additions to that experience that will help fulfill a separate use case or a growth of that original use case. That’s way different thinking from traditional enterprise software where we’ve got lists of thousands of features that our customers have been asking for. We need to implement as many of them as we can. Shove as much in as we can, and then they’ll be happy. In this case, their expectations are changing too. They want an elegant experience that gets them what they need, so mobile-first has definitely helped us to focus on being more lean. On the flip-side, it presents a number of constraints when you’re designing.

You can’t really think about the full 25 set of use cases that you might want to accomplish. You really do need to think in a constrained way, and of course that means you don’t get to wait on solving those problems that creep up at the beginning. You need to solve them now. If you don’t know what’s the next step your user’s supposed to take in this work flow of maybe I want to type in a message and then I also need to get approval on this content. How am I going to do that within the scope of this mobile application? If you don’t know what that next step is, you can’t move forward. I think that those constraints make it harder for us at the beginning, make it more challenging, but if we answer those questions up-front and we gain agreement and consensus from those who are working with us on building those products that this is the right direction for it, it makes a much stronger base to start from.

I think mobile-first has helped us in terms of our product development strategy, but it also has helped us keep our products focused and, in turn, provide a better experience for those who are using them.

Sure, they’re powerful, but only to those who really know how to use them. What I love about the trend that’s happening with mobile apps now and with tools that are focused on business productivity is, is they’re are saying it’s okay to do that one thing, do it well, and if we can do that well, we can grow. I love the return to how people really work. We really work by talking to each other. We really work by connecting and collaborating. That’s how work really gets done. Yes, there’s a lot of business process that’s involved. Yes, there’s a lot of desire to make sure that we’ve hit certain milestones. Yes, there’s approvals that still need to happen, and the business still needs to run. I think that that can still happen even though you are perhaps providing a leader more focused experience.

What I think this makes us need to focus in on is not, “Well, I need to make an app for this. I need to make an app for that. I need to make an app for this,” but I have this infrastructure. I have as an enterprise vendor, I have all of the capabilities that I need to give to you Mr. End-user, Miss End-user, what you need to be successful in your business and in your job. What’s getting in the way of you using that? If it means that there’s a focus on a specific process that I know you’re involved in and I can make my software easier for you to pick up and understand, and just provide you that experience, I don’t need to give you all of the underlying features. Just give you the things that you need to do. I think there is a desire for that by enterprise users, and certainly enterprise buyers want to buy the full platform.

There’s this … where we can do better and where we are working to provide a better experience is take all of that … the needs of the enterprise, the security, the manageability, and then provide that niched experience to the users based on what they are looking to accomplish. I think that will help go a long way to enterprise adoption of technologies that are, let’s say, deemed for use by the corporation, but will also make their users happy because they are able to accomplish the goals that they’re looking for. Frankly, provide a fun experience while doing it so that the culture is still a part of the tools that you use. It isn’t a separate part of your experience day-to-day.

I think most of them have gone through this planning phase, communications phase, and then support phase where they see the need to have ongoing modifications of their policies with regards to new devices that are coming out and new software that’s coming out and just to whether they’re going to support those in their environments or not.