How to Build a Product for the Enterprise - with Deepak Deolalikar
How to Build a Product for the Enterprise - with Deepak Deolalikar
Building a product presents unique challenges for every company. Given the varied tech landscape, it's no surprise that approaches to product management differ significantly from one organization to another.
The contrast between managing products for the consumer market and those for the enterprise sector is particularly striking. Factors such as business models, user access, and customer expectations all play a crucial role in shaping how product management is defined and executed.
In this article, we delve into the complexities of Enterprise Product Management.
To provide deeper insights, we discussed with Deepak Deolalikar, a seasoned product advisor with over 14 years of experience, particularly in the enterprise space. Our discussion highlights:
The core differencies of enterprise product management
Key challenges and common pitfalls faced by enterprise product managers
How to drive product adoption in the enterprise sector
Deepak’s Journey: From Software Programming to Enterprise Product Management
Deepak’s summirizes his career in several phases.
“After graduating, I started as a computer programmer, initially aiming to be a chip designer but quickly shifted to developing ERP software, CRM systems, and financial accounting tools, building products for small and medium-sized manufacturers.”
Deepak then moved to the U.S. and joined KPMG. “I worked with large clients like Microsoft or Expedia, but consulting didn’t really align with my goals,” he recalls. At that time he finished his MBA at Berkeley. Inspired by his professor Steve Blank's teachings, Deepak joined a startup as the second employee. “It was an intense experience but taught me a lot about resilience and how to build a product for an enterprise customer.”
In 2015, he joined SugarCRM, where he launched four different products. “The shift from a startup to a company with 400 employees was significant, requiring me to adapt while driving innovation,” he says. After leaving SugarCRM, Deepak was recruited by Brightedge to build a new marketing automation product which went beta with 25 customers. Since 2023, Deepak has focused on teaching, coaching, and advising in product management, particularly in the B2B enterprise space. He has advised 10 startups and coached 150 PMs.
What is Enterprise Product Management?
“Enterprise Product Management involves creating and managing products designed for large organizations. That means your target market is businesses, placing you in the B2B (Business-to-Business) space, with a focus on meeting the needs specifically of larger enterprises,” explains Deepak.
Here are some key examples:
Salesforce: As a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system, Salesforce helps businesses streamline their sales and marketing processes.
SAP: SAP provides a suite of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software that assists organizations in digitizing and managing their finance or logistics business operations.
Workday: Workday is primarily an HR management enterprise software solution. It helps large organizations effectively manage their workforce and HR processes.
ServiceNow: ServiceNow is another product that supports enterprises in managing their IT operations or incident management.
While these products are not exclusively used by large organizations, they are primarily designed to address the complex and unique processes of enterprises.
What are Key Challenges of Enterprise Product Management
Deepak mentions several key challenges that are specific for enterprise product management.
Heterogeous nature of the products
“Every company operates differently, even within the same sector. For example in financial accounting, there are 14 methods of depreciation calculation just in the United States. This variability makes it incredibly challenging to build a one-size-fits-all product for B2B enterprises if you are building a financial software.
While there are exceptions, with some products like e-signature, or calendar management, where the processes are more or less the same in any organisation, the typical enterprise product, like CRM or ERP system requires a much more nuanced approach.”
B2C is like a tree—you water one place, and the fruit grows everywhere. B2B, on the other hand, is like a lawn. You have to water every part, or it will turn brown - Deepak Deolalikar
Risk and Business Continuity
“Large enterprises are particularly concerned about risk—business continuity is critical,” says Deepak.
He cites the example of a recent CrowdStrike meltdown, which led to one of the biggest IT outages in history. “Large enterprises cannot afford such disruptions,” he emphasizes. “In contrast, small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) may be more willing to take risks if the potential ROI is high. But an enterprise would rather choose not to use any product than risk their business continuity.”
Change management
Change management is another significant challenge in the enterprise space.
“It’s easier to change habits in a small business, but in large enterprises, with thousands of users and complex workflows, implementing change is much harder,” Deepak notes. “Integrating your product into the natural workflow of your customer and users is a challenge and requires careful change management.”
Integrations with other systems
Integration with existing systems is also a critical factor that makes product management challenging.
“Enterprises often have dozens of interconnected systems, so any new software they introduce must fit into their ecosystem,” Deepak emphasizes. This need for seamless integration is a key consideration in enterprise product management, where new products must effectively integrate with other systems.
What are Common Mistakes in Enterprise Product Management
Deepak mentions two common pitfalls in enterprise product management.
Underestimating the complexity of customer needs
One of the biggest mistakes companies make, according to Deepak, is underestimating the complexity of their customers’ needs.
“If you’re building for large enterprises, you need to understand every aspect of your customer’s business and industry,” he advises. This deep understanding is crucial for creating products that can adapt to diverse business practices.
Enterprise Product managers must ensure their software is flexible and modular enough to meet the unique customer needs while maintaining usability.
Underestimating the Need to Manage Customer Input
Another common challenge is how companies organize to manage customer feedback.
“Enterprises often require more hands-on assistance, not just from customer support but also from product teams,” Deepak says. “When your customers are using the product, you’ll receive a lot of feedback from customers, and managing it effectively is a significant part of the role,” he adds.
“When I was at SugarCRM, we used to handle around 4,000 support tickets every month. Half of them were product-related—questions about how the product works or issues within the system. That’s a substantial amount of input to manage.”
How to Balance Configurability and Complexity in Enterprise Products
One of the technical challenges in enterprise product management is finding the right balance between configurability and complexity. “You have to strike a balance between extreme configurability and keeping the product simple,” Deepak explains.
To address this, Deepak suggests standardizing the most common use cases while allowing for customization where necessary. “The key is to make the majority of your customers’ experience straightforward while offering advanced options for those who need them,” he advises. “It’s like offering vanilla ice cream versus 57 flavors—too many options can lead to decision paralysis for customers.”
This approach helps manage complexity while still providing the flexibility that enterprise customers often require. “It’s about finding that middle ground where you can satisfy the needs of most customers without overwhelming them with too many options.”
Why is Feature Adoption Usually Lower in Enterprise Product Management?
In enterprise product management, it’s crucial to understand that not every feature is meant to be used across the entire user base. "Enterprise requirements are highly heterogeneous," highlights Deepak. “For instance, a feature that allows customization of tax rates on invoices might be critical in Europe, where tax regulations vary significantly by country, but irrelevant in other regions like India. This means that certain features are only intended for specific segments of your customer base.”
Evaluating feature usage correctly is key—if only 2% of your total customer base is using a feature, you need to consider whether that feature was designed for everyone or just a targeted segment. If it was meant for 20% of users, an overall 2% adoption rate could really mean 10% adoption. Understanding the denominator is important. “
“When a feature isn’t adopted as expected, it’s important to explore the reasons behind this, and then to address it properly. There are several possibilities for low adoption.
The feature wasn’t truly needed, which suggests a failure in the initial discovery or validation process.
A lack of user priority. In large enterprises, there are often numerous competing priorities, and your new feature might not be at the top of the list. In an enterprise with 47 priorities, your feature might be priority number 37—important at some point, but not at the moment.
Lack of awareness. Many features in enterprise products get lost in the complexity of the system. Continuous communication, training, and reminders are essential to ensure that customers are aware of the features available to them and understand their value.
Difficult to use. The customer may have tried the feature, but if the flow is not effective and it doesn’t simplify their work compared to alternative tools or no tools at all, adoption will be low.
It’s crucial to first gather feedback, identify the root causes of the low usage, and then make necessary adjustments in the feature or the overall process of how you build features.”
How Much is Measuring Product Usage Important in Enterprise Product Management
“The expectations for product adoption differ between B2B and B2C.
In B2C, high adoption rates are critical because consumer products often live or die by how widely they are used. For enterprise products, while adoption is important, the primary focus is on whether the product delivers true value to the business. It’s more important to ensure that the product meets the critical needs of the business, even if certain features aren’t used frequently. What matters most is that the product is solving real problems and providing tangible benefits.”
However, measuring product adoption is critical, both for B2B and B2C. But many product companies who build for the enterprise customer are not as mature in this area as they should be.
“At SugarCRM, we had zero product measurement when I first joined,” Deepak admits. “We had no idea how many users were logging in or what features they were using.”
“Enterprise product management companies should be much more thoughtful about why they want to measure adoption and then instrument it to measure effectively,” he advises.
How do You See the Future of UX in B2B Products
Enterprise products are known for their complexity and often lower usability compared to consumer-oriented products. Consumers have much higher expectations; if something doesn’t work properly, they would easily easily switch to another competitor.
“My manager once asked me, ‘Do you have a manual for Facebook?’ No, I don’t need it,” Deepak recalls. “Then why do we have a manual? Well, we can’t avoid it—our product is complex.”
Deepak acknowledges a positive trend toward the consumerization of B2B products over the past decade but remains skeptical about how closely enterprise software can emulate consumer products like Facebook or Google. “While the idea of making B2B products as simple as consumer apps is appealing, the reality is that enterprise software serves much more complex needs,” he explains.
“The complexity of business processes is reflected in the products designed to manage them. While there are definitely opportunities to simplify certain aspects of enterprise software, Deepak believes that the inherent complexity of business operations will necessitate a level of sophistication in the tools that support them.”
What is Your Advice for Product Managers
As a final piece of advice, Deepak stresses the importance of seeing product management as a business role, not just a technical one.
“If you think a product manager’s job is to create stories, epics, do some testing, and then hand off the product, you’re not a product manager—you’re a delivery manager or a product analyst,” he says. “Your job is to go broader.”
He advises product managers to think holistically about their role.
“Ask yourself: Who is my customer segment? What are their main jobs to be done? What are their key pain points? How are they solving these problems today? What can they not do today that my product should enable?” he explains.
He also emphasizes the importance of continuous learning. “Don’t just focus on PM-specific courses. Learn about economics, business strategy, pricing, accounting, and finance. These are all critical to understanding the broader business context in which your product exists.”
Connect with Deepak
We thank Deepak for this insightful conversation.
If you want to connect with Deepak and explore more of his insights into Product Management, check out his writings on B2B Products OS Newsletter. Or reach out to him on Linkedin.
He also offers a 3 day bootcamp for early stage startups to get started and get to first 5 paying customers. Check for more info: www.businessofproducts.com.
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