When you think of sexy design, B2B SaaS is probably not first on your list.

But in my experience, B2B quietly powers an enormous amount of our working lives. I’ve conducted interviews with various professionals from GPs to Warehouse CEOs, and I've seen how the success or failure of the software they rely on can stretch into their personal lives. Badly designed workplace software can take something away from someone every day for years.

A GP doesn’t experience minor usability issues in a leave-management workflow. She experiences ‘why the f*ck hasn’t my holiday been booked?!’ That leave-management issue isn’t a holiday, it’s her daughter’s birthday, a week in Italy, sitting in the garden with a glass of wine listening to the elderly couple next door bickering, Christmas with her parents, or simply sleeping.

A warehouse CEO doesn’t experience reporting functionality that doesn’t meet operational requirements. He experiences evenings on his laptop, away from his family, teaching himself how to code because the software his company pays for isn’t giving him what he needs - and it’s time consuming to migrate platforms.

That’s the kind of complexity I like solving. B2B SaaS can involve complex systems, competing workflows, different customer needs, and years of product decisions layered on top of each other. I enjoy untangling that complexity, finding the real problem underneath it, and designing something scalable that works for the people using it. I believe workplace software should make someone’s job easier - not follow them home.

Whether that’s listening to the neighbours bicker or spending a week in Italy, contributing to that is pretty sexy stuff.