 |
Experiencing Data w/ Brian T. ONeill (UX for AI Data Products, SAAS Analytics, Data Product Management)Author: Brian T. ONeill from Designing for Analytics
Is the value of your enterprise analytics SAAS or AI product not obvious through its UI/UX? Got the data and ML models right...but user adoption of your dashboards and UI isnt what you hoped it would be?While it is easier than ever to create AI and analytics solutions from a technology perspective, do you find as a founder or product leader that getting users to use and buyers to buy seems harder than it should be?If you lead an internal enterprise data team, have you heard that a data product approach can helpbut youre concerned its all hype?My name is Brian T. ONeill, and on Experiencing Dataone of the top 2% of podcasts in the worldI share the stories of leaders who are leveraging product and UX design to make SAAS analytics, AI applications, and internal data products indispensable to their customers. After all, you cant create business value with data if the humans in the loop cant or wont use your solutions.Every 2 weeks, I release interviews with experts and impressive people Ive met who are doing interesting work at the intersection of enterprise software product management, UX design, AI and analyticswork that you need to hear about and from whom I hope you can borrow strategies.I also occasionally record solo episodes on applying UI/UX design strategies to data productsso you and your team can unlock financial value by making your users and customers lives better.Hashtag: #ExperiencingData. JOIN MY INSIGHTS LIST FOR 1-PAGE EPISODE SUMMARIES, TRANSCRIPTS, AND FREE UX STRATEGY TIPShttps://designingforanalytics.com/edABOUT THE HOST, BRIAN T. ONEILL:https://designingforanalytics.com/bio/ Language: en-us Genres: Business, Management, Technology Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
Listen Now...
186 - Why Powerful AI & Analytics Products Feel Useless to Buyers
Episode 186
Tuesday, 20 January, 2026
I’m back! After about 7 years (or more) of bi-weekly publishing, I gave myself a break (to have the flu, in part), but now it’s back to business! In 2026, I’ll be focusing the podcast more on the commercial side of data products. This means more founders, CEOs, and product leader guests at small and mid-sized B2B software companies who are building technically impressive B2B analytics and AI products. With all the focus on AI, I want to focus on things that don’t change: what do value and outcomes look like to buyers and users, and how do we recreate it with analytics and AI? What learnings and changes have leaders had to make on the product and UI/UX side to get buyers to buy and users to use? So, that brings us to today’s episode. Today, I’ll explain why I think model quality, analytics data, and raw AI capability are quickly becoming commodities, shifting the real challenge to how effectively companies can translate their data and intelligence into value that buyers and users can clearly understand and defend. I dig into a core tension in B2B products: fiscal buyers and end users want different things. Buyers need confidence, risk reduction, and defensible ROI, while users care about making their daily work easier and safer. When products try to appeal broadly or force customers to figure out how AI fits into their workflows, adoption breaks down. Instead, I make the case for tightly scoped, workflow-aware solutions that make value obvious, deliver fast time-to-value, and support real decisions and actions. Highlights/ Skip to: Refocusing the trajectory of the show for 2026 (00:31) Turning your product’s intelligence into clear, actionable solutions so users can see the value without having to figure it out themselves (4:32) You’re selling capability, but buyers are buying relief from a specific pain point (7:33) Asking customers where AI fits into their workflow is poor design (16:57) Buyers and users both require proof of value, but in different ways (20:05) Why incomplete workflows kill trust (24:18) The importance of translating technical capability into something a human is willing to own (30:09)
