Many enterprise tech upgrades fall short because they’re designed from the top down, not from the user up. In the article’s example, a manufacturing company equipped 60 section managers with rugged tablets and a device management system. Senior leaders chose an off‑the‑shelf interface with the hardware supplier, then mandated its use without first talking to the people who would rely on it every day. As staff began using the tools, they found clunky and irrelevant interface elements, critical functions buried in menus, and some key tasks not supported at all. Workers had to invent their own workarounds, which weren’t consistent across teams. When the system went live, network access issues in some facilities meant data wasn’t reliably updated, so employees quietly reverted to legacy processes. The result was a mix of partial adoption, shadow processes, and data gaps. Management didn’t get the realistic, data‑driven insights they expected, and productivity actually declined. The core issue wasn’t the brand of device (Apple, Zebra, Android, etc.) but the lack of focus on the real customer for the project: the front‑line employees, not senior management or the vendor.

A more effective approach is to put humans at the center of the change and design technology around their real work. Digital transformation is a broad term, but it only creates value when it solves specific problems your employees face. Key practices include: 1. Start with the right “customer” Treat your employees—especially front‑line workers—as the primary customers of the project. Talk to them before you talk to vendors. Understand their workflows, pain points, and what “better” looks like in their day‑to‑day work. 2. Co‑design the user experience User experience is often the make‑or‑break factor. The tools you deploy at work should be at least as intuitive as what people use at home and should be tailored to the tasks they perform. Avoid forcing people to navigate friction—extra clicks, irrelevant screens, or buried functions—to get basic work done. 3. Iterate based on real feedback The Volvo example in the article illustrates this. Their digital experience team worked closely with vehicle engineers while developing a wearable device to support customer relationships. They dropped features they initially assumed were needed and added ones engineers actually requested. The outcome was higher satisfaction among engineers and better customer contact. 4. Align tech with existing strengths Consumerization of IT has already shown that people adopt tools more readily when they’re familiar, easy to use, and thoughtfully designed. That’s one reason many enterprises are choosing Apple devices, guided by Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines, which emphasize usability and consistency. When you begin with employees’ needs, involve them in design, and refine based on their feedback, technology becomes something they use to get more done faster—not something that gets in the way of work they already know how to do.

Ignoring employee experience in technology rollouts creates several practical risks that can undermine the entire investment: 1. Low adoption and silent resistance If tools feel clunky, irrelevant, or incomplete, employees will naturally fall back on familiar methods. In the manufacturing example, workers quietly returned to legacy processes when the new system didn’t support key tasks or suffered from network issues. This kind of silent resistance is hard to detect and even harder to fix after the fact. 2. Inconsistent workarounds and data gaps When software doesn’t support real workflows, people invent their own workarounds. Because these are individual and uncoordinated, they’re often incompatible with each other. That leads to fragmented processes and incomplete or outdated data, which weakens any attempt to use analytics for decision‑making. 3. Increased security and compliance exposure When employees revert to old tools or informal channels without telling management, they create shadow processes and data vulnerabilities. Information may sit outside managed systems, making it harder to secure, audit, or govern. 4. Lost productivity instead of gains New tools that add friction—extra steps, confusing interfaces, or unreliable connectivity—slow people down. Instead of freeing up time and improving throughput, they can reduce productivity, as seen when the company’s hoped‑for efficiency gains failed to materialize. 5. Missed opportunity to reimagine processes By not engaging front‑line staff, organizations miss insights about how work could be reshaped. Leaders may over‑automate or mis‑automate tasks, as Elon Musk acknowledged when he said that excessive automation at Tesla was a mistake and that “humans are underrated.” In short, when employee experience is an afterthought, technology is done to people rather than with them. The safer path is to begin at the heart of the company—with the people whose work keeps it running—and let change ripple outward from there.