Clockwork Instead of Chaos: Designing Cross-Product Solutions Without Losing Your Mind

Many companies no longer deliver just standalone software — they offer integrated solutions aimed at meeting complex business needs. These solutions often consist of multiple interconnected products and components. Designing and delivering such systems is no easy task, especially when it comes to eliciting and documenting requirements.

One common pitfall is when development teams start working on their individual parts without a clear understanding of the bigger picture. The result? A solution that’s difficult to use — or worse, one that fails to meet the customer’s needs altogether.

To ensure such cross-product solutions function smoothly, deliver maximum value, and support clear, complete and intuitive user scenarios, a row of critical factors must be addressed early on during the requirements phase.

In this talk, I’ll explore these challenges through a real-world case: designing the capability to send software updates from a central management application to various managed products.