What if design worked like play? Where instead of racing to the end goal, we took the time to play, iterate, and experiment throughout the process?

For SAP Design, this mindset has been a guiding principle that informs how we build experiences for businesses globally.

As part of my Design Diaries podcast, I had the opportunity to speak with Nisha Balaraman, a user researcher here at SAP. Our conversation took a deep dive into the essential role of user perspectives in shaping the design process.

While her career began in cognitive science and human-computer interaction, Nisha has taken a nonlinear path to user research by moving through content strategy and product management first.

Since Nisha has always been passionate about research and design, her focus on the craft has stemmed from a curiosity of understanding people’s interactions with different products and hearing their stories.

Listening as the foundation of design

For me, one of the highlights of our discussion was when I asked Nisha to explain user research in terms that a six-year-old could understand. She likened the process to watching a child play with their favorite toy, understanding why they are playing with that game, observing how they interact with it, and what causes their frustration. This outlook mirrors the design process of observing users in their own environment and then taking those insights back to make the next version even better.

This conversation brought me back to a time earlier in my career when I had to explain user research to my grandmother. She was a great chef who got a lot of joy from feeding her family. I explained that my work was like asking people what they loved about a dish and refining the recipe to just for their preferences.

At SAP, we aim to use this same approach.  We play, listen, and experiment, always with the end user in mind. It’s about pinpointing the things that we can add to products and solutions that will make it sticky for users to use it more and more. For example, initiatives like the SAP User Research Panel makes customer feedback an integral part of the user experience, keeping real user voices at the center of how we design and build at SAP.

Observing real users in their context

This mindset is essential as we navigate the rapidly evolving landscape of enterprise technology. User expectations have been shifting, and our role as designers is to meet those expectations with solutions that come from a thoughtful understanding of their needs.

Relating to shifting user expectations, Nisha shared her work on redesigning a travel and expense homepage at SAP Concur, where observing users in their own context helped the team strike the right balance between helpful personalization and respecting user privacy.

She watched users search for travel options, seek assistance, and interact with the homepage, and took note of those insights. Seeing firsthand how people were using their expense and travel page helped Nisha see where personalization enhanced the experience and where it crossed into intrusion. It was important for her to see users in action and get customer feedback in their context and habitat.

Real user feedback provides critical guidance on creating solutions that are both effective for executing process and intuitive for users.

Diversity as the secret sauce

We also discussed the challenges and rewards of inclusive research. Building global, universal experiences means actively seeking diverse perspectives, even when recruiting participants is tough or deadlines loom large.

Having a diverse set of participants can mean different things depending on the project. It can be where the participant is from, their level of expertise, their professional background, or a few other characteristics. Despite these obstacles, the payoff is worth it. One of our jobs in the SAP Design organization is to build universal experiences, and for this diversity can be the secret sauce behind meaningful experiences.

These principles are reflected in our inclusive research handbook—a testament to our commitment to making diversity the driving force in our design work and ensuring our solutions can support users across geographies, industries, and roles.

By listening attentively to our users, we can gain access to the insights that drive innovation in our products. My conversation with Nisha reaffirmed a core belief that thoughtful, inclusive user research isn’t just an add-on, it’s the foundation of better design.

At SAP, design is a form of play grounded in empathy, experimentation, and the voices of our users.