Addressing the Similarities between UX Design and Sales Engineering in Technology

This summer, I had the opportunity to work full-time as a Sales Engineer Intern for Juniper Networks while simultaneously advancing in my degree by completing a Human-Computer Interaction course as part of my Arizona State University computer science curriculum. Engaging in these activities concurrently highlighted the significant overlap and similarities that exist between the user experience (UX) and sales engineering fields. I have chosen to focus on these fields because they both tap into the more creative innovations of technology. 

In my experience, I believe that UX Professionals seek to enhance and optimize the experience a user has when interacting with a product such as a website, app, or physical object. They do this by conducting research, taking the perspective of the user and creating wireframes, mockups, and prototypes that implement their ideas.

Additionally, Sales Engineers facilitate customer deals by providing insight into the technical capabilities of a product such as software, hardware, and other technologies. They are also solution architects, meaning that they work to meet a customer’s specific needs by problem solving and bridging together business and technical knowledge.

In UX, the “user” is analogous to the “customer” in sales engineering, so from here on out, when I am referring to both jointly, I will use the word “consumer”. Both fields require solving problems while considering the perspectives, motivations, and goals of the consumer. In the remainder of this article, I will explore this overlap in greater detail and explain the specific similarities I identified between these fields. 

Understanding the consumer

Before a Sales Engineer or UX Professional can address a consumer’s use case, they must first work to understand this consumer’s needs and priorities. 

In sales engineering, there are several initial customer meetings in which this information can be determined before beginning to work toward a solution. Possessing this understanding of the customer as a Sales Engineer is crucial because it can be used to tailor a customer’s pitch to the specific priorities and needs of that customer. Additionally, it will allow for the Sales Engineer to cultivate the most specific solution possible in order to solve the problem. 

In UX design, user research and usability studies can be conducted in order to determine how the digital design product will be used or how it is currently being used. It is very important that this research is done so that UX Professionals can design with a user-centric perspective in order to optimize the user experience. 

Both Sales Engineers and UX Professionals are encouraged to take into account consumers' emotions as they are working toward a solution in order to obtain the best outcome: successfully making a customer sale or creating a seamless and pleasant design for the user.

Product research

Sales Engineers must be experts on the products they are suggesting to their customers, so that they can knowledgeably explain its functionalities and how the customer serves to benefit from them. For example, in my internship this summer I was tasked with creating a product demonstration of Juniper’s Mist AI Solution. Based on the specific problems my customer was facing, this demonstration needed to be specific to wired assurance, the ease of configuration in Mist, and the unique switching insights it can provide. So, in my demonstration, I made sure to emphasize all of these aspects in Mist in order to best address the customer’s primary problem and concerns. 

Similarly, UX Professionals must know how they would like to implement their designs before they can actually begin. This is why there are several incremental steps designers take before they have a finished product which include sketching, wireframing, creating mockups, and prototyping. Sometimes, it may even be necessary to conduct competitive audits prior to these steps in order to get an idea of what similar designs already exist on the internet and to determine a unique, specific value proposition. 

Ultimately, in both fields, much research must be done before the role becomes consumer-facing. Sales Engineers and UX Designers must possess a thorough understanding of their product or design and how it will function in order to best account for the consumer’s use case.

Streamlining consumer goals

In summary, there is large overlap between the UX and sales engineering fields; however, they are different in that a Sales Engineer works alongside the user to understand a product and its potential problems, whereas a UX Professional creates efficient designs for the user that facilitate their understanding. In regard to problem solving, Sales Engineers solve the problems a customer is facing with a product, and UX Professionals find solutions to problems that occur in the design of a product. Ultimately, the actions associated with each role may be different, however, both roles possess the same end goal: to streamline a consumer’s experience with a product. 

Overall, both the UX and sales engineering fields are integral to enhancing technology’s applications and usability in the real world, allowing for implementation to a larger audience. I believe that technology is powerful and transformative. My goal, as someone aspiring to make a difference in these fields, is to help inform the public about its capabilities and ensure it is as inclusive, usable, and accessible as possible.