Designing an intelligent energy management system requires planning and purpose to meet the needs of all stakeholders. Much like any digital product, understanding the business, customers, and technology of your marketplace is pivotal to meeting end-user demands.
But where should we focus our research and what materials are available for us to accomplish this research? To do this, we employ current product management methodologies to ensure we are building the right product for our customers. This provides a starting point for us to begin understanding the intricacies of designing enterprise energy management software that fulfills the unique needs of a burgeoning industry at large.
Understanding the Main Objectives of Energy Management
It’s important to understand the need for energy management from the consumer perspective. While this will be generally uniform across the industry, each business will require different applications and solutions based on their size, location, and geography.
This is why gathering customer feedback and conducting intensive UX and UI research is so crucial. By understanding energy management needs from multiple customer perspectives, you can build a product that best meets the individual needs. Of course, these needs must be balanced accordingly to maintain simplicity and consistency across design and function.
Planning Your Online Energy Monitoring System
Once you understand the primary needs of an energy management system, you need to discover how enterprise energy management software will assist the business model. From here, you can begin carefully planning your online energy management system. This will include, conducting further UX research, writing user stories, creating mockups and prototypes, and eventually building it.
Final Thoughts
Building an enterprise energy management system involves a concerted effort to build the right product the right way. One way to do this is through intensive UX and user research. Another way is to employ product management concepts, which we will explore further in future articles.
