Anyway, in this Clockwork Minute, we’re talking about superpowers.

At Clockwork, we talk a lot about empathy —  the greatest superpower of them all. Not the vague, feel-good kind, but the kind that shapes decisions, removes friction, and changes how clients experience technology.

Recently, I sat down with Senior Engineer Jeffrey Smith to explore what empathy looks like from a developer’s seat and why it’s one of the most important ingredients in delivering great digital work.

Seeing through the client’s eyes

For Jeffrey, technical excellence is only half the job. The other half is understanding what a client actually experiences when they show up.

“I would never want someone to feel stupid or overwhelmed. If I ever made a client feel like they couldn’t ask a question, that would be a failure.”

Developers can understand the complex systems behind the scenes, but it is also paramount to recognize how intimidating those systems can be for the people who have to manage them.

He puts it simply: If a client walks into a meeting about their website, they shouldn’t feel like they’re on the other side of the table. They should feel like we’re sitting right next to them.

Making the work visible and meaningful

Empathy also shows up in how developers communicate their work. With long-running, retainer-based client relationships, progress can feel invisible unless someone takes the time to make it visible.

Jeffrey believes developers and engineers have a responsibility to frame the value:

• Why the feature mattered
• What problem it solved
• Why it was worth doing
• How it supports the client’s goals

And this isn’t about self-congratulation. Quite the opposite — it’s about helping clients tell a clear, confident story inside their organizations.

“Our job is to make these people look freaking awesome.”

Sometimes that means walking through a project management board together, creating leadership-ready summaries, or simply reminding a client what was accomplished and why it matters. These moments help clients advocate for resources, demonstrate progress, and build credibility.

Advocacy as a developer skill

Empathy means advocating for clients when they encounter roadblocks with third-party tools or vendors that fail to offer clarity or support.

As Jeffrey described a time he stepped in to push for documentation, straightforward answers, and transparency, it is clear that the goal wasn’t to be combative. It was to protect the client’s time and reduce frustration.

“If you’re selling them a promise, I’m going to ask you to show the code. And if you can’t, now my client has what they need to ask better questions.”

This kind of advocacy builds trust and reassures clients that they’re not facing technical challenges alone. It comes from years of hands-on experience with partners like North Memorial Health, Mayo Clinic, and many others.

In digital transformation, code solves problems, empathy builds relationships. And when you lead with empathy, clients don’t just get better work. They get a better experience.

The post 🕒 A Clockwork Minute: The developer’s superpower appeared first on Clockwork.

We all know that innovation is a key driver of organizational success. I don’t think I’ve worked anywhere over the last 20+ years that didn’t have initiatives dedicated to it. From continuous improvement incentives to design thinking squads, across industries and departments (and decades), great ideas just don’t stick.

The reason: Because no one is focused on enabling adoption of the changes that come with an innovative idea. If an improvement has the potential to make a real impact, it’s going to require real behavior change. 

Change management efforts deliver the kind of adoption and engagement crucial to fighting institutional inertia.

Change tactics make innovation happen by…

Innovation doesn’t fail because of bad ideas — it fails because great ideas aren’t carried through. That’s where change management comes in. It provides the structure, ownership, and human connection that turn creativity into lasting impact. Change management supports innovation strategy by:

Creating accountability and momentum

When an innovation initiative launches with energy but no one owns the “after” (the messy work of making it real) it’s destined to stall. Change management creates accountability and momentum by establishing:

• clear ownership
• milestones
• feedback loops
• course corrections keep it alive

Innovation doesn’t just start strong, it stays strong. 

Addressing what humans need in order to buy in

When a team implements a new system that could deliver significant cost savings or efficiency gains, the technology or process is only half the battle.

• People need to understand why the change is happening and what’s in it for them.
• They need training on new workflows.
• Leaders need coaching on how to lead change.

Change management addresses the human side of innovation so people don’t feel the need to find workarounds to keep doing things the old way, making that innovative solution expensive shelfware.

Aligning systems and structures

A brilliant idea doesn’t work if performance metrics, compensation structures, or technology systems undermine it. Change management aligns systems and structures to ensure that everything in the organization pulls in the same direction instead of working at cross-purposes.

Building innovation as a capability

Finally, change management builds capability for future innovation. Each well-managed change teaches the organization how to change.

• People develop comfort with new ways of working.
• Leaders get better at communicating during transitions.
• Teams learn to adapt more quickly.

This organizational muscle memory makes the next innovation easier to implement and makes employees more willing to propose ideas because they’ve seen changes actually succeed.

Change management turns successful changing into a habit. It builds the confidence, skills, and resilience that keep innovation moving forward.

Innovation comes down to implementation

Innovation is essential for growth and competitiveness, but its success largely depends on how well it is implemented. Its true value is only realized when it is fully adopted and integrated into daily operations.

The post How change management unlocks innovation appeared first on Clockwork.

These forces may be external or internal, urgent or strategic, but they all lead to the same next steps: a decision made, a meeting held, and a project in motion.

While a project may be imperative to its stakeholders, too often the project’s plan doesn’t fully consider the people impacted by the change it brings. So they’re left wondering, “Why should I care?”

The answer to this question – the WIIFM – can create meaningful change and drive widespread adoption of crucial initiatives. 

What exactly is a WIIFM?

The WIIFM, or “What’s in it for me?” is the key to unlocking employee engagement. It’s how people find their way into the project and how they decide whether to move with the change or push against it. When you address the personal relevance, benefits, and impact of a change clearly, you shift the narrative from obligation to opportunity.

This is where many change efforts falter, though. Not because the strategy is flawed or the solution is bad, but because the people expected to change aren’t given a reason to invest.

Where do you begin?

Defining the WIIFM for your employees begins with understanding. Consider how the change will affect them. Will it:

• alter their day-to-day workflows?
• challenge their core work beliefs?
• redefine how they interact with their team or others?
• impact how their peers perceive them?
• require lifestyle or financial adjustments?
• affect their projected career path?

Once you understand how the change will affect your employees, you can begin to consider their WIIFMs.

Every employee will have different motivations, often more than one. Be sure to prepare accordingly. Think about how you might frame the change in ways that align with what matters to them.

If they’re motivated by career growth

• Talk to them about how this initiative could help them stretch into new skills or gain visibility that supports their development. 
• For example, you might point out how participating in a pilot could give them a chance to lead a workstream, influence change, or practice people leadership in a low-risk setting.

If they’re motivated by peer recognition

• Help them see how this change offers a chance to lead by example. 
• You might suggest they take on a visible role, like representing the team during a beta test or serving as a change champion, so others look to them for guidance and support.

If they’re motivated by work-life balance

• Talk about how the change could ultimately support more flexibility or reduce friction in their day-to-day. 
• For example, highlight any ways the initiative might streamline processes, enable remote work, or create time-saving efficiencies that help them reclaim focus or time.

If they’re motivated by purpose or personal fulfillment

• Connect the change to something bigger. Help them see how it aligns with company values, customer impact, or even social responsibility. 
• For example, if the initiative frees up time or budget for community outreach, point to how their involvement supports those goals.

Engage the team

Once you’ve considered these potential employee value propositions, use them consistently throughout the project (and after its implementation) when talking with your team. Add them to team meetings and town halls and, most importantly, integrate them into your 1:1s.

When checking in with your team members, ask them directly about what parts of the project resonate with them. Some will respond with clarity and confidence; others may need time to reflect or may not know right away.

Either way, this is your opportunity to lead with curiosity. These conversations aren’t just about gathering information; they’re a chance to include your employees in the change and build trust along the way.

Why it’s worth it

Don’t skimp on defining the WIIFM. Applying a one-size-fits-all approach when communicating the benefits of a change can come across as generic, or worse, inauthentic. It may unintentionally cause employees to cling to what feels safe and familiar. In other words, their old ways of doing things.

Spending meaningful time understanding and personalizing the WIIFM demonstrates transparency, empathy, and credibility. It sends a clear message: I see you, I hear you, and this change includes you.

Yes, it takes time, but the payoff is real. You’re not just building trust but paving the way for lasting, meaningful adoption.

The post The role of WIIFM in driving real, long-term adoption appeared first on Clockwork.

Welcome to our new regular series: A Clockwork Minute. In this series, we’ll be sharing snapshots of work in progress and how we’re solving problems real-time for our clients.

We’re redesigning the website of a large Midwest county government, bringing County, Parks, and Library together under one roof. Each has its own brand identity, web strategy, and story. They share an audience but struggle to engage that audience across brands. For nearly a decade, they’ve shared an aging SharePoint site that’s done more to limit communication with residents than support it.

Our team is approaching the work from strategy through design and change enablement.

The opportunity is to build something flexible, a system that holds three distinct brands without flattening them into one. That’s the tension at the heart of this work: creating cohesion without compromise.

The design challenge

Right now, we’re focused on navigation and hierarchy. We’re designing a universal navigation pattern that dynamically adjusts to each brand identity while maintaining one consistent and predictable navigation pattern between them.

Think about how Gap and Old Navy coexist online. Distinct brand stories, but with the benefit of a shared design language to bridge audiences between them. That’s the goal.

It’s not just a branding problem. It’s about accessibility and clarity. Today, the search input changes. The navigation moves. People have to guess which brand they’re interacting with. The redesign solves for that. The information hierarchy will stay consistent while color and brand graphics are seamlessly interchanged. Every page clearly signals where you are and what you can do next.

That’s what cohesion looks like in practice: not rigid sameness, but controlled flexibility.

What we’re learning

This work reminds us that design systems are communication systems. They’re not just collections of buttons and components; they’re frameworks for how people tell stories together.

Inside the county, each department has learned to work around its tools, asking, “What can I wedge into this template?”
Our job is to shift that question to, “What does my audience need?”

That shift takes more than design. It takes trust, flexibility, and support, so our designers are working closely with our change enablement team. Because in the end, systems don’t just shape websites; they shape how people work together.

What’s next

We’re in Sprint 2 of 4. Navigation patterns are taking shape. Search behavior is being mapped to real data. We’re creating components that enable authors to tell stories that will resonate with residents.

Next up: refining the visual system to bring each brand’s personality forward while keeping everything aligned and accessible.

We’re reducing complexity to communicate better. That’s what good design does.

The post 🕒 A Clockwork Minute: Cohesion without compromise appeared first on Clockwork.

Experience design is often conflated with visual design or user experience. While it encompasses both of these skill sets, it can’t be reduced to just one of them. 

The core meaning of experience design can be found in the name itself: It is an approach that centers on people’s experiences to drive the design and features of your products, processes, environments, and strategies. Experience design draws on users’ needs, feelings, contexts, and mindsets to design experiences that center on them.

Experience design covers a broad spectrum of interactions between businesses, their users, and their employees. These can range from everyday transactions like purchases or customer support to more specialized encounters such as new product launches, interactive displays or informational websites. Experience design is not limited to the customer experience, however. A core component of a good experience is how employees or those who are delivering the experience are supported and brought along. In this light, experience design also extends to how internal business tools like intranets, trainings, adoption programs and analytics dashboards are created and managed. All of these touch points offer businesses an opportunity to enhance the user experience for customers and employees. 

Experience design is also a core component for your business strategy, enabling teams to innovate and new market opportunities. It provides a lens for practical and innovative problem-solving to address business and user challenges. Many disruptors, like Airbnb and Warby Parker, burst onto the market and found strong footing because they focused on user experience when developing their businesses.

For example, Lyft and other ride-sharing companies recognized that users didn’t want to wait for the driver to swipe a credit card, wonder if the driver would accept a card at all, or have to call to arrange a pick-up. So they focused on what customers did want: ease, convenience, and speed. They built an experience around those expectations, and it changed the industry.

Why is experience design important?

Designing an experience means more than making the life of your customer easy or delightful (which are common and vague “user-centered” goals), it means shaping the way the customer feels when they interact with your business. Easy isn’t great if it leaves the customer feeling insecure. For example, a form required only my name and email address (easy), but it didn’t reassure me that my information wouldn’t be sold (not great). 

The bottom line is that no matter how much you prioritize designing a thoughtful experience (or not), your customers will have an experience with your service, product, or brand. Every app screen, web page, social media interaction, piece of software that is needed to take them from point A to point Z will elicit an emotion — what that emotion is, is mostly up to you.

Quality experience design means every single interaction is well considered, and all of it has to be coordinated and strategically implemented to be consistent. From the packaging to the mobile app, every touchpoint is an opportunity to convey the vision of your experience design.

If you practice Experience Design, you’re no longer focusing solely on the product, but on the experience as a whole. You’re literally selling an experience.

What to think about when it comes to designing experiences

To keep things simple, there are a few main components to keep in mind when understanding customer experience design.

Human-centered thinking is a requirement

Experiences require every detail and moment to be centered on the person. That means shifting your thinking from “what can we build?” to “what do people want to engage with?”

Knowing your users, listening to their needs, considering their contexts and environments — these are all ways to move experience to the center of your products.

Use data to make decisions 

Great experiences are one part human-driven and one part data-driven. They are achieved qualitatively and quantitatively. Why? Because humans are pretty bad at knowing what they want.

Use data from customer feedback and analytics to assess where customers are engaging with your content or product. Successful experiences require that we adapt or iterate based on what we are learning and seeing from real-time user behavior. Data won’t tell you everything you need to know, but it will help you make decisions that create amazing experiences.

Data can sometimes be overwhelming, but AI and machine learning, paired with human review, can analyze vast amounts of behavioral data to identify patterns and plan for refined experiences. AI tools can also help you lean into personalized experiences, rather than designing a one-size-fits-all approach. Enabling dynamic personalization—adapting content, recommendations, and interfaces based on individual user behavior, preferences, and context allows your business to truly meet users where they are and deliver the experience they need, when they need it. 

When you design experiences, not features, it affects your whole business

Centering on customers, rather than how your business is organized, will likely impact how your entire organization operates — and most notably, your internal culture. A recent Harvard Business Review article states, “the most common, and perhaps the greatest, barrier to customer centricity is the lack of a customer-centric organizational culture.”

Decisions that were once siloed will require a more holistic approach. What was once a marketing problem is reframed as a staff-wide problem because experiences are department-agnostic.

Modern digital strategy and design, along with users, is pushing us to consider the complete journey that customers are taking. In order to focus on journey-based experience, internal teams may need to change how they are working and collaborate more closely with cross-functional groups.

In the old model, the marketing department might have “increase orders” as an annual goal. But in the new model — one centered on experiences — the goal would be something like “shorten the time between an online order and the moment it arrives on a customer’s front porch” because they learned that lengthy ship time was the biggest customer pain point. That goal requires a much different organizational approach: The marketing team (who are in charge of increasing cart orders) must work collaboratively with fulfillment and operations (who are in charge of shipping time) to improve the customer experience.

Your technology choices matter

Designing a great experience is about more than what you — or your customers — can see. It might be easy to see how navigation menus, workflows, and search filters can impact your users’ experience, but the underlying foundation is just as important.  

The technology that powers those menus and features is crucial to all aspects of what users experience.

• Will it be fast and efficient? If your technology is slow, users will use something else.
• Will it allow you to design and build the features and interactions you need in flexible ways? Your customers’ needs and wants can change quickly.
• Will you be able to gather the data you need to make user-centered decisions? Understanding your users is an ongoing project that requires tools.

The key takeaway is that experiences are driven by design and technology. When the two things aren’t in sync, you get experiences that are neither user-centered nor feature-centered. But when the two work together, it can turn customers into brand evangelists.

Create experiences for everyone

Whether you call it accessibility or inclusivity, one thing is certain: you should be designing for all customers. Not only does 20% of the population have some type of cognitive, physical, visual, or auditory disability, the rest of us are only temporarily abled. I could break a leg, have an accident, or lose some vision or hearing capabilities at any time. And I am definitely going to age and lose some abilities as that happens. Inclusively designed experiences are better for everyone. It’s universal. 

Use experience design as a competitive advantage

Investing in the experiences you’re designing can improve your business. McKinsey & Company found a correlation between the McKinsey Design Index rankings and business performance. And, consumers are eager for more direct and meaningful interactions with brands. That all comes down to design and making experiences, not products or technology or features.

Let us help you develop a competitive advantage by building memorable experiences. Get in touch.

The post What is experience design? appeared first on Clockwork.

Bad technology choices aren’t the reason most product modernization efforts fail. They don’t work because they try to do too much, too fast. When organizations rush to rebuild everything at once, it leads to overwhelm and false starts.

Phasing breaks this cycle. It transforms modernization from a risky, all-or-nothing bet into a series of validated steps, each building confidence and capability for the next.

Our four-phase framework for product modernization

The four-phase framework we use isn’t arbitrary; it mirrors how organizations actually make decisions and allocate resources. Each phase answers a specific question that leadership needs answered before committing to the next level of investment.

What makes this approach different

Traditional modernization starts with solutions

Vendors propose new platforms, architects design new systems, and teams start building, often before anyone has truly validated whether they’re solving the right problems.

Our approach starts with proof

Proof that the problem is real and worth solving. Proof that the proposed solution will deliver value. Proof that the implementation creates measurable impact. Only then do we scale.

This shift from assumption to validation changes everything:

• Stakeholders stay aligned because they’re part of validating each step
• Budgets get protected because you’re only funding what’s been proven
• Teams stay focused because priorities are clear and justified
• Risk decreases because issues surface early, when they’re cheap to fix

When to use each phase

Not every project needs all four phases. The framework adapts based on where you are and what you need:

• Already know the problem? Start with Phase 2 to validate your solution approach.
• Have executive buy-in but need to prove value? Phase 2 prototypes build the confidence to proceed.
• Ready to build but want to de-risk delivery? Phase 3 focuses on getting something real into users’ hands quickly.
• Scaling something that’s already working? Phase 4 helps you expand thoughtfully without breaking what’s successful.

The key is being honest about what you actually know versus what you’re assuming. That clarity creates stronger strategies, sharper decisions, and far fewer wasted resources.

Your next step

Modernization doesn’t have to be all or nothing. If you’re facing pressure to update legacy systems, trying to enable new capabilities like AI, or simply seeking to improve user experience, a phased approach will empower you to move forward with confidence.

It starts with a single question: What do we need to prove before we invest more? And if that question isn’t clear yet, don’t worry. That’s precisely what Phase 1 is designed to uncover.

Ready to explore how phased modernization could work for your organization? Get in touch to discuss your specific situation.

More product modernization resources

• Modernizing B2B Products: A Smarter Path to Impact → Understand the strategic decisions that shape successful B2B modernization.
• The New Rules of Modernization: Why 2025 is Different → Discover what’s changed in the modernization landscape and how to adapt; this article also explores why honest assessment matters more in 2025 than ever before.

The post Why phasing matters in product modernization appeared first on Clockwork.

Now imagine if that peer had been involved from the start. They could tell us why the change is happening, why it’s important, and what it will mean for us.

That’s the role of a change champion. A change champion is someone within the organization uniquely positioned to shift apprehension into engagement.

The influence behind the influence

Change champions hold informal influence within their teams (and sometimes across the organization). Their power doesn’t come from their title, but from trust. They’re the ones others naturally turn to, and their voice carries weight.

You want them on your project.  

When engaged early, change champions become vital collaborators, bridging the gap between leadership’s vision and the day-to-day reality of those experiencing the change.

Supporters, skeptics, and everyone in between

Choosing the right change champions requires intentionality. These individuals should be selected not only for their influence but also for their insight and willingness to shape what comes next. 

Look for people who:

• are involved in the day-to-day work of current processes
• show curiosity and interest in building the future state
• speak with authenticity, authority, and clarity
• are willing to collaborate across teams and functions
• are trusted advisors and advocates among peers

Don’t overlook those who initially seem hesitant (or even hostile). While positive influencers are essential, here’s the truth: not every champion needs to be an early enthusiast.

The pushback you get from detractors isn’t resistance for its own sake; it’s often rooted in a deep commitment to getting things right. These voices bring valuable insights, calling out risks others might miss.

Practice empathy and patience as they offer feedback. It may feel harsh, but it reflects how much they care about doing it well.

Bonus truth: Sometimes your biggest skeptics turn into your fiercest supporters. When they do, their peers take notice, and that shift can spark even broader momentum.

Activating change champions

Once you’ve identified your change champions, involve them. A lot. Give them a seat at the table from the beginning, not just during roll-out. Establish consistent, structured touchpoints that encourage two-way communication. 

Use this time to:

• Share project updates and milestones
• Validate assumptions and test ideas
• Gather peer or customer insights
• Share live demos or prototypes for feedback
• Co-create or evaluate approaches

These interactions reinforce that change champions aren’t just observers, but architects of the change. When they see their feedback shaping the future state, their sense of ownership deepens.

Beyond the formal touchpoints, empower your champions to lead outward. Equip them with the core story or key questions they can take into their team meetings and organic conversations. At the same time, ensure they bring back to the project and change management teams what they’re hearing from their peers. This creates a dynamic exchange that keeps your change effort grounded in real-world experiences.

Real change is built with people, not just plans

When change champions and leaders speak with one voice, the message lands differently. It feels less like a directive and more like an invitation. Employees hear from trusted peers who understand their day-to-day, and from leaders who are helping drive the organization toward a better future.

This alignment sends a powerful signal: the organization isn’t just announcing change, it’s building it with its people. And change champions are the bridge that makes this possible. 

They translate vision into reality, skepticism into support, and resistance into momentum.Change feels disruptive when it’s done to people. However, when employees see themselves and their contributions reflected in the process, it feels like progress. At that point, they’re not just prepared for change, they’re part of it. And, in some cases, already driving it.

The post Activating change champions: A blueprint for engagement  appeared first on Clockwork.

To cut through the noise, we asked voices across Clockwork to share what they see on the horizon for 2026. From operations and strategy to design, engineering, AI, and creativity, their perspectives sketch a sharper picture of where organizations should focus if they want to move forward with confidence.
And a little swagger.

What’s the hidden cost or inefficiency you think companies can’t afford to ignore as they plan 2026 budgets?

Vince Cabansag, COO

“The hidden cost in 2026 isn’t dollars—it’s disengagement. Gallup’s latest report puts the price at $438 billion a year, with nearly 80% of workers admitting they’ve mentally checked out. And it’s not really about where people work—it’s about whether they feel heard and valued. Return-to-office isn’t the villain; many people enjoy the energy of being together. The real issue is when RTO gets treated like a mandate instead of a conversation. Disengagement happens when people feel excluded from shaping how they work, not because they’re in the office.

The good news is that engagement grows when companies invite people in. Flexible schedules, open forums, co-created workplace rhythms, and managers trained to listen and lead all help employees feel trusted and invested. Pair that with upskilling around AI and new tools, and teams don’t just feel ready for the future—they’re motivated to help shape it.

Engagement is the multiplier: it makes every other budget line work harder. The companies that thrive in 2026 will be the ones that don’t just ask people to show up for work—they’ll ask them to help shape what work becomes.”

If you were advising CEOs writing next year’s budgets, what’s the one bold line item they should protect at all costs?

Jenny Holman, CEO

“The companies that win in 2026 will be those that modernize their systems and their thinking about adoption simultaneously.

For many enterprises, net-new technology investments have slowed. The priority now is modernizing core systems, consolidating platforms, and optimizing existing technology to work more efficiently. The leaders who are doing this well are not stopping at technology upgrades. They are pairing modernization with adoption, change enablement, and a product mindset that emphasizes user testing, incremental enhancements, and validation.

That ongoing product discipline is what ensures transformation delivers lasting results. It turns a budget line from “technology spend” into “business performance.” Protecting it means investments don’t stall after launch, but continue to generate incremental gains for customers and employees over time.

In 2026, as economic headwinds make new investments harder to justify and innovation accelerates through AI and automation, this approach will separate the winners. Cutting transformation budgets may feel safe, but it undermines agility at the exact moment resilience is most valuable. CEOs who hold firm in investing in both systems and people will create durable value, while competitors are still trying to stabilize.”

Which under-the-radar trend do you expect to become a boardroom-level priority in 2026?

Danielle Miller, Principal User Experience Strategist

“Employees pushing for or adopting tech on their own – this is already happening, but I think it will grow into a bigger opportunity as AI tools continue to flood the market. Employees will pilot tools independently and potentially integrate them into their workstreams. There’s an opportunity to listen and learn from folks who are adopting new ways of working and building plans around that.

Intentional experiences – research suggests that Gen Z is pushing back against constant digital immersion and seeking a more deliberate or balanced dynamic. I don’t think this means that the shopping mall will make a comeback, but I do think business leaders will need to be more thoughtful about what hybrid or simplified tools and experiences look like for today’s audiences. It all goes back to meeting people where they are.

Related, a shift to value-driven customers – With the desire for more intentional experiences and rising costs of goods and services, folks are having to tighten their pocketbooks and their time. Business leaders will need to align on the value they are bringing to customers and lead with that.”

What’s the most realistic way companies should be thinking about AI in 2026 — as an investment, not just an experiment?

Sonja Leaf, Sr. Software Engineer

“Leaning into AI as an investment and amplifier for current teams feels essential in 2026. The tools have gotten very good.

From making the most of the data you already have to producing better products with faster iteration times, AI is transforming “work”. Finding ways to introduce and share wisdom within an organization is equally important.

Having domain experts to guide these tools is critical today, but mentoring tomorrow’s experts is equally essential.”

Which engineering challenge deserves serious investment in 2026 if teams want to avoid stalled projects?

Cassidy Nelemans, Sr. Software Engineer

“Standardizing and codifying operational knowledge now, so AI tools can reason over your systems instead of amplifying chaos.

Today, critical operational knowledge is often scattered across Slack threads, tribal memory, and one-off scripts. In 2026 and beyond, that fragmentation becomes a serious liability. As AI assumes a larger role in deployment, incident response, and decision-making, these gaps lead it to make incorrect assumptions, introduce noise, and necessitate rework. That’s how projects stall: teams end up chasing false signals, duplicating effort, or untangling avoidable mistakes.

By codifying processes, documenting decisions, and structuring operational data, you turn scattered knowledge into a single source of truth that both humans and AI can rely on to keep delivery moving forward.”

How should companies think about investing in design in 2026 if they want to actually stand out, not just keep up?

Sam Gordon, Lead Product Designer

“Design’s biggest job is to reduce complexity. Every interaction risks adding friction—and in 2026, customers will reward the brands that make life simpler, clearer, and more human.

That means designing for trust and authenticity. People want reliable, transparent experiences, and they want to know what’s human, what’s machine, and what’s private. With generative AI everywhere, clarity is what differentiates.

Treat trust and loyalty as measurable ROI, not soft goals. Companies that invest in authentic experiences and transparent design will earn staying power.”

How will low/no-code tools let smaller companies move faster in 2026 — and where should they still lean on creative studios to make the leap?

Luke Vestrum, Managing Director of Tempo

“No-code and low-code tools make building digital experiences faster, easier, and way less intimidating for non-developers to get work done. But these platforms are like power tools. You can use them to build, but that doesn’t guarantee you’ll build the right thing.

Creative studios and technology professionals provide the expertise to make sure the ‘what’ is effective and can expand on the limitations of no- and low-code solutions.”

Tempo is Clockwork’s in-house studio that serves small- and mid-sized companies with right-sized, low/no-code solutions.

The POV

The future belongs to organizations willing to move boldly and invest in what creates momentum, not just motion.

Across these perspectives, one thing is clear: 2026 won’t reward the cautious. It will reward leaders bold enough to move with clarity, conviction, and momentum.

The only question left is… what’s your next move?

The post CW POV: Budgets, Bets, and Bold Moves for 2026 appeared first on Clockwork.

There’s a diagram I always carry in my head. On one side: the people in the field, in the work, trying to move faster, serve better, or just make their lives easier. On the other side: the systems we’ve layered up to support them. In between sits a gap, sometimes wide, sometimes subtle, but always a gap.

The reflex in enterprise environments is to close that gap by stacking more tools, integrations, and interfaces. But if we begin with the system, we inherit its shape. If we begin with the people, we give ourselves permission to shape the system.

That’s the real value of a good discovery phase. It isn’t a tech audit. It’s a truth-seeking process. What are people really trying to get done? What’s getting in the way? What friction matters enough to warrant change?

When you start there, the tech falls into place.

Experience and tech should move together

I’ve managed Salesforce orgs that carried the weight of the entire customer lifecycle from first contact to post-sale support. I’ve also seen how fast the UX can fall behind, even when the backend is humming.

The best solutions don’t ask customer experience to follow tech, or vice versa. They align them. That might mean building within Salesforce when the user flow aligns with CRM structures. It might mean layering a front-end app on Heroku or React when the field team needs something faster, cleaner, or more responsive. It might mean pulling data through middleware or building read/write APIs when the system of record lives somewhere else.

What matters most is that we’re designing for how people actually work. Not just what the system can do.

Choosing where a solution lives

Every enterprise team eventually asks the same question: Should we build this inside Salesforce, on top of it, or somewhere else entirely?

The answer depends on what kind of product you’re creating and for whom.

Build within Salesforce

Use Salesforce as your design canvas when:

• The data and workflow already live there. You’re working with Opportunities, Cases, Contacts, or CPQ rules that are already modeled in SFDC.
• You want tight governance. Security, audit trails, permissions. Salesforce handles all of that out of the box.
• Your audience already lives in Salesforce. Internal teams, especially Sales, benefit from not switching tools.
• Speed matters. Experience Cloud templates and Lightning Web Components (LWC) allow quick prototyping using standard layouts, permissions, and automation.

We’ve seen tools launched in weeks by leaning on Salesforce-native patterns. But it only works when the user experience can live comfortably inside Salesforce’s structure.

Build on top of Salesforce

Go this route when:

• You need a tailored, flexible user experience. Field teams, customers, or partners often need a cleaner, mobile-first experience.
• You want more control over performance and design. React or Next.js apps hosted on Heroku or similar platforms allow full customization while syncing back to Salesforce with Heroku Connect or APIs.
• You’re layering in other systems. If your product pulls from Salesforce, SAP, and external services, a custom front end decouples experience from back-end complexity.

This is where experience and engineering really partner. The system can still be Salesforce at its core but the face of it becomes something that feels like your team, not like a CRM.

Build alongside Salesforce

Sometimes the answer is neither inside nor on top but next to. This applies to:

• Heavy analytics or AI workloads. These are better handled in platforms like Snowflake, BigQuery, or a purpose-built Python environment, then connected back into SFDC when needed.
• Fast-moving MVPs. When you’re pressure-testing an idea, it’s often faster to stand up a standalone Node or Rails app, connect it loosely via API, and validate whether it’s worth making a deeper investment.
• Data transformation or integration. Use middleware like Mulesoft, Workato, or custom services to connect SAP, Salesforce, and other systems without overloading any one of them.

These “adjacent” builds protect your core CRM from being over-customized and give you the room to innovate quickly.

Where a solution lives matters but only after you understand the job it needs to do.

• Salesforce brings structure, speed, and data integrity.
• External apps bring flexibility, control, and tailored experiences.
• Middleware and standalone tools bring orchestration, insight, and agility.

Enterprise doesn’t have to mean bloated

Enterprise tools often get a bad rap: too heavy, too rigid, too slow. But that comes from treating every solution like a platform decision. We believe the best enterprise products are modular. Some parts live in Salesforce. Some extend through Heroku or middleware. Some connect to SAP through APIs or real-time sync.

There’s no one-size-fits-all. But there are good principles:

• If the need is clear and the data lives in Salesforce, build the solution inside.
• If the experience demands more, build the solution outside and let Salesforce do what it does best.
• If the process spans teams or systems, find the integration points that serve the user, not just the architecture.

Modern enterprise design is about making thoughtful tradeoffs, not sweeping commitments. You can scale and stay nimble at the same time.

The work we choose to do first

We often tell our clients: building the right thing beats building the thing right.

That’s not a call to lower quality. It’s a call to sharpen the question. When teams take the time to align around the stakes, the business urgency, the user friction, the decision risk, then every design and engineering move after that is faster, clearer, and more likely to stick.

That’s what discovery gives us. A way to start small, on purpose, with eyes wide open.

Great enterprise products are built for clarity and impact. The clarity comes when tech and experience design sit at the same table, speaking the same language, focused on the same stakes that have impact.

Start there, and the rest will follow.

Originally posted on LinkedIn — Connect with Vince Cabansag over there

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The three lenses of digital success

Success extends beyond a sometimes narrow view; it’s easy to think of higher engagement, form completion and conversion. And, it can mean different things to different stakeholders, so it’s important revisit this question often throughout the project. At Clockwork, we take it a step further. We look at success through three distinct lenses: customer, business, and employee success.

What does customer success look like?

This lens considers what success looks like from your customer’s point of view. Positive customer experiences benefit the overall business, so it’s important to think about what they are trying to achieve and how you can measure that. There are clear metrics like customer satisfaction or NPS, but what else might be an indicator of success for customers? 

• If we are building a habit or behavior-changing product, such as a meditation app, what is the number of consecutive days of usage? This would indicate customers are making a positive behavior change and getting value from the experience.
  • Bonus points if you display this information to the customer, which triggers our brain’s reward receptors!
• Alternatively, we could look at user retention rates, or the percent of customers who continue to engage with a tool or app. This indicates they see the experience as useful and providing enough value to come back. 
• Imagine we’re launching a digital experience that requires consumers to fill out forms. Have we reduced the time it takes to complete the form while still gathering important information? Forms and asking for unnecessary information are a major roadblock for many users; reducing friction in that experience helps everyone. 

What does business success look like?

This lens asks the question “How will the business know we’ve been successful?” or “What does success look like to our business stakeholders?” Oftentimes, we can look at sales or conversion rates as indicators. These are metrics affect the bottom line and can indicate a clear ROI.  But what else might be an indicator? 

• If we are launching a new website or app, consider if reduced calls to support or customer service is a viable metric. This may indicate that the content is helping users answer their questions and that the experience is as seamless as you’d hoped. 
• Similarly, if you are working on new features for a product, we should consider measuring feature penetration. This will show us the percentage of customers who are using the features we have available, indicating we’ve implemented useful features and should see a return on our investment.
• Often, digital initiatives include new internal systems or tools that, when implemented correctly, should make our employees’ lives easier. This metric might cross into the third lens, but process automation could clearly indicate success for this type of project. If we’ve been able to automate some steps, teams can focus on higher-priority tasks. 

What does employee success look like?

Last but not least, we examine employee success. This lens explores the experiences of you and your staff, the people creating content and supporting the digital experience in the long term. Many business and customer success metrics can positively impact employee success, but what other factors might be indicators for this group?

• Imagine we’re engaging a new tool or technology to support our business processes or digital ecosystem. We might measure the percentage of employees who have gained skills on this new technology through certifications or skills assessments. 
• Digital initiatives often require teams to work across silos and clearly articulate who is responsible for what tasks. Measuring the number of disciplines or expert areas represented in team meetings and team-reported clarity on responsibilities could help illustrate the initiative’s internal impact. 

These three lenses don’t operate in isolation; they create a cycle of sustainable growth. When customers achieve their goals through your digital experience, they drive the business results that enable ongoing investment in better tools and experiences. Empowered employees then create even stronger customer experiences, amplifying the cycle.

By asking, “What does success look like?” and measuring across all three dimensions from the start, you’re not just tracking metrics—you’re building a foundation for long-term value creation. This approach helps teams stay aligned on what matters most and make strategic trade-offs with confidence. When your digital initiatives serve customers, business objectives, and employee needs simultaneously, you create experiences that don’t just perform well; they endure.

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