The Big Red Save Button

Helping your customer see options they never knew were possible.

We were still in the early exploratory phases of re-building the most important application in the tech landscape of this worldwide accounting firm. Our very engaged and knowledgeable Subject Matter Expert (SME) never tired of explaining what functionality needed to be in there. One of the most explicit requirements was the Big Red Save Button that simply had to be there, on every single page.

Let me start by stating that I’ve never experienced a more involved, knowledgeable, enthusiastic, and mandated SME in my entire career. She knew everything, shared everything, and could make every decision needed. We could talk to her face-to-face, or call her, text her, e-mail her any time of the day — any day — to get something clarified. She was a real superstar SME.

She also knew very well what she wanted and was very adamant about it. She had an enormous internal network that spanned the entire globe. Quite literally. If you named a random country, she could name you a contact she knew over there that we could call — from the Bahamas to Singapore, from Norway to Australia. This way she was a very appropriate representative of the needs and wishes of most of the sixty-six thousand accountants within the firm, at that time.