B2B Design Principals: How Israeli Innovators Shape Future Business Tech

In my last blog, I talked about the evolution of B2B tech in Israel, specifically the increasing focus on user-centrism and accessibility in how new software solutions are developed. I shed some light on the role of Israeli startups as innovators on the global scene, making the case that our tech firms are among those best positioned to lead the way in the new age of light B2B.

In this piece, I’d like to expand on those ideas by going a little more in-depth. Sure, Israeli tech firms have always stood out in their agility and capacity for innovation, but what specific design principles are they implementing in the B2B space that is enabling them to align so well with the needs and expectations of modern client companies? Let’s dive into it. 

Consumer-style UIs

As I touched on previously, one of the most crucial aspects of the new Israeli approach to B2B is the increased emphasis on simplicity and the shift towards more simplistic and consumer-friendly user interfaces. 

Traditionally, the UX of a B2B software platform has often felt like sitting in the cockpit of a fighter jet. With dashboards replete with seemingly endless buttons, dials, and flashing lights that all require specialist knowledge and experience to understand, B2B software has often come off as impenetrable to the average user, and this precluded B2B companies from accessing large swathes of their potential client bases. This needn’t be the case, though, as Israeli firms are showing.

Last time, I referenced Wordtune, whose paraphrasing tool has gained attention for the simplicity of its design, but other Israeli companies are doing similarly good work in bringing accessibility to the B2B sector. HoneyBook, in particular, stands out in this regard.

HoneyBook is another Tel Aviv-based startup whose platform provides independent businesses with an all-in-one client flow management system. The platform comprises a range of different features, allowing companies to handle client bookings, proposals, projects, invoices, contracts, payments, and more. That’s a lot of utility, yet HoneyBook remains incredibly simple to use despite managing to consolidate all of these functions, and that’s down to its clever B2C-inspired design.

They uses a variety of simple but elegant solutions to lower the barrier to entry for users. From pre-constructed templates to automated workflows and drag-and-drop functionality, its features are all designed with user-centrism in mind, reducing the need for technical expertise effectively to zero. In creating a consumer-style UI for its platform, they have reached an impressive valuation of over $2.4 billion less than a decade after its foundation.

Dynamic design

User-centrism is also about more than just making tech tools simpler and less confusing to use – it’s also about making them more flexible and adaptable. The digital age has seen entrepreneurship rapidly democratized, as online channels have opened up a plethora of new avenues to business success, and this has brought about the emergence of a much wider and more varied audience for B2B tech. As people with increasingly diverse skills and capabilities are now seeking to leverage business technologies, B2B firms need to develop more dynamic solutions that adapt to users’ needs. This is another area where Israel stands tall.

A perfect example of dynamic design is monday.com, Tel Aviv’s project management titan. Monday’s industry-leading solution has received widespread recognition since its launch, and it owes much of its success to its flexible design. 

Monday’s is a modular platform, meaning it can be adapted to the needs of virtually any user. Monday has included a wide range of templates, project cards, dashboards, view options, and even timelines that enable users to visualize projects in a way that feels intuitive to them, allowing for work effective project management. Moreover, the platform includes automation capabilities for custom workflows and extensive integration capabilities that enable users to tailor the project management experience to their specific needs and preferences.

Monday’s accessible modular platform has succeeded in empowering users both with and without technical expertise, and the results have been staggering. With over 225,000 customers globally and revenue growth of 34% in Q1 2024 alone, Monday is demonstrating the huge potential for success in dynamic, user-centric design. 

Clarity with AI 

With AI-powered solutions becoming more and more prevalent in B2B, transparency has emerged as a key concern. Those using AI and machine learning models want to keep tabs on how they are performing and utilizing data, but given the complex nature of these models, doing so effectively can be nigh impossible without extensive expertise in this area. Since forgoing the use of AI altogether is tantamount to ceding market share to the competition, companies have little choice but to press on with AI, but there is a clear niche to be served in making AI more transparent and accessible in B2B.

I highlighted the work of Safe Superintelligence (SSI) in my previous piece, but another Israeli company that is making strides in this area is Aporia. Founded in 2019, the firm specializes in observability, providing guardrail solutions that enable users to closely monitor AI agents. Aporia’s platforms offer ready-made guardrail solutions that are both robust and customizable, complete with a user-friendly dashboard, allowing users to track the performance of AI applications and ensure that they are being deployed correctly. Aporia has achieved huge success since its foundation, as is evidenced by its partnerships with Samsung and AWS.

By providing an accessible monitoring solution that integrates with AI and machine learning models, Aporia is making AI more transparent to bridge the skill gap, empowering experts and non-experts alike to harness its power in a way that is both safe and secure.

Redefining B2B through User-Centrism  

Research from Level Access indicates that 85% of B2B organizations now view digital accessibility as the way to achieve a competitive advantage, while 64% say it has boosted revenue, so it would seem that the jury is in. User-centric design isn’t just a passing trend in B2B – it’s the basis of a whole new paradigm that will shape how businesses operate in the coming years, and simplicity, adaptability, and transparency are three of its core tenets.  

With the global B2B audience becoming increasingly diverse, accessibility will be the animus driving the development of next-gen business technologies, and Israeli companies have proven themselves agile to that change. As early adopters of this new accessibility-focused design philosophy, Israeli innovators are already exemplifying how this approach can help deliver greater value to users in B2B, and what they’ve learned thus far will undoubtedly stand them in good stead going forward.

By adapting their design philosophies to emphasize consumer-style UIs, dynamic design principles, and clarity in the implementation of AI, our domestic firms have effectively broken the mold, shattering our preconceptions of what B2B tech is and should be, and this will undoubtedly be a catalyst for innovation. In this forthcoming era of user-centric B2B, Israeli start-ups are set to blaze a trail once again, and it will be fascinating to see where this one leads.