So, you think good UX is a nice-to-have? Think again.
The Hidden Costs of Bad Software Design: Lessons Learned as a Swim Team Manager
Managing a swim team may not seem like the most obvious place to learn about the hidden costs of poor software design. Still, my recent experience as a volunteer swim team representative showed firsthand how deeply end-user experience (UX) and administrative usability can impact everything — time, efficiency, and reputation.
What does this (volunteer==unpaid) job entail? I think of it as a blend of Chief of Staff for the coach, manager of practice and meet logistics, liaison between the club, parents, and swim league, and general doer of what needs to get done to keep the season running smoothly and within budget. So, a lot. For $0.
In my role, I was responsible for finding and implementing software to manage everything from team enrollment to meet participation, event entries, and results tracking. On the surface, this seemed like a simple task — finding a platform to handle these processes and make our coach’s life easier. But what started as a straightforward software evaluation turned into a lesson about how even small UX gaps can have massive consequences for admins, decision-makers, and, ultimately, the entire community they support.
The Setup: Selecting the Wrong Software
Like many organizations, our swim team needed a platform to handle things like:
- Enrollment management (so parents could easily sign up their kids),
- Meet participation tracking (so the coach would know who was coming),
- Event and relay entries (who swims what to maximize the likelihood of a victory and compliance with league rules)
- Recording meet results and records (for future planning and tracking).
I did a quick needs assessment with my co-rep. I then reviewed several platforms and selected one that seemed like the best fit. The platform offered a sleek interface and promised to handle everything we needed. But from the very first meet, it was clear that we were in trouble. What should have been a streamlined process turned into a nightmare. Parents were confused about how to register for the meet, so my co-rep and I walked over 50 people through the process. Our coach spent over eight hours setting up a single meet.
There were six more meets that season.
We were dealing with more than a minor usability issue — it was a serious operational bottleneck. Every minute the coach spent wrestling with the software was time not spent with the team. My co-rep and I didn’t have the time to hand-hold parents. As the person responsible for selecting this software, I felt pressure to find a solution.
Behind the Scenes Fix: Implementing a Workaround
After seeing the strain it caused, I quickly started looking for alternatives. I found a new platform with a more intuitive setup, streamlined meet configuration process, and every feature we realized we needed. But things got tricky here: I couldn’t force our entire team to switch platforms mid-season. Parents had already registered on the original platform, and asking them to switch midstream would have caused even more headaches.
So, I implemented a workaround. I hand-copied data from the original platform each week, manually entered everything into the new one, and ran things behind the scenes. I was essentially bridging two systems, hand-entering data so the coach didn’t have to. This made the process far more manageable — setup time dropped dramatically, and we didn’t have to burden parents with the switch.
The Larger Lesson: Small Usability Gaps Have Huge Consequences
Here’s where the real lesson comes in: What seemed like a minor inconvenience — a few extra clicks or a missing feature — became a time-consuming problem when scaled across an entire season. For the vendor, this issue probably looked insignificant. They were hearing complaints from just one admin (me), but I was hearing it from hundreds of parents, and my reputation was on the line because I had recommended the platform.
This experience taught me that B2B vendors often overlook the admin experience. It’s easy to design software with the end user in mind — after all, that’s who is on the front lines interacting with the product daily. But the admin, the person managing the platform behind the scenes, is often the one dealing with operational pain points and the repercussions of poor UX.
In the case of our swim team, the usability issues weren’t just a nuisance; they were a source of stress and inefficiency. The coach was frustrated, parents were confused, and I was stuck managing an unnecessarily complicated process.
The vendor, meanwhile, likely never understood the magnitude of the problem because they were only hearing feedback from me. However, the effects of poor software design were felt across the entire team — from wasted time to administrative burden to unnecessary stress.
Moreover, the work to accurately relay the issues sufficiently to the vendor felt like an even more significant burden for a product I had grown to resent.
The Disconnect: What Vendors Don’t See
This experience reflects a broader issue in software design, especially in the B2B space. Vendors often assume that if the software is functional for the end user, it’s “good enough.” But they forget that these admins (often the decision-makers) deal with a much larger ecosystem of users and stakeholders. And those stakeholders (parents, coaches, etc.) all have their own expectations, questions, and frustrations.
What seems like a minor issue for one admin can escalate exponentially across an organization, especially when the admin is fielding complaints from multiple users. In this case, a single missing feature caused hours of extra work for our coach and me, not to mention frustration for parents trying to navigate the platform.
The Cost of Ignoring Admins
Ignoring the admin experience doesn’t just create inefficiency — it creates a cost. Time spent managing a broken process is time not spent doing higher-value tasks. In our case, it meant the coach had less time to focus on the team, parents had to deal with confusing processes, and I had to manage the fallout.
For vendors, understanding the broader context of the admin’s experience is critical. Admins are often the ones deciding whether to continue using a product or switch to a competitor. And while vendors may only hear directly from one admin, that admin is likely hearing from an entire community of users. This creates a discrepancy in feedback — one that can lead to serious misjudgments about the true impact of poor UX.
Ultimately, this cost us as a customer, and the opportunity to expand across our league went to the new vendor.
Moving Forward: A Call for Human-Centered Design
This experience reinforced the importance of human-centered design — not just for end users but for the entire ecosystem. If vendors don’t understand the pain points of admins and decision-makers, they’re missing a critical piece of the puzzle. And that oversight can lead to product churn, bad reviews, and the loss of long-term customers.
My recommendation for B2B vendors: Take a step back. Look beyond the daily tasks of your primary users and dig into the experience of those managing your product. The decision-makers, like me, are balancing our frustrations and the collective frustrations of everyone using the product. What’s more, they’re seen as the face of the product — and are blamed for shortcomings and issues.
By designing with the admin in mind, you create a functional and sustainable product that works smoothly for all users, reduces operational inefficiencies, and ultimately builds trust with those responsible for making critical decisions.
Conclusion
The lessons I learned from managing a swim team may seem specific but universal. Regardless of industry, decision-makers and admins are the unsung heroes who keep systems running. By prioritizing their experience and acknowledging their unique pain points, vendors can create solutions that aren’t just usable — but transformative.
If you’re a vendor, ask yourself: Are you really listening to all your users? Because if you’re not, you could miss out on the opportunity to deliver true value.
Before you leave…
Like what you’ve learned? Show your support by hitting the clap button! You can clap up to 50 times 👏 👏 👏
Want more Bland in your life? Follow me!
