Designing Products for Intermediaries — Three Rules

Building for intermediaries is different from building for end-users. Your customer already has a workflow, a billing process, client relationships, and risk tolerance. Your product must fit into that world.

Three rules for design:

1. Output format first. An accountant needs AR aging in a format that slides into a client report. A lawyer needs a due diligence brief that looks like theirs. Design the output your intermediary will deliver to their client. Then work backward to the automation.

2. No new logins. Intermediaries won’t manage another SaaS account. Either embed it in their ecosystem (email, spreadsheet, their existing platform) or make it a one-click integration. More accounts = churn.

3. Defensible opacity. Intermediaries will margin your output. They need to present it as theirs. The internals don’t matter to them. What matters: Can they explain it to a client? Is the output defensible under scrutiny? Can they stand behind it if challenged?

Fail these, and you get a “great tool that we’re not using” conversation.

Examples:

• SE Report Builder: Output is a PDF that looks like a credit report. Accountants deliver it as theirs. They don’t need to understand multi-agent chains. ✓
• A slack bot for contract analysis: Requires intermediaries to manage a new tool, train staff, integrate it. They won’t. ✗

Think like an accountant. Design for their client. Build the output first.