Workday Didn't "Fix" Their UI. They Just Bought a $1 Billion Skin.
To: The Department of First Things First Subscribers From: The guy trying to explain to his son that digital clothes aren't real investments
Justin came to me yesterday asking for $10 to buy a “skin” for his video game.
Me: “Does it make you run faster?”
Justin: “No.”
Me: (thinking about my Legend of Zelda days) “Does it make you stronger?”
Justin: “No.”
Me: “So what does it do?”
Justin: “It puts a cool helmet on my guy so I don’t look like a ‘noob’.”
I gave him the $10 because I’m a pushover. But as I watched him play, the game was exactly the same. The physics were glitchy, the servers lagged, but hey - he looked fantastic while falling off a cliff.
Yesterday, Workday released their new Sana-driven UI. And after watching the presentation, I realized something: Workday just bought a billion-dollar skin.
They finally admitted they couldn’t “patch” their way out of the 2010s. So, they stopped trying to fix the house and just bought a flashy door to hide the plumbing (kind of like Justin’s closet last week).
Here is the Department of First Things First breakdown of what this actually means for us in the trenches.
1. The “Witness Protection Program” for Business Objects
The most striking thing about the new UI is that it effectively kills the traditional menu.
For a decade, Workday has been trying to refresh the interface. Remember “Canvas”? Remember “Cards”? They were facelifts. This is a transplant.
By shifting to “Search is the OS,” Workday is finally admitting that their navigation structure is unfixable. They don’t want you to navigate anymore. They want you to search. They are effectively putting their complex Business Object Model into the Witness Protection Program.
The Department Take: This is smart. Users hate navigating. But I’ve been ranting about this for months: putting a search bar on top of a messy warehouse doesn’t clean up the warehouse. If your data is garbage, Sana is just going to help you find that garbage faster.
2. The “Front Door” Power Play (aka The Land Grab)
They are marketing this as the “New Front Door for Work.” They want to index everything - Slack, Google Drive, Microsoft 365.
This is a direct shot at Microsoft and ServiceNow. Workday is tired of being the “Destination Site” you visit once a week to begrudgingly approve time off. They want to be the browser you live in.
The Department Take: This sounds great in a keynote. In reality? It’s terrifying. If employees start using Workday to find a Google Doc because the Sana search is better than Google’s, Workday wins the attention war. But...
3. The “Security Nightmare” Scenario
Here is where the Security Admin in me starts sweating.
The promise of “Universal Search” is sexy. But have you looked at your Security Groups recently?
If Workday starts indexing external content (Slack, SharePoint, Drive), your security mapping has to be flawless.
The Risk: The Store Manager searches for “Budget,” and because of a wonky permission mapping in the API (they’re a “Manager” after all), Sana surfaces a confidential M&A draft from the CFO’s Google Drive.
In the Department, we call this a “Career Limiting Event.”
4. Agents vs. The “Click of Death”
We are moving from “Inbox Tasks” (click, review, click, error, click, click, throw keyboard) to “Agents.” An Agent handles the process in the background and just asks the human for a decision.
Old Way: Recruiter opens req, clicks 12 tabs, reviews compensation, checks grade profile, hits approve.
New Way: Agent says, “Candidate clears all checks and is within range. Approve Offer?”
The Department Take: This is the only way we hit high-velocity hiring. But—and this is a massive but—the Agent is only as smart as your business rules. If your rules are “ask Barb in Payroll,” the Agent is going to hallucinate. Your rules better be on point.
The Verdict
It’s the boldest move Workday has made in a decade. It makes them look cool again. It’s a very expensive “skin” that makes the platform look modern.
But remember Justin and his video game.
The skin looks great. The helmet is shiny. But if the underlying game mechanics (your configuration, your data, your security) are broken, you’re just going to look really high-tech while you crash into the wall.
Keep your security tight and your data clean.
Mike
Director of the Department of First Things First | Chief Family Skin-Buyer
P.S. Justin asked if the new Workday UI has “emotes” (dances). I told him no, but if I see one more integration error this week, I’m going to start screaming and throwing things, which is kind of the same thing.