I have a theory that horrible design of most enterprise software is caused by a self-reinforcing vicious circle.

When you’re an engineer, or a product person, and are forced to use horribly-designed internal systems, building more horribly-designed software will come naturally and you’d think nothing of awkward and barely-useable user interfaces you churn out, as long as there are no obvious bugs.

Hiring a UX person or a team, making their suggestions a priority, applying what they suggest consistently and for a long time is the only way to break out of it. But I have yet to see it happen.