Susanne Schmidt-Rauch, a Swiss 'UXlerin', visited our latest BA & Beyond conference in March, where she talked herself about how user experience complements business analysis. She wrote about her learnings and experience recently. Very interesting to read how a UX person perceives business analysis! It's in German, but I've hand-picked a few key points that stick with me. Thanks for your article, Susanne!
Many organisations are experimenting with applying agile techniques. However, without a good understanding of the agile mindset, this often does not lead to the expected results. At the latest BBC Conference, I talked to Kathy Berkidge, who frequently speaks on agile and how it enables good collaboration. She also discusses the relation of agile and mindfulness, which is maybe a bit unexpected but can be a big enabler!
Globalisation enables us to bring the best people from all around the world together virtually to create successful teams. At the same time, even people that work together physically have a lot of virtual interactions. At the latest BBC Conference, I talked to Penny Pullan, author and frequent speaker on facilitation and virtual working, which isn’t all that virtual after all.
Adrian is a well known and frequent speaker at conferences around the world. At the latest BBC Conference, we had the chance to discuss systems thinking and how this is relevant for business analysis.
At the latest Building Business Capability Conference, I had the chance to talk to Lori Silverman. Lori is passionate about business storytelling, and how it helps foster strategic thinking and getting from data to insights.
Lean and agile have become a thing in most organisations. They have a significant impact on how projects are run. As a consequence, they heavily influence what people expect from business analysis.
But what exactly is lean business analysis? Can and should analysis work be performed in an agile way?
Whenever I speak at a conference or other event, I ask the audience who is “innovating”. All hands always go up. But what is “innovation”, apart from a hype and a buzz word?
Let me draw from a few definitions I quite like.
Have you ever been in a situation where stakeholders presented you a solution to analyse and get implemented? Where your devotion to your analysis work uncovered more insights on the real need or root cause, and brought up alternative solutions? Where you have been unable to convince your stakeholders hereof and really influence the project’s focus?
Having impact is not only of direct benefit for your organisation, it’s also important to feel valued for your work.
When I recently cut a slice of brown bread for breakfast, I discovered a white blob in the middle. Strange. Yet I ate it, and you know what? I did not die. Seriously, I didn’t even get sick.
We really need to be ok with having more white blobs when innovating.
One of the biggest hurdles to overcome in a lot of organisations is getting started with early customer validation. But it’s not so much an organisational issue, it’s mostly a personal issue. Do you have what it takes to get out and talk to potential customers?
