The #1 Success Tool as a Business Analyst

Dear Business Analysts: An invitation and challenge for you on this Monday.
🤝 Help your client without techsplaining. Instead, be human by asking more questions.

💻 What is techsplaining? Well, imagine you go to the doctor, because of an intense migrane. You tell them your symptoms, and before you even get to finish describing the problem, they cut you off and say:

“Oh it seems like you have inflammation of the sub-optic nerve. It might be increasing sub-cranial fluid pressure. If we don’t solve it quickly, you might suffer blurry vision!”

🙄*cue eye roll. How would that feel? Probably not good… that is doctorsplaining. (I am not a doctor so I am sure my medical terminology does not match… but you get the gist)

The doctor did not listen to your experience, or ask any clarifying questions. There is a very high likelyhood of misdiagnosis.

🛑 Techsplaining with our clients is the same. In a #DiscoverySession, I challenge you to ask more questions. What they understand the problem to be is important. It provides clues.

🎵 P.S. I wrote and sing a #businessanalyst jingle to solidify the concept, sung to one of the greats, “Do Re Me” from the Sound of Music. Because #musicals …. Link in comments.

❓ One of the greatest lessons I learned from my recent Talent Stacker experience, as well as my time as a business coach, is that if we do not understand the root problem, we will likely misdiagnose, then have to go back, resolution and the rebuild rapport.

👩‍🏫Yes, we are the #Salesforce experts. But the clients have golden insights into their business. Our job is to listen to understand, instead of listening to solution with comments about custom objects, flows, Apex code or if they’d prefer a checkbox or picklist.

🐑P.S. 2 If you aren’t how to speak human, listen to the language THEY use. Speak to the user interface, not the setup menu.

The true mark of a seasoned professional is not how quickly we can create a solution (though this is a side-effect of effective discovery sessions.)

🧩It is to understand, then describe their real problem with more clarity than they can, all from an attitude of “I got you, we are in this together.” Get clear on the #userstory. Use #empathy

So your weekly challenge:
✨ #Askmorequestions. Ask until there are no more questions to be asked. Wait to be invited to share your exptertise. Your client WILL ask you what the next steps are once they trust you can actually help them.