Elevating the Business Analyst with the lens of Human Centered Design Thinking. Learn how Human Centered Thinking and User Experience Design can directly address common software pitfalls.

1. The UX Analyst
Elevating the Business Analyst with the lens
of Human Centered Design Thinking

2. Why this matters

3. Why this matters
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4. Why Software Fails
• Unrealistic or unarticulated project goals.
• Inaccurate estimates of needed resources.
• Badly defined system requirements.
• Poor reporting of the project's status.
• Unmanaged risks.
• Poor communication among customers, developers, and users.
• Use of immature technology.
• Inability to handle the project's complexity.
• Sloppy development practices.
• Poor project management.
• Stakeholder politics.
• Commercial pressures.

5. Why Software Fails
• Unrealistic or unarticulated project goals.
• Inaccurate estimates of needed resources.
• Badly defined system requirements.
• Poor reporting of the project's status.
• Unmanaged risks.
• Poor communication among customers, developers, and users.
• Use of immature technology.
• Inability to handle the project's complexity.
• Sloppy development practices.
• Poor project management.
• Stakeholder politics.
• Commercial pressures.

6. Solvable

7. What is a Business Analyst?
• A Business Analyst identifies business needs and
determines solutions to business problems.

8. • A UX Designer identifies user needs and determines
solutions to user problems.
What is a User Experience Designer?

9. Differences

10. UX DesignerBusiness Analyst
Differences
• Identify what the new
system should do.
• What CAN users do?
• Create process flow
diagrams.
• Research Current
Process
• Identify how the new
system should work.
• What WILL users do?
• Create navigation flow
diagrams.
• Research Users

11. Similarities
Solve Problems
• By listening.
• By communicating.
• By problem-solving.
• By analyzing.
• By visualizing.

12. UX DesignerBusiness Analyst
Let’s combine them
• Business goals
• “What will success look
like for this product?”
• Behavioral goals
• “What are the behaviors
that support these
goals?”

13. Let’s combine them
“What do users have to do for this
product to be successful?”

14. Let’s combine them
“What do users have to do for this
product to be successful?”
It’s not about features.
It’s about measurable,
observable outcomes.

15. Examples
Before:
• We need to increase the number of users who select
Plan B and Plan D instead of Plan A.
• We need to sell more movie tickets than our competitor
down the street.
After:
• We need people to better understand Plans B and D.
• Users need to understand why our movie theater is
better than our competitor down the street.

16. Brings focus.
• To every feature; every user story.
Brings ideas.
• Objective measurement to evaluate proposed
solutions.
Accountability for Designers.
• Links design work directly to business outcomes.
Benefits

17. Stakeholder
Politics
Addressing the first problem

18. Proto-Personas
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19. What are Personas?

20. What are Personas?
Representation of a typical user.
• Identify behaviors and motivations.
• It is a way to summarize trends and patterns,
observed through extensive user research.

21. Problems with Personas
Time consuming and expensive!
• Not enough user data.
• Often to vague to be useful.
• Often contain unvalidated conclusions.
Do not incorporate existing beliefs.
• Limited company buy-in.

22. What are Proto-Personas?
Leaner variant of the traditional Persona.
• Not initially the result of user research.
• Stakeholders encapsulate the organization’s beliefs
based on their domain expertise and gut feeling.

23. Benefits of Proto-personas
Short 4 hour workshop.
Creates alignment with Stakeholders.
Keeps Stakeholders invested.
Reinforces company awareness about the
end user.
Direction for further user research.

24. Benefits of Proto-personas

25. Badly defined
requirements
Addressing the second problem

26. Job Stories
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27. What are User Stories?
A tool used to capture a description of a
software feature from an end-user
perspective.
“As a <user>, I want to <goal>,
so that <reason>.”

28. Benefits of User Stories
Perfect tool for maximizing development
throughput.
Keeps things manageable and separate.

29. Problems with User Stories
Locked into a sequence with no context.
Proposes unvalidated solutions.
Users don’t judge software based on
individual features!

30. What are Job Stories?
Situation vs. Persona
Motivation vs. Goal
Expected Outcome vs. Reason

31. Examples
Before:
• As a user, I want to save my work, so that my work is
saved when I return.
• As an administrator, I want to add a new user, so they
may access the system.
After:
• When I return to the application, I want to pick-up
where I left off, so I can easily continue my work.
• When a new user joins our organization, I want to add
them to the system, so they may access the system.

32. Benefits of Job Stories
Defines motivations, not implementations.
• Empowers the designer and developer to build the
right solution.
Removes assumptions about the user.
• Provides contextual information.

33. Poor communication
among customers,
developers, and users.
Addressing the third problem

34. Customer Journey Maps
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35. What is a Customer Journey Map?

36. What is a Customer Journey Map?
Graphic interpretation of the overall story
between a customer and an organization.
• From an individual’s perspective.
• Correlates key decisions with emotions.
• Across all touchpoint and channels.

37. Benefits
Identifies operational inefficiencies.
Helps avoid unnecessary features.
Discover new opportunities.
Encourage Internal Coordination.

38. Key Take-aways

39. Key Take-aways
• Focus on motivations and outcomes,
not just features.
• Enhance business goals by incorporating behavioral
goals.
• Our clients can avoid common pitfalls by incorporating
design thinking strategies.
“What do users have to do for this
product to be successful?”