With organizations increasingly focused on efficiency and process improvement, business analysts play a bigger role than ever in driving change.
However, traditional approaches often keep analysts confined to meeting rooms, virtual calls and documentation -- limiting their understanding of on-the-ground challenges.
This raises an important question: Can we truly understand a problem without experiencing it in action?
Yet, in many organizations, projects get stuck in cycles of meetings over action. More discussions, more documentation, more delays. The frontline perspective is often missing, leading to solutions built on assumptions rather than real-world needs.
To bridge this gap, principles from Human-Centered Design (HCD) and Kaizen offer valuable insights:
Empathy and Gemba Orientation: HCD emphasizes the importance of empathy—deeply understanding users' experiences by engaging directly with them. Similarly, the Kaizen principle of "Gemba" encourages going to the actual place where work is done to observe and identify areas for improvement. By immersing themselves in the real work environment, analysts can gain authentic insights that are often missed in distant evaluations.
Iterative Development and Continuous Improvement: Both HCD and Kaizen advocate for iterative processes. HCD involves rapid prototyping and refining solutions based on user feedback, ensuring the end product truly meets user needs. Kaizen focuses on continuous, incremental improvements, fostering a culture where small, consistent changes lead to significant enhancements over time. This can also be a source of true tangible and functional requirements enterprise IT teams use for implementation.
Collaboration and Respect for People: A cornerstone of HCD is collaboration—engaging diverse stakeholders to co-create solutions. Kaizen also emphasizes respect for people, recognizing that empowering employees to contribute ideas leads to more effective and sustainable improvements. Encouraging open communication and valuing each team member's input can transform organizational culture and outcomes, ultimately driving-up user acceptance and a business ownership ethos for success.
By integrating these principles, business analysts can move beyond theoretical models and engage directly with the environments they aim to improve. This hands-on approach not only uncovers root causes of inefficiencies but also fosters solutions that are both practical and embraced by those on the front lines.
At the end of the day, the most impactful solutions aren’t designed in isolation—they’re discovered where the work actually happens.
💡 Is your organization's support and enablement team often perceived as being out of touch with user needs or slow to respond? If so, maybe it’s time to empower Business Analysts to take a more hands-on approach to capturing requirements. It might even be worth getting them comfortable in a hardhat, high-vis vest, and steel-toed boots!