The power of the partnership

How designers & BAs unite to supercharge innovation
As a strategic designer I use principles, tools & human- centred design methods to influence strategic decision making. I focus on aligning people on the business and experience vision, surfacing opportunities, undertaking deep research into people's needs & co-designing value propositions. My preference is always to work closely with a Business Analyst like the wonderful Alan Harrison, not just because they are super-capable and skilled collaborators, but they add a layer of value I can’t deliver on my own.
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It’s not just a matter of Outside-in vs. Inside-out
Business Analysts are not just focused on the business need (or outside-in focus). Designers are not just focused on the customer/employee/citizen experience (inside-out focus). Both perspectives complement each other and, when working together, they provide a holistic, deep & human- focused understanding of how an organisation can bring its aspirations to life.

What Designers do
We all know that design thinking is the discipline of creating solutions in the service of people. The role of the Designer is to connect people and ideas. We do that through applying a mindset (ways of thinking), and a framework (ways of working).

Ways of thinking (mindset)

Ways of working (framework)

What Business Analysts do
It depends.*
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Ask someone who isn’t a BA, and they may say “requirements gathering” or “process modelling” and these are certainly activities that BAs specialise in. But there’s a lot more they can and do bring to a project.

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Business analysis is all about understanding a problem, figuring out the starting point, working out whether a solution (be it IT-based or otherwise) might actually solve the problem, and working out what needs to happen in order to affect the changes the solution will bring. These all fall within a broad definition of “business analysis”, but you’ll recognise some of them as activities that other disciplines (such as Designers, Change Managers etc.) excel at.
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In our view, the key skill that a BA brings to a team is the ability to articulate what is achievable. It may seem like they want to inhibit the creativity and innovation of the others in the team, but it’s actually the polar opposite. It’s about increasing the chances of the success for a project by ensuring that the needs (for both the business and the customer) are met by the design and can actually be delivered within the time-frame and budget.
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* A standard BA answer.

How we do it together
As we work together, we set out to co-design solutions that are desirable, feasible and viable. The Designer's focus is on desirability - what people want. But without an analytical lens on viability and feasibility (what is technically & organisationally feasible, what is financially viable and sustainable) solutions will fail.
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The “power of the bundle” comes in leveraging the lenses, skills and capabilities of both Designers & Business Analysts. So, if you're really looking for supercharged innovation, transformation and sustainable change you should be partnering your BA’s with a Designer.

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