Hacks for business analysts help to improve productivity even to individuals completely new to business analysis.

Are you a business analyst or are you looking to become one? 

You’ll agree that sometimes the job could seem tough and unbelievable. The plenty demands, the impossible deadlines, or maybe you just get clueless on how best to maximise your productivity as a business analyst.

There is no need to wear long faces on the job. With the right methods or corners (don’t tell us), you can become a better business analyst than you have imagined. 

First, understand how important your role is.

Analysis for any business is very important, because the fabric and how long a business lasts for just about any kind of business in the world today is dependent on it. 

Take a few seconds to think about it… What’s a business without analysis to start with? Virtually everything will almost go wrong, plus any business owner would agree that running a business on assumptions alone is No. 1 on ‘1000 Ways to Lose your Business’.

From all we’ve seen, the important role business analysis plays in any business puts a business analyst, especially you, at the forefront of so many businesses. Look at that! This literally makes you the superman of many businesses, because without you their businesses are tossed big time – no kidding!

There is no argument that business analysis can be stressful and time consuming. What if we showed you five simple tips that could make your analysis simple, easy and less time consuming? Imagine a hack that reveals how to prepare a meal twice as fast and more efficiently. Let’s jump right in!

Hack 1: Know the Brand

This cannot be out of the box or else, you’ll only shoot off the target once you’re done with your analysis. You need to understand the business you’re analysing and what they do, what they are producing, their goals and objectives.

 A little bit of empathy will do the trick faster. Empathy first strengthens the bond between you and your client. This allows you to get easy access to as much information as you need and even sniff out the untold data not given. 

One of the ways you can build a connection with your employer is to be part of the implementation process; don’t just detect, proffer solutions and leave your client all by himself. Follow through to ensure that they do just as you have said they should, because a slight mistake could make or mar your work and make you look ineffective.

Hack 2: Communicate with Your Clients Better

Virtually everything we do is hinged on how best we are able to communicate with and to our clients and prospective clients.

You don’t want to start talking to your client and look lost or something like that. You’d need to be able to ask the right questions and get the necessary answers (when the question is too technical for them to understand). This will also help you know what tools to use for your analysis like MOST, PESTLE, SWOT, MoSCoW, CATWOE 

Learn about that here. We have to communicate to achieve anything, so make sure you get a hang of it before you go to them or pick their call. This is more like you using the human instinct to do business in a very superb way.

Hack 3: Know your Customers

You can’t just begin to analyse, when you don’t know a lot about your target customers. This will help you to know what trick to use and know where to find tangible information from them to help your analysis.

Know your customers before starting your analysis. You also stand the chance of what people think of the brand if you take measures to understand what goes on in the mind of your target audience. 

Hack 4: Develop a Plan

After all that underground work you’ve done from business owners to customers, etc, get to action! Under-using the information you’ve been able to get so far  is synonymous to crippling yourself by yourself. 

You’d have to be proactive. Be a walking thinking box. As you get each information, draw out a plan that suits the information gathered. You don’t have to wait till all the information is complete before you start mapping out a plan for your job. By the time you get the whole pieces together, you just have to hit the nail on the head immediately. This will definitely blow your client away at how fast you’ve able to come up with a solution almost at the end of your analysis – call it a puzzle technique maybe.

Hack 5: Set a Target Before the Target Sets You

There is nothing that sparks a fire than when one knows he has a deadline to meetup. It puts you on your toes and I know that can mess things up a bit with misplacements here and there. However, what we will be describing here is different.

An athlete runs like never before when he knows what is at stake you know, and what’s even more interesting is when he is breaking his own record. 

Setting a target can be very demanding, but it could be easier you know, Why? That’s because you already have a plan, remember? Setting a deadline makes it a lot easier for you to meet up with your tasks, because the plan is yours and the deadline is yours too.

You don’t have to wait for the company to set a time limit for you to accomplish your task as a business analyst. Pressure could be best managed when it is internal than external, because you get to determine how much of it gets to you. Even at that, if your pressure is stronger internally, the pressure from the external side (the client) will have minimal or no effect on you.

Stay in charge!

Business analysis could be so much fun and easier, especially when you are the one on the driver’s seat regardless of whoever you’re working for at the moment; you can be the intermediary between The Boss (You) and THE BOSS (Your Client); that’s more like being the Weighing Scale in the equation.

If you are not a business analyst yet but you’d love to become one, you might want to check out our business analysis course. It is best tailored for anyone who wants to thrive as a business analyst, even with zero experience! You also get access to free mentorship sessions to make sure you are making the most out of your classes. You can find out more about our exceptional business analysis course here.