3 Mistakes Junior Business Analysts Make
Updated: Oct 6
As much as I love working with entry-level BAs, I also see very typical common junior business analyst mistakes that some of the junior BAs make.
Mistake 1. Junior business analyst mistakes: speaking more than you listen
Junior, entry-level BAs tend to speak more than they should listen.
I understand where it's coming from. Especially when you want to prove that you belong in the room. So you try to fill the air, you jump in with the ideas, you over-explain.
But in reality, that sets the wrong tone. The customer and stakeholders don't necessarily feel appreciated.
Your job as a BA is to create a platform - an environment - in which your customer or stakeholders will be comfortable sharing the insights, the details, the problems with you. And you listen.
Mistake 2. You might come with an already pre-defined solution.
And then you try to frame the conversation in a way that you basically want the stakeholders to agree with your point of view.
You must not come with a biased opinion. You must not come with a predefined solution, especially in discovery. You've got to be open-minded.
Remember - the ideal solution is the one that is proposed and picked by the team - not by you.
Mistake 3. You might leave everything in a conversation, and never create a tangible artifact.
A Jira user story, a Confluence page, meeting notes, writing down the decisions that were made on the call.
Producing tangible artifacts must always be a top priority for you as an entry-level BA. Jira tickets, user stories, meeting notes, Confluence pages, spreadsheets, acceptance criteria - whatever possible - create them and share them with your team.
If you're early in your BA career and you want a clear path from junior to lead - join my free BA Promotion Roadmap: From Junior to Lead. I walk through what it takes at each step.
Talk soon,
Sergey
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