A Business analyst's mistake can be the next big Breakthrough!!

Build just enough to learn, but not more. The prototype must appear real. Goldilocks quality. - Jake Knapp

You must have come here after reading today's article Title. And yes you read it correctly. Today we talk about "Learning". And learning from mistakes, which is the greatest innovation of the universe. Which led to the innovation of everything we appreciate today including this smartphone or Laptop you are using right now.

I'm a basket full of errors and mistakes, I will start with that. So then. Then what? What if I say it is the same for all of us? To you too. We commit mistakes from birth to death. So as said today I talk about step 2 of committing a mistake. Learning.

Learn from your mistakes and improve. This is the only way to develop as a species which is tested with time and that through hundred thousand of years. The skyscrapers in your city, the air balloons flying over you or the vehicle you drove home are its results, which started with a homo habilis learning that if you crisscross your legs you will trip but if you keep them parallelly in a synchronizing fashion you can walk. Does evolved into the upright Homo erectus. Just think of your 80 years as the 3 Million Years of the history of Human species. If you can make many mistakes throughout these years but also learn and improve, you can just narrate your life to become like the epic tale of our species. To become a success story of its own.

Learning Cultures

Peter Senge is renowned as one of the main personalities behind modern organizations. In 1990 he popularized his idea of Learning organizations in a popular book he published "The Fifth Discipline". Senge talks about non-rigid organizations. About workplaces that let their workers innovate by themselves. And make mistakes. Most importantly learn and in the process come up with the best solutions.

Today such organizations are among the top in the world due to this nature. Some examples are Google, Apple, Uber, Airbnb, etc. If you look into Google they not only promote innovation in product development but in process development and process improvements as well. Jake Knapp in his famous Sprint book talks about how he invented Design Sprints while at Google by running months of different kinds of design thinking workshops. Finally learned from previous mistakes and arrived at the famous 5-day design sprint. The culture in Google is flexible for anyone to fail and try again. And that is one of the best attributes of a learning organization.

Building Learning Cultures in Business Analysts

When it comes to business analysis there should be a methodology to innovate, then learn from mistakes and re-iterate. As you know this is called Design Thinking. This is practiced around the world by product teams to innovate groundbreaking solutions.

There are different Design Thinking approaches but as in common they are non-linear. Because always you provide the end prototype to the user and get feedback. Learn from it and improve the prototype till the best solution is built. In the diagram above you can see the steps as a circle, but you can also walk from one to another through the white space in the center. It's just a mindset. The same goes for learning at different nodes. Organizations with learning cultures are built on this mindset.

These approaches are used differently in different companies and BA teams. Below is a team using Design Sprints for the same purpose which was invented as said in Google by Jake Knapp also using the same attributes of learning.

In this approach, the team can innovate as they are testing the idea with the end users before building solid products. This provides a cushion. And invite them to make mistakes. Which as we discussed at the beginning of this article can possibly give life to the next big breakthrough. So as such the next big breakthroughs in the industry, society, or humanity can be coming from your BA team.

Another thing is the more you read more ideas will come to try out new ways. Then the more you can fail, the more you can learn and the more you will improve. This should be the motto of your career as a BA as well. I acknowledge myself as a basket full of mistakes so that it will help me to understand where I can improve. This is a testimony that I try day in and out to innovate and to test ideas. Where the next breakthrough in my life will come.

This is common for any personal thing as well. Keep trying. Be persistent. But improve each time from what learned previously. Successful people keep this mindset to hit their target. The more you learn, the better you will do next time. The Silicon Valley is full of such examples. In the same way, I invite you to approach your life as well.

We are not born to be bored from office work but to do great things for humanity and society😉

Happy weekends!!✨