Today, I am having goo d conversation with some people that has a background as business analyst. This post will tell you about three things that business analyst needs to be done when meeting the client.
Before meeting
Having a knowledge is a mandatory activity. Here are some tips for you.
- Understanding the basic business process of your customer. Learning from their website, tasting their product, and joining their presentation will give you the idea of their business process.
- Finding their basic problem from the existing business process. You can do a short call with the customer, plan a conference call
- Finding their existing solution to face problem (if there are exist)
- Looking for the similar solution from the others. It will be good to do a short review about the existing product.
- Creating a list of potential questions to understand more their problem.
On the meeting
We will divide it into three meeting classes
First Meeting
Hearing the customer. On the first meeting your mission is to get a
- Shared vision between you and your potential customer
- Listening the key problems and hopes from your customer.
- Listening their constraint. Budget, Place, and Resources constraint you should know
- Understanding their current solution.
Second Meeting
Proposing a solution. On the second meeting your mission is to
- Proposing your solution idea.
- Hearing their feedback about their idea
- Comparing your solution with the existing solution
Third Meeting
Finalizing the contract. On the third meeting your mission is to
- Refining your solution based on their feedback
- Telling a good story about your proposed solution
- Grabbing their concern and budget.
After meeting
The third meeting series are finished, your mission is to
- Documenting their business model. This is optional step, if you create a product that become their main income. For example, an e commerce site for a commerce customer. If you build a backend information system you can't skip this action.
- Documenting their business process. You can use UML, narration, or Business Process Modelling notation.
- Documenting their information architecture. You can use sitemap, storyboard, or even wireframe to give them an explanation how the solution will be.