We need business analysis practically at every moment of our life: when we think over a tourist trip, we make purchases, even when we start a car in the morning. Do not believe? And I will prove it.
Each interaction with the outside world, in fact, is nothing more than a set of user stories (they are the same User Story).
As a person with a two-week paid vacation, I want to go on a tourist trip for a week in order to get new impressions and “reload my head” for further fruitful work.
As a person who loves beer and gothic architecture, I want to visit Prague in order to taste the best beer in the world and explore the St. Vitus Cathedral.')
Or
As a person who loves unity with nature and oriental philosophy, I want to visit Thailand in order to relieve fatigue from work and city life, eat fruit, swim in the sea and meditate.Or almost infinity of their options.
As a thrifty person, I want to spend minimal money on a trip with an acceptable level of amenities and services in order to save money on other trips and meager food.And then use scenarios begin (they are Use Cases), large and small, detailed and not:
- The user calculates his funds for the trip;
- The user is determined with the method of travel - through a travel agency or on their own;
- The user selects the cheapest options for buying a tour (or tickets / hotel / home)
- ...
And so on, until you get the coveted tickets, reservations, visas, and, in joyful anticipation of the trip, do not go to plan the next stage - walking routes, lists of things you need to take with you, and even places where you need to be sure to take a photo (I myself am not one of them, but when designing it is desirable to take into account the interests of all users).
Each scenario is detailed, breaking up into dozens of smaller ones. And, importantly, many scenarios are backed up by people or organizations that directly or with the help of software products make it possible to solve the scenario at the lowest cost for factors important to you (time is important for someone, cost is for someone, others want comprehensive service). With some of these service providers, we are “halfway” halfway to our goal, to others, surprisingly, we return with our scenarios again and again.
Each service has its own chips that attract their audience. To expand this audience, you need to debug and develop these chips, in order to attract a different audience, you need to introduce and develop new chips. Everything is simple, it would seem. But for some reason, quite often we, in carrying out our scenarios, encounter annoying trifles that disappoint, spoil the impression of a seemingly excellent service, discourage the desire to use this service again. Why is this happening? Because someone did not work out the business scenario you need, did not conduct the business analysis properly. Or did not control the implementation and correct operation of this scenario.
Well-designed and streamlined successful shopping and service delivery scenarios lead to money. Well-developed side scenarios - to customer loyalty and, if you think about it, to no less money. In addition to obtaining the result, the user should feel comfortable when executing his script. Then he will come back again. And bring friends. A good interaction experience (also known as User eXperience) is expensive.
When creating your service, whatever it is, do not neglect business analysis. When debugging and developing your service, do not neglect business analysis. Conduct it on your own, attract third-party experts, as you like. The cost of an error at this stage is the highest, since the resources of all those who implement the service and participate in its provision go to fix it. Roughly speaking, one error in the analysis can scare away the first customers, later lead to reworking half of the process already built, and it is not at all unnecessary time and money to burn. The “Blind what is and let out to customers” method does not work in many areas - competition is high. Even the MVP stage must be carefully (which does not mean a long time at all!) Analyzed and verified in terms of business scenarios.
These, again, are obvious things. But time after time I come across disdain for them, even in large and “smart” companies. Due to the lack of time, blind confidence in his vision of the user's portrait, discarding important details. And for hundreds of other reasons. Sometimes it is necessary. But most often leads to a negative. Many of those who want to reach the heights of Steve Jobs or Ilona Mask forget that their products would not shine so brightly if they were not worked out so carefully not only in terms of aesthetics and innovations, but also in terms of user scenarios. One test of the iPhone's “Home” button for sticking bristles in it is worth something.
You want to be a new Jobs? Or, at a minimum, to offer customers a service that they will be pleased and comfortable to use? In any case, please do not neglect the business analysis at each stage of development of your service, it will pay for all the costs in full.