If you’re in the field of UX design, then you know that most of your day will be spent interviewing stakeholders and users, researching best practices, and prototyping ideas. However, if you want to make it big in the world of UX design, then you need to know how to become a successful business analyst to UX designer. In order to do this, I’ve got two tips for you! These two tips are particularly helpful because they’ll help you transition from the role of business analyst to UX designer, which will be essential as more companies start making this shift into agile development teams.
Tips for becoming a successful business analyst to UX designer
Understand what a business analyst does
If you already understand what a business analyst does, skip down to #2. It’s one of those titles that often comes with an air of mystery. Business analysts do all sorts of things—and while they may not be creating wireframes or conducting usability tests, they still need specific skills to succeed in their role.
Business analysts are responsible for gathering and analyzing information about customers, competitors, and other key factors in order to drive the strategy forward; they present their findings in both written reports and presentations. If you want to become a successful business analyst, it helps to have excellent organizational skills; you’ll likely have many tasks juggling at once and need good time management techniques in order to keep everything running smoothly.
Understand the role of a UX designer
While there is not always a set path for becoming a UX designer, there are some steps you can take to make sure you find success in your career. If you’re currently working as an analyst and looking to change fields into UX design, then it’s important that you understand what makes up an effective UI design. A good user experience will keep people coming back again and again – learn what makes something good vs. bad UI design. Also, be sure that you do your research into learning more about software development so that your point of view will be valuable when providing feedback on products or services.
Understand the importance of business analysis
In order to become an effective and successful UI designer, you need to first understand how User Experience (UX) relates to business analysis. Most often, businesses hire UX designers as part of their User Experience team. However, what many people don’t realize is that most companies employ Business Analysts who are responsible for gathering user requirements in order for UI designers to produce valuable product designs.
Business Analysis and User Experience are best described as two sides of one coin; they go hand-in-hand with each other. And in order for UI designers or any other person on a design team to be effective at their job, they must first be familiar with Business Analysis principles and practices.
Learn the basics of business analysis
Typically, folks who want to become business analysts need at least two years of work experience in an office setting. This can be as a project manager, office administrator, or receptionist. The important thing is that you understand how companies are structured and how they make money. This knowledge will help you think about where your client’s needs are within their organization and even their industry. And it will also help you figure out which groups need to be involved in your projects so that all concerns are taken into account from early on—and so everyone is speaking the same language from start to finish.
Develop a skillset for business analysis
Business analysts help define projects and work with stakeholders and designers to translate these ideas into a plan. To be successful in your new career as a UI designer, develop an understanding of how usability affects your design choices. Strive to build relationships with marketing teams that will give you insight into what features are expected of your designs, both in terms of aesthetics and functionality.
Research competitors in order to understand user expectations across similar platforms. Set up mock user-testing sessions with friends and family members, helping them navigate through your designs so you can get invaluable feedback on functionality. And don’t forget to stay connected with other designers by actively following relevant discussion forums and social media channels; what’s hot right now is often directly related to upcoming trends in UI design!
Apply business analysis to your work
When you’re transitioning from one industry or career into another, you might find that you have skills in common with your new career. A high degree of overlap between what you did before and what you want to do next will make it easier to transition. When I became a UX designer, I didn’t need any formal training because I had been doing user research and conducting usability tests on my own while I was a business analyst. If you are an experienced problem solver with analytical thinking skills, then it won’t be hard to adapt these skills when moving into analysis or design roles.
Stay up-to-date on trends in business analysis
Business analysis is an evolving field, and as it does, it sees different trends come and go. It’s important that you stay on top of new industry news—and not just through following your favorite trade publications or tweeting at conference speakers. Read up on what new tools are being developed and what your peers are doing in other companies.
If you notice some interesting trends, start experimenting with them on your own time. You don’t have to make major changes right away—you can even create small internal projects if you’re working full-time in another role—but anything that improves your understanding of these techniques will help when it comes time to evaluate how they could apply at work.
Develop relationships with other business analysts and UX designers
Learning is never-ending. If you want to work in User Experience, one of the most important traits you can have is desire and motivation. Read about new trends and learn about new tools. You’ll never know everything, but it’s easy to get caught up in your field. Staying motivated allows you to keep learning and growing as a person and professional. So don’t lose sight of why you got into UX design in the first place, or what inspires you—but also branch out, because there are plenty of resources out there!
Stay motivated and continue learning
What makes one person succeed and another fail in such fields as UX design, development, and business analysis? The most common answer is self-motivation. If you want to be successful in any of these roles, you have to be willing to work hard on your own without constant supervision or direction from someone else.
Of course, it’s possible to be highly motivated yet still fail—that’s where good mentors come in. Find someone at your current company who works in your desired field or has experience with one of your target companies; talk with them regularly about what they do, ask how they did things when they were first starting out, and take careful notes so that you can follow their path if necessary.
