Business Analysis requires a variety of thinking approaches. In his talk at BA Conference Europe 2021, Jonathan Hunsley discussed three of them, each complementary to business analysis and essential if the discipline is to remain prominent in the digital age. Jonathan introduced a subset of the tools used in alignment with these thinking approaches and used a recent visit to his local barber shop with his nine-year-old son Bertie to illustrate many of the concepts.

Service Thinking

Service thinking is focused on the service offering and the perceptions of the beneficiaries. It's sometimes called the study of value co-creation. According to the Service Thinking approach, the value of the offering is not fixed but is decided by the recipient. Simply handing over a suitcase full of money to someone does not mean you have delivered value. For example, the person might be concerned to have it in their possession due to fear of being robbed or feel that you are attempting to launder money through them.

We can use Service Thinking to define the value proposition of business analysis. Debra Paul's BA Service Framework (2018) provides us with a starting point for this. It helps the BA manage stakeholder expectations of what the BA does and does not do.
Magio et al define Service as: 'The application of competencies for the benefit of another.' Service is provided within an ecosystem of interacting entities. Service thinking looks at the nature of service and how entities within service ecosystems interact with each other to 'offer value'. In the music industry, for example, musicians, record labels, streaming services, technology providers all interact to provide us with music. We as listeners, though, determine whether we like the music!
At the barber shop this eco system includes utility providers, equipment providers, insurance providers and even the fridge of soft drinks and other beverages for customers.
To co-create value with customers, it's important to understand them and their preferences. The Persona technique is particularly useful. Taking the barber shop example again, Jonathan was more concerned with the quality and value of the service while his son was interested in the style of the haircut and the soft drinks provided. Another customer might want a beer while having their haircut. Different Personas have different needs.
Osterwalder & Pigneur's 'Value Proposition Canvas' provides an analysis tool which examines the service offering in the terms of what the customer wants to gain, avoid or achieve.

The technique, like Personas, helps build a better understanding of customer. The value map then allows for an analysis of how well aligned the organisation is to meet customer needs through pain relievers, gain creators and products and services.

Design Thinking

According to Tim Brown, Executive Chair of IDEO, Design thinking is: 'a human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer's toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology and the requirements for business success.'
Design thinking is highly creative and focused on finding and testing assumptions and ideas. It is focused on building practical solutions that work in the real world.

A popular design thinking model is the British Design Council's 'Double Diamond' approach. This has a divergent thinking 'Discover' phase, used to gather insights. The next stage is the convergent 'Define' phase, where the scope is framed. A divergent 'Develop' phase looks at a wide range of solutions. The convergent 'Deliver' phase builds pragmatic solutions, through iteratively testing and prototyping.

One Design thinking tool which can be combined with Personas is the 'Empathy Map'. It looks at what a customer says, does, thinks and feels and brings to life the experiences of a customer, to identify potential areas of improvement.
The final Design Thinking technique covered in the talk was Assumption Reversal. This is where assumptions are identified about a particular product or service and are then reversed. This helps Design thinkers gain insights and ideas for alternative ways of working.
In the barber's shop, instead of the barber selecting the music they allowed the young customer, nine-year-old Bertie, to be a DJ for the duration of his haircut. This added considerable value to his experience.

Lean Thinking

Lean thinking originated from a company called Toyoda (now Toyota) originally manufactured cloth in a loom factory. The company had a culture where if a thread broke, the worker would stop the production line. Leaders and co-workers would work together to solve the problem. This would avoid waste through creating defective cloth which would later need to be thrown away.
Lean thinking encourages a 'thinking people' culture, where people are encouraged to share their thoughts and challenge each other and the status quo in order to get the best results. There is a strong synergy between Lean thinking, teamwork and collaboration.

Lean thinking aims to transform delivery through continuous improvement. There is a focus on quality, challenging assumptions, eliminating waste and respecting the opinions of workers at every level.

SIPOC is a valuable tool for understanding processes, making clear what factors and parties influence the process. BAs can use this as a starting point for working out how to improve processes so they run more smoothly and effectively.

Connecting Service Thinking, Design Thinking and Lean Thinking

The three thinking approaches: Service thinking, Design thinking and Lean thinking provide a toolkit which can be mapped to the Business Analysis Service Framework. By using these approaches with a focus on continuous improvement, meeting the needs of the customer and delivering quality we can be more effective in the delivery of our BA services. This in turn helps Business Analysts to continuously improve the organisations in which they work.
Dan Silva (Jonathan and Bertie's barber) has the last word:
'You've got to think.
Look at what the competition is doing and do it better.
Customer service is our competitive advantage.'

Find out more about the new A4Q Service Design qualification and AssistKD's Service Design courses.