The Solver Mindset – Building Successful Products

Business analysis is at the core of product success (or product failure). It’s about nailing down what’s the fundamental business problem to be solved. But how can we know if we’re doing business analysis in the right way? Last week, during the BBA 2021 conference, we presented a new model to classify business analysis approaches (Forwarder-Novelist-Solver) and the impact on development team performance and product success.

The Forwarder Mindset – Low ROI

The “Forwarder” business analyst just gathers requirements from business stakeholders and passes them onto developers. This kind of BA copy-pastes from client emails or transcribes word-for-word whatever the business says; they have the “middle man” role. They do not dig deeper in understanding requirements – but rather gather them at a superficial level. 

What’s the impact on the product? Firstly, developers receive inconsistent and illogical requirements, increasing the time spent on “rework”, thus increasing overall development time. Secondly, the product lacks a clear business vision because it is just a patchwork of requests from stakeholders. Ultimately, this leads to low ROI for the software product.

The Novelist Mindset – Low ROI

On the other hand, the “Novelist” business analyst goes to the other extreme – they put a lot of effort in analyzing requirements to the most significant level of detail – producing hundred-page specifications. As a result, they fail to see the “big picture” but are lost in the details, often focusing on creating lengthy masterpiece documentation rather than solving business needs.

What’s the impact on the product? Firstly, the extensive feature requirements (including “bells and whistles”) increase total development time. Secondly, even though the product has many features, it often misses the essential value proposition, and the users never use many features. Ultimately, this leads to low ROI for the software product.

The Solver Mindset – High ROI

Lastly, we come to the “Solver” business analyst – focused on building a high-value product that solves business problems. This BA understands the underlying “why” and seeks to maximize business value – instead of simply collecting requirements from the business. The Solver BA adopts the Pareto principle, “big picture” thinking, and promotes business-IT synergy. As a result, based on understanding the underlying business needs, they can propose the right product solution.

What’s the impact on the team? Firstly, by focusing on the essence and applying the Pareto principle, this BA can help cut the scope by 80%, thus helping the team reduce development time significantly. Secondly, the product has high business value since it solves fundamental business needs. Ultimately, this leads to increased ROI for the software product.

How to nurture the Solver Mindset

There are three ingredients needed to promote the Solver Mindset within your organization:

1. Hire the right person: What is your recruitment process? Are you assessing problem-solving and cross-functional skillsets? A great way to test this is using the “case study” interview approach. Forwarders fail to ask deep questions. Novelists miss the big picture. Solvers ask questions to understand the “why” and will focus on producing a high-ROI solution.
2. Build the right culture: Different company cultures promote different mindsets. For example, a company with high organizational silos promotes the Forwarder mindset. A company culture that values output over the impact promotes the Novelist mindset. A company culture that encourages transparency, cross-functional teams, and rewarding value will nurture the Solver mindset.
3. Use the right framework: Organizations with no structured process nor methodology (and lack of understanding BA) will often use the Forwarder mindset. In the case of organizations that adopt waterfall, focusing on fixed scope & fixed budget will promote the Novelist mindset. On the other hand, organizations that genuinely adopt agile will foster the Solver mindset.

In summary, the Solver Mindset is essential to delivering successful products and maximizing ROI. It has high rewards but is not easy to achieve – because it requires hiring the right people, building the right culture, and promoting true agility.