Congrats, Jason! I’ve worn the mantle of BA for little over a year now, and I love my job. As I’ve been studying UXD the last 6 months, I’ve found a tremendous amount of overlap in the two disciplines (in fact, I wrote a blog post about it!).
I wouldn’t doubt for a second that employers say they are looking for a BA when they actually need a UX analyst/researcher/strategist. Employers may be unfamiliar with the idea of UX or think of UX as more of the surface-level visual design rather than encompassing the whole experience (as my current employer does). The BA career path is more established and professionalized than UX, at this point. Employers probably feel more comfortable calling a position a BA rather than a UX professional.
As a BA, I would recommend a few resources:
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BABOK - Business Analysis Body of Knowledge - This is created by the IIBA (International Institute of Business Analysis). If you google BABOK, I believe you’ll find version 2 as a free Google book, though to get the latest version 3, you’ll need to be a member of the IIBA.
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ModernAnalyst.com - Plethora of articles, webinars, resources, and an emailed newsletter! (because we need one more of those, right?) This site is geared toward the wider analyst world, not just BAs.
I’m curious about how you described the role as UX Analyst/Strategist.
- What makes you say that?
- Can you provide any insight / details?
- Job description or overview?
A UXD friend was telling me about a new role being called UX Strategist, but I haven’t yet seen it in the wild. Are you referred to by others as a UX Strategist? I’m curious to learn what this looks like in the real world. I’ll be doing my own research, of course, but I’d love to hear what you’re observing!
Thanks!
Marie