One of the most important lessons I learned in Business Analysis is,
“Stakeholders are experts in their problems. Not in finding Solutions”
The Dashboard Request
Imagine a stakeholder approaches a project team and says,
“ We need a Dashboard”
At first glance, the requirement seemed straightforward.
The next step might be to gather reporting requirements, identify KPIs, design visualizations and, begin development.
But you have to pause and ask a simple question,
Why do we need a dashboard?
The answer to that question often changes everything.
Looking beyond the Requested Solution
Let’s say the stakeholder responds,
“Management does not have visibility to the sales performance”
That sounds reasonable. But we can continue exploring.
Why doesn’t management have visibility?
The answer might be:
“Regional managers are not consistently providing updates”
Now we have uncovered something important. It is just not the dashboard that they want,
There is inconsistent reporting process
There is incomplete data
Building a dashboard at this point will not solve the problem, but creates more chaos.
The more reasonable approach would be,
Fix the reporting process
Fix the data quality issues
Build a dashboard on top it
The Danger of Solution-First Thinking
Many projects struggle because teams focus on the requested solution instead of the actual problem.
Common requests include:
We need a dashboard
We need a new application
We need automation
We need AI
We need a new workflow
These requests often represent assumptions rather than requirements.
The risk is that teams spend months implementing a solution that addresses symptoms rather than root cause.
The project may be delivered successfully from a technical perspective while failing to improve business outcomes.
Final Thoughts
One of the most valuable contributions a business analyst can make is helping organizations distinguish between problems and proposed solutions.
When stakeholders request a dashboard, an application or a new feature, the first question should not be:
“What should we build?”
Instead, it should be:
“What problem are we trying to solve?”
The goal of business analysis is not to validate assumptions. It is to uncover the real problem and ensure that the choses solution addresses it.