As a Business Analyst, have you ever walked into a room to launch a project and realised almost instantaneously that you are enemy no 1, well for at least one person in the room. Change doesn’t come easily to some, and it often offers a conflicting start to any project. Managing relationships can be tricky, but instead of a project standoff, I’m here to give you my advice on how to not only embrace your villain status but also how you can move past this stage as quickly as possible
My name is Catherine, a Business Analyst at Desynit Limited, and I’m going to tell you how you can go from being the enemy to a champion in any Salesforce Project.
So, this was me, the enemy, and you may think me bonkers, but after years of experiencing this, I still get excited. Why? Well, secretly, I want to be the enemy in the room – because when I know I am, off the bat, I up my game. My next step is then – how do I win you over?
Let’s take Dave as our example.
Dave was comfortable and knew how to do his job inside out without too much thought. Dave liked the way things were – “yeah, we’ve used our old custom-built system for years, and yeah, it has its issues, but we are used to them”. This is a common sentence I hear when I begin a change project. The younger BA me would have handled this very differently.
The challenges and mistakes I have made in the past are: if I push them too hard to come around, they will rebel and push back. Ignore them and they feel isolated, and often feel that the project is being “done to them”, which in turn makes them more negative. Try to be too kind, and they see right through you. I am sure this list could go on and on for those of you who have faced the same challenges. The wiser BA me knew exactly how to handle Dave this time around.
Let me give you an example:
There’s a project to move a client from an existing legacy CRM, which was purpose-built for the company, onto Salesforce. A significant change for all involved. Dave was a team manager who was responsible for reporting and a number of team members.
When I met with Dave, he wasn’t at all keen on the changes; his reports worked, he knew the current system and processes inside out and had spent many years creating this role for himself, and he was very good at it. His colleagues and stakeholders really trusted him and the data he produced daily. He took one look at Salesforce and decided it wasn’t user-friendly, didn’t look very pretty and wouldn’t do what he wanted it to do. We didn’t get off to the best of starts.
Sound familiar? If so, you may be thinking, what can I do to get the Daves fully onboard with change?
First off, let’s change our mindset. Now, of course, I am not the real enemy, and neither is Dave. Sometimes it can be hard to come out of the negative feedback loop, so it’s about changing how we see the Daves of the world, it’s about seeing them as the success of the project. These are the people who are going to challenge everything, which means you can get to the bottom of every process in the finest of detail. Let them be your favourite person in the room, your gauge and embrace it when they tell you how things are really landing.
I left the first meeting feeling battered, so I changed my mindset – I put myself in his shoes, after all, he is the expert of the system and processes. I had to trust him, and I had to make sure that I delivered the right Salesforce solution for Dave. So I asked for Dave to be part of the team, and I went back to basics. What did I wish someone had shown me? What matters to users – simplicity, design, figures at your fingertips. With this approach, a foundation of trust was built, and a level of confidence was given to Dave. Before I knew it, the whiteboard was out! His wants and needs were being heard.
The project and UAT with Dave would not have been possible if it weren’t for a hands-on approach – Dave was part of the build and the testing, and we did it side by side. He knew at any moment we would be on the end of a phone, email or Slack to help out. He knew that at least once a week, we would be in the office. He wasn’t alone; we challenged each other and questioned everything to make sure that we were getting the most out of the Salesforce platform.
So, how do I win them over? Simple, really (now I know!) I listen to them, I ask them for their ideas, I make them feel part of the change and find they often have good ideas. This is why I love having “the enemy” in the room. They help me be better at my job, and in turn, I help them do a better job.
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