I have a question for all of you BA/ RE/PDM people in the world. Do you really believe in what you do for a living, or is it just a job? My wife needs a new mode of transportation. Her current ride is 12 years old, has more than 240K miles on it and is beginning to require more repair than I’ve got time. So now we’re out looking at all the different vehicle options. I have to say that that I find this very frustrating because she really has no idea of what she wants. We get home from our first shopping trip and she can see that I am obviously put out by all of the “I don’t know” answers she gave me while trying to find her a car. She says, “So I guess you don’t want to go look again in the morning.”
Ding! The light bulb went off.
I told her we needed to figure out what our requirements were before I set foot on another car lot.
The next morning we set down with pen in hand and I started asking her what was important to her -What her needs were. We created a nice long list of items. Next, we looked at each item on the list to determine what need each of the items addressed. Finally, we prioritized the wants from the needs. We talked about number of passengers, baby seat mounts, fuel efficiency, heated seats, number, size and placement of cup holders, as well as just about anything else you can imagine. I now have a more defined idea of what she needs and what she wants in her next car, but more importantly, so does she. After all of the headache, I wondered why I did not complete the exercise sooner. This is what I do for a living. I help customers define their needs, identify requirements, separate wants from needs and prioritize it all.
If it works everyday for the job, why not use it at home? It’s hard to beat having a job that’s so helpful in so many situations.
When was the last time you found your BA/RE work to be helpful outside of work?
