Here is another IIBA Global Thought Leadership Series paper on Empathising with the Real Customer. To empathise you need to
Observe – view users and their behaviours in the context of their lives
Engage – interact with and interview users through both scheduled and short pop in encounters
Immerse – experience what your customers / users experience
The paper outlines a number of business analysis strategies that can be used for understanding the real pains and needs of a customer in particular
- Customer Journey Mapping
- Needs Statements
- Story Prompts
- Empathy Maps
The key takeaway for me is that while these techniques seem effective they can also be very time consuming from a business analyst and customer perspective as both parties need to have sufficient time to apply the technique effectively so that enough useful information is collected. So it is important that the business analyst identifies as early as possible the most appropriate technique to use and makes sure that they and the customer are able to devote sufficient time to use it effectively.
Link to paper is here