BA vs. UX: The Great Debate
Let’s just dive straight in. There are many similarities between BA and UX, but also a many notable differences.
BA and UX are the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers of the digital lifecycle.
That is, they work together with intrinsically compatible roles. While the line between UX and BA is becoming increasingly blurred, the main difference remains: BAs empathise with business while UX empathises with users. But both do Analysis and cover the product experience. AX if you will. Combined, they can reach a solution that benefits both the business and the user. The roles have similar methodologies which allows BAs to technically be able to do UX work and vice versa. It simply depends on what the focus is on. A business analyst that is user focused and a UX designer that is business focused… do the same role.
One difference between the two roles is in the career trajectory. Business Analysts tend to become subject matter experts as they stay in the same industry for a long time, while UX designers tend to hop to new projects, becoming innovation distributors. In other words, BAs are rewarded for industrial fidelity while UXers are rewarded for being industrially promiscuous and learning how to apply design methods to any type of project.HOW they move forward is different but WHERE they move towards is usually the same: product strategy.
