From Administrative Assistant to Business Analyst to Strategic Initiatives in Healthcare: Jami Moore
All right well hello. And welcome. To bridging the gap, and i'm here today with jamie moore, who's from clinton massachusetts. Hey jamie. Hello. Hey, so, excited, to have you here you are working on some really, fantastic. Projects, like we were just talking, as we got started like a bigger than an erp, project. And also just recently. Um participated. In our session of the business analyst blueprint, and so, i wanted to talk to you a little bit about that and the exciting things that you're doing in your career. All right, so if you, yeah if you can kind of just take us back to where you were. Um, like before, you started the blueprint, i know. Like we've talked a little bit you know you were doing business analysis. For a while, kind of if you can share how you how you got into it and where you were at your, in your career, before you started the program, should be great. Sure, so. Um, maybe i should go a little bit further back than that, um, so. Back in, um. 2013. I decided. As an administrative, assistant that i wanted to be a business, analyst, something that people had said to me frequently. That i was, um, but had no real, um, understanding, of what that was and so when i made that determination. That i wanted to do it, i was working for a medical device company. And. Worked for two years. To actually, prove, that i could do the business analyst, role and do the work. And was offered a great opportunity. To move over to our it, group, as a business analyst and introductory. Business analyst. For six months while i proved that i could actually do the work of a ba. Spent. About three years there. Uh working as a sales horse business, analyst, so, very highly focused on that but also doing some, smaller, projects, as well outside, of just being that. Last september. I actually moved to a new company, still within the medical device, realm. Uh but. More focused, on. Diabetes. So it's a insulin, pump company. And. As part of that, got promoted, to a senior ba role, and my focus, really was, around. Um helping to, solution, and manage. All of our technology, for our customers. From a customer, portal, perspective. And so we called that our customer experience, technology, group, which i am still a part of which i love. And as part of that, um, had decided, that i also wanted to take. Some additional, training i had been taking business analyst training for quite a while. But wanted, a more structured. And. Extended, training because most of what i was doing was, ones, one or two day trainings, just to kind of get myself familiar with some of the. Skill sets, that a ba means. And. Talked with my boss, and said listen, whether, you.
Pay For this or not i'm doing this so. Um. Got him and his um his manager, who is the vice president on board. To actually, pay for it and. Just as. I signed up for the blueprint. Got the opportunity. To go over to a very large program, within the company. As part of a strategic, initiative. To, help, reimagine. Our entire customer, experience. And what that means is looking at. All of our customer, interactions. Not only from when they are an actual customer, but starting from the point of they're not just yet a customer. They are considered, potentially, a lead. All the way through to them making it into our customer, funnel. And, further, on into, our product support. Funnels, as well. And so it's very big it's very expansive. It is global. So we are, not doing this just for the us but we're doing it for everyone, around the world. As part of that program. Um and so. Took that, and ran with it. While in the blueprint. Yeah, i mean that just sounds like such a phenomenal, project, like i mean it's not even a project, right it's a it's a program, that must have multiple, projects. Within, it, like what is your day-to-day. Look like when you're working on something that. That huge. Lots and lots and lots and lots of meetings, um, we. Um typically, start, for the u.s, team we're typically, starting our day. Right around. Between, 7 a.m and 8 a.m, on the east coast time. Um, meeting, with, um, our, global process, owners. And, various, business stakeholders. And technical, teams. Um, to, talk through. In this first phase we're calling it our discovery, phase to really talk through, our business processes. And. Map those all out at a high level. So that we can understand where we're going to need to dive, much deeper, understand, where the gaps are. And. At the same time. For the technical, bas, that are on our team. Also, doing research, around, potential, solutions, for capabilities. That are being, identified. During those process, mapping. Sessions. As well, as. Putting together, demos, of those potential, solutions, so a lot of my. Time was spent. Pulling together, salesforce. Demos, because that's what i focus on, um so i got to get my hands dirty. In, technology. And doing coding, and and configuration. Which was really, very interesting, for me but that's a lot of my time is just. Talking with business partners, doing a lot of research, understanding. The different technologies. That are out there. So that i can answer questions, as they come up. So still, a fair amount of detailed. Work, but you're doing that detailed, work to really facilitate. Really big picture decision, making, it sounds like. Yes absolutely, okay and this is still a problem this is still in its pretty initial phases, right you said you just started this at the beginning of the day yeah yeah so we have actually just wrapped up our discovery, phase so we'll be going, into. Um a more detailed, requirements. Phase. Um, to. Really understand, whether or not. What we've, pre-identified. As some potential, solutions. And, applications. Integrations. Are going to really meet the need for our business partners, and our customers, because. We are, unlike a lot of medical device companies. We interact, with our customers. One-on-one. A lot of device companies. Are. Their customers, are more of. Hospitals, and doctors, and physicians. And, we are interacting, with individual, people who are. Working to, get our product, in their hands, it's it's life-saving. Technology, for them because, you know diabetics. They. Need insulin, every single day it's a non-negotiable. For them and so. We have a different, focus, on. What we need to build, and how. Functional. And easy, it needs to be for our end users, to actually, use all of our stuff and interact with us. Right so it's really like a b2c. Um, yeah consumer, business to consumer, we, have. Exactly, we have a we have a huge, b2c. Model, um but we still do b2b, as well so that business to business we do that as well it's just a much smaller subset. Yeah. That's just it's fascinating, i feel like we could talk about that for ages. Um but i also wanted to just you mentioned, like i'm doing the blueprint, like whether my boss piece like what was really prompting, you, at that point in your career, to say, this is the time. To do something like this. Yes so i, had actually been looking at the blueprint, for. Several years, um wanting to do it in my previous. Company, enroll. While we did have training. There, was, not a lot of structure, for, the, business, analyst, group there was a lot of structure, and a lot of. Um. Planning for our project managers, but when it came to the ba group. We were always, stumbling, along, trying to figure out the best ways to do things the best techniques, to use. They were a. Company, that is. Highly regulated, by the fda, as most companies, are and so a lot of their. Documentation. Was based around, validating.
Systems. But it wasn't. Ba, friendly, it was really driven more from a project management, standpoint. And i really wanted to understand, how we could. Not only drive the right, pieces of work that we were doing, but also make sure that the documentation. Aligned, with that so that we could speed, up, all of our projects, as we were talking with all of our business partners. And so as that i just said, okay i need to understand. From a more structured. And industry, standard. Methodology. How do we do this, um especially, given that, you know i i'm. Very much a proponent, of iiba. Um and want to get certified. And so i wanted to make sure that i could start to align my skill set and the things that i knew. To prepare, me to do that certification. Yep that makes a lot of sense, and what, what was your experience with the program like. I loved it. Um i was actually just talking to someone else this morning and highly recommended, it it was. Um. A great program, in that it definitely, challenges, you and i i enjoy. Having that challenge, and under and getting pushed. Um to not take the easy path. Um even in moments where i was, just. Really, frustrated. Because i in some ways i'm, a bit of a perfectionist. So when i'm working on something i really want it to be, right at the first pass. Rock solid, and ready to go. And so. Having. People. Who are, other base in the industry, really take a look at what i was working on helping me to understand, those skill sets, and the pieces that i needed, and really kind of, looking at it through a finer. Lens. To help me get better, was just, phenomenal. So i would i am i am such a proponent, of hey take this training. If you're struggling, to understand, how the pieces fit together, take this training because, it really helps solidify. How i can move my entire, projects, and other pieces, along, that path to make sure that we're doing the right things or getting the right requirements. And can help our. Business partners, provide right solutions. Yeah so what's an example like do could you share one of the examples, from any one of the modules, and how you applied it to this particular, project. Sure absolutely. Um, so. I'll, go with the, um. The use case scenario. Actually, um. We were. During the program. Identifying. Um. Pieces of salesforce, that we would need, we are on a on an older version of salesforce, and so we know that we're going to be upgrading to the newest version. And. One of the things that we've struggled, with a little bit is. Going to that. Business consumer, model. With, outdated. Code, that just, doesn't have that kind of flexibility. For us. And so. One of the things we decided, that we were, going to use or at least demo, to make decisions, around whether we were going to use it or not. Was salesforce's. Person account, which really is built for that business, to consumer, model when you're talking about accounts. As a whole. And so. In that i was able to put together. A use case that. Helped, um, the business partners, understand. How we could build out a person, account. And. All of the pieces that would need to, happen. From, the user perspective, so a user does something, the system, responds. The user does something else the system responds. To help them understand, the flow of even how standard, operating. Pieces of salesforce. Work. And. Had, business partners going i've never, ever seen it done, this way, and this is fantastic. And it also helped me to build. Um, a presentation. That i did to, our architect, team to help them get up to speed, on person accounts. And subsequently. Executives. At the higher it levels, to also understand. Why, person accounts was the right business model for us to go with, when we get to building the new environment. Wow so you're really able to validate. That you had a solution, approach. That was going to work. Yeah and had you done use cases before. No i had not. Yet it was all new and i had wanted, to and i tried, to kind of learn it on my own but it wasn't making sense and i think that's really what it helped clarify. Was how to really make it work. For somebody, who, um. Really needs to dive a little bit deeper in the requirements, than just a process, flow. And what was the piece, that helped you like you said you tried it before. Was it the the training modules, or the instructors, like how did that what was the piece of the program that helped you. Kind of break through that, gap. Um i would say it was definitely, the the module, that, we share so your videos that you shared, to help walk us through. Um, i had tried reading. Various different blogs, and tutorials. Around it and, it just, wasn't, really. Resonating, with me on. How i could use it and i think.
For Me, a lot of the used, cases. That come up are around, things like. Banking, models. Or, you know student, registrations. And we are not a retail. Type of company, and so i was struggling, a lot because it just, wasn't. Resonating, from. A scenario, perspective, of how we could actually, use it, in those manners. Yeah, gotcha. That's awesome. So i know one of the things you mentioned was being a perfectionist. Right and having to overcome. Some of. I know it's one of like the, we talk about this internally, about this part of the program, like we would love to just like send everything, back. Um, yeah you're laughing, so do you have anything else to share about that of like the actual process, like because i think some people who join are a little bit scared, about the idea of receiving, feedback, right and. Yeah i mean feedback helps you grow, but it's also something that we can kind of shy away from for various reasons. Yes, absolutely. So. I would say you know it's it's great because you guys take the time to really look through it really try to understand, it reach out to us if there is a question specifically. About something, we did that it's just not, understanding. Very rare that that happens, but with the the. Instructor, hours, it really kind of helped us get through those pieces. Um. And so i think that was very helpful, especially, when, the workbook, would come back, with, comments. Around, what specific. Questions they had or what specific, pieces, they felt didn't, exactly, meet the criteria. And give some guidance, at the same time. Um. For me i know i had to take a lot of deep breaths. On those moments where i got my workbook back and it was like congratulations. We reviewed your workbook. You have some work to do. But, just like you were mentioning. One of the things that i've always. Gone into. With, any of my bosses or anything that i'm doing, is. I always ask for feedback, because, i can't grow, if i don't have that feedback, and i don't know where i'm going wrong, if i don't have that feedback. So after the initial shock, and taking the deep breath. I would then. Take a moment. Um take some time i should say. Sit down and really, read through. The. Um comments. And understand. Where they were trying to get through and i think that's the part that is hard for people when they're just. Reading it in the moment, where they haven't, really sat down. Or scheduled, some time to really sit down and look through it they're just kind of oh i got my workbook, back. Okay. I i would i would advise, you know take some time, schedule, like 30 minutes. And take some time and really read through it, jot down your questions, or your notes, to. Kind of spark. What might be bothering, you or what might be worrying, you and what you did and then take those to the instructor, hour. To talk through, because that'll help. Build, not only your confidence, in what you're doing, but help you understand. Kind of what people are going to expect. From your business. Internally. Because they're not going to know as much and if you can provide, even more detail. And catch yourself, when they are giving you feedback. To take that moment, it helps. Communication. It helps team building, it helps all of it. Yeah that's that's great feedback that's great feedback, on our, feedback. Thank you. Oh boy this gets circular. Inch kind of, directions, thank you for all of that input on the program, and you're sharing your details of the program, like, back to you and your career like what do you see next, for you. Like, obviously you're in the middle of a huge initiative, so you might not. Know but i also know you're a bit of a planner, right, i am i am a planner so. Um. I, and speaking of planning yes i actually have, a, spreadsheet. Um. That, i plan out. All of my goals. Um not just career-wise. But personal goals, um, for. I think this time around i did six years, and i need to back that down just a little bit, um but typically, five you know three to five years i do plans, and so, from a career, perspective. I always knew, that. I want to go to, the. Um, architect, level. And and that's my next, move, and so what i'm hoping is that. As part of this program. And this is a multi-year. Program, it's it's not just going to be a six month or a year this is three to five year program, that we're going to be investing, in. That will help me get to that next level. As i build my skill set as i start to.
Work Through all of the different, pieces, and we have been talking. About creating a center of excellence, and having members of the program. On that center of excellence, so. My career path i see my next step is as an architect, level, or what we call a lead. Um, and then, i'm not so sure after that, um. I mean like a tactical, architect, or business, architect. Like. You want to go more technical. I would love to be a combination, of both, um, because. I do, tend to. Um. Do i do a lot of technical. But i'm realizing. More and more lately, that. I'm always watching out for the business more often than i am the technical, pieces. Um, and so i think i would love to do a combination, of both where i am still an i.t, architect. But i am, focused. With the business, to make sure that they're getting the right solutions, that they need. Yeah, yeah that sounds awesome. And i feel like you were going in another path before i clarified, that, um. You know i. I, you know i i think about things all the time and i'm always thinking about where do i want to go next and so i know you and i have talked before, about, like consulting. Um, and, you know i i, i have plans. Future plans, that, that might be, kind of a retirement. Thing where i can take that on and you know have a comfortable, retirement. Um, but i also. Don't. Downplay, anything. Right is, i'm always looking at opportunities. I'm always looking at what might be my next move, and thinking, through it. Um, and, not saying, no to anything. Or any opportunity. That might come up even in those moments where i really want to say no and have a lot of hesitation. But take a step back and look at it and figure out if it's the right move for me or not, yeah. And, for people, looking, to, either. Move like you did, from. Administrative, assistant to business analysis. Or. Maybe there's like two questions, here i think i always like to ask what would you advise, to people following in your footsteps, and i think we might have people listening. Who are like i'm an administrative, assistant, now and i want to move into ba, and then we'll have people listening, like this is like the coolest project i've ever heard of. Like what would you advise to get into that project. So maybe. Probably different steps, right what would you yeah, people looking to follow. In, and achieve some of those goals that you have. Yeah so i'll i'll take the first one um. For. Moving into a ba role as an admin, one of the first things that i did was look at. What, ba skills would i need and what skills, matched. What i was already doing, um as an administrative, assistant, i was actually, doing a lot of event planning and project management. But i was recognizing. That. Um, some of the side projects that i was doing within the company, were much more ba-focused. Talking the business stakeholders, about requirements. About things that we were going to be doing and even in those event planning. Meetings, utilizing, that skill set to understand, what we really needed. Um, and so i. Went searching. To. Figure out how to write my resume. In a manner, that would indicate, even as an admin i was a ba, stumbled, on your website. Um, and. And and really started to dive a little bit deeper, and so i would say the things that really, helped me. To make that transition. Were. Accepting. Shadow. Opportunities. So shadowing, a ba if i could. I actually signed up for a hackathon, that my company, ran and signed up as a business. Analyst. So. Advice. Make friends, with the i.t people if that's where you want to be because they're typically, the ones that run those, um and we'll pass on that information, when it comes up. Um, and then the other thing is, volunteer. To do stretch assignments. Within the company. And it is in addition to your regular job so make sure that you are willing, to take that on and understand that it can be. A lot more, uh work. And that you're doing it, you know for yourself, because really you are you're you're doing this for yourself, to make sure you can advance your career.
And Then have. Not only, a mentor. But a sponsor. Because the sponsor, is really what helped me to make that transition. My, boss at the time. Was my sponsor, and went and talked to. The cio, of rit, group. To make that offer to get me over there so you really need to have a mentor who's going to help you. With the skill sets that you need and help you grow and have somebody to bounce questions, and ideas off of, but that sponsor, is the person who is going to. Help you understand, what your personal, branding, is and how you're being perceived. By others, and make the necessary. Uh. Changes. Or shifts, in your own personality. At times. To help you get to that next level, and be the one who will be sitting in the meetings with management, going. Yeah. This name we need to talk about this name here. Kind of helps pave the path for you as well. Absolutely. Absolutely. And then how about, to getting on something like a global, customer, experience. Program. Right, yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. So i would say, some of the same things apply, right, you know if you can volunteer, for a stretch assignment, absolutely, do it, um, if you definitely, continue to have mentors, and sponsors. Um, and then, express, interest. Really express, interest, during those reviews, where you have with your boss, about. What you see is your career, goals, and your career, path and express, interest that you want to be on bigger, programs. And work with them to. Start to build out what your annual, plan will look like to start to move you in that direction. Things you can work on. To, throughout that year. To start to get there. Um, i kind of lucked out with this one, um, we are a. We are a corporation. But we run more like a startup, and so. We have. Um at the time we were we were kind of a smaller. Group we didn't have a lot of resources. And. When they, were looking at it my name came up as someone, that they were seeing, as a leader. Within, the company, because i was helping. Other, business, analysts, who were, um. I don't want to call them junior because they really aren't junior but but lower level business analysts.
Mentoring, Them, helping them to understand. Ways to, really, kind of advance their career. And also talking with business stakeholders. Helping them on their projects, and helping them drive those conversations, with the business stakeholders, while running my own projects, as well, and helping them to understand who i was and how i operate. Really just kind of it was it was almost like a no-brainer. At that point that they went oh yeah we really need we really need her, we really need jamie, on this one so you called it luck but then you identified. The actual, actions, that you were taking. I know. Listening. It's not, there is a being in the right place at the right time but there are also ways that you were definitely, stepping up and showing yourself yes. Absolutely. It was it was, it's part of the, the ending. Um. Uh. The way they kind of made the decision. Was who can we leave. On our team to keep the lights on, and and, the business running, and who can we pull to go into this new program. And i just happen to be new enough to the company. That i wasn't, familiar. Or deeply, ingrained. In the old system and the old processes, and ways, that they could shift me over. And help them get a. New, set of eyes. On. Doing, all of this because that's really what was needed was, to get out of break out of the old ways of doing things and see things in a different light. Yeah, that's awesome. You've been incredibly. Generous, with your time and i just your story is so inspiring, so thank you for sharing it, is there anything, else that you'd like to share before we close things today. Oh that's a good question, i could share so much. I could i could talk forever, um, i would say definitely. If you're, if you're interested, you know definitely. Keep pushing, at it because even, when you're in a company, that. Might not necessarily, recognize. It. Opportunities. Come up all the time, and. Don't be afraid to take the. Step to move away from your company if you need to to advance, your career, i think that's the most scary, part for a lot of us is.
Having Been in a company for a long time i was with my previous company for a very long time. Don't be afraid to make those moves because, you will find. When, it when you do that it builds your confidence, it builds your leadership, skills, and, you, i. Love, where i am now i absolutely, love it i'm so glad i made the step, and so i would say you know my mother tells me all the time that fear is fast emotions, appearing, real. When you realize, that it recognized, that it helps you to make that next move because you can push through. Yeah that's awesome, and just to highlight, the piece like you did say you got this opportunity, for this big program, because you were newer. Right i think we can get so that like entrenched, in the value, of. Our expertise. But that can actually. In a way hold us back as well so that was yeah it was part of that and i just wanted to. Connect that dot for anyone listening, and might still have that but i don't want to move right so it actually is what opened up this next opportunity, too. Well thank you so much for that jamie, and it's been wonderful having you part of the program, and part of our community, and thank you for sharing everything today. Thank you very much. You're welcome.
2020-08-04 00:56
