Real World BA™

The Power of Focus

Real World BA — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 17:00:34 +0000

It’s often said that you get what you need when you need it. You know, you are going through something and all of a sudden, every article you read, commercial you watch, topic of conversation seems to converge around that topic. I’ve been struggling lately with the overwhelming abundance of tasks I’m trying to complete on my project, the exorbitant number of meetings, and how to get it all done without feeling completely overwhelmed.

I’ve been realizing that it comes down to FOCUS. Focusing on one thing at a time. Doing it really well and then moving on to the next task. Stop trying to do everything at once.

Then this article was posted to Linked In, and it spoke to me. It was just what I needed to re-affirm my desire to focus on one thing at a time.

There are six really great tips that we can all apply. I think #2 in the manager’s tips is a BIG one!

What do you think? Does focusing on one task at a time provide greater benefit than trying to be the master of multitasking?

Templates and Processes

Real World BA — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 15:00:23 +0000

I’ve had the opportunity recently to contribute to my company’s processes and templates for our BAs. For any of you who know me personally, or those of you have been reading my blog for a while, you might realize that I LOVE this stuff! I am so passionate about creating repeatable processes and creating/leveraging templates. I’ve done this with just about every company I’ve had the opportunity to work for, and my passion for it only grows.

But the question often arises as to whether templates and processes are too restrictive, or even unattainable, because “every project/client is different”. I’m here to say that I think exactly the opposite is true. And here are five reasons why.

1. Eases Training

One of the challenges of ramping up a new BA is helping them to easily acclimate to the way you do things. Without documented processes and templates, someone (or multiple people) must take time to remember everything to tell the new employee. This might be ok if you hire one new person every now and again, but it is ineffective and definitely not scalable as your organization grows.

2. Provides Consistency

Whether you’re a BA within an IT department (or internal to a business organization), or a BA for a vendor (software, consulting, etc.), your clients should be able to rely on a consistent way of working with you. You’re going to be spending time educating your client on the process and your documentation. Don’t make them re-learn with each and every project. On my current project, I have a team of BAs working with me. My guiding principle around the way we work is:

The client knows there are multiple BAs working on the project, but it shouldn’t LOOK like multiple BAs are delivering documentation.

3. Provides a Map of What’s Next

Done right, they provide a framework that takes the guess work out of what steps the Business Analyst should follow. Whatever your processes are in your organization, having standardized templates and documented processes takes the guess work out of what’s next. This not only helps during the training/ramp up phase (see #1 above), but helps to more easily manage projects and assess how well (or not) a particular BA is doing.

4. Allows BAs to focus on analysis

If the BAs on every project are spending duplicative time figuring out how to document their findings, or recreating kick off slides and document templates, they are not able to focus on the business of analysis. Give a framework for the BA to work within so that they can focus on the value-added activities of analysis, and not on the administrative activities of trying to find a way to do it.

5. On-Going Support/Maintenance is Easier

Unless you are a BA that lives forever with a project or software application (and really, it’s not good for an organization if you are), at some point someone else is going to need to step in to support the process or software. They will need to be able to quickly ramp up on what was done, and be able to keep documentation updated. With a consistent format for documenting information, the new BA will be able to easily find what they’re looking for and to keep documentation updated.

Yes, there needs to be flexibility in the templates that are created to account for client/project-specific variances, but these should be the exception and not the rule. Otherwise you’ll end up bogged down in activities that don’t actually contribute material value to the project, when your time and attention could be better spent on the task at hand.

So what do you think? Has having templates and processes helped you? What has it been like in the absence of processes and templates?

Resolutions to Start or Stop?

Real World BA — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 17:46:48 +0000

It’s 2012 already! Wow! I don’t know exactly how that happened, but here it is. Obviously there are a lot of articles, blog posts, and comments addressing whether or not to make new year’s resolutions. Why do we wait for this one time per year to try and set goals? What should we focus on personally and professionally? This year I did not set specific new year’s resolutions – but there has been an article shared on Facebook by a lot of my friends that got me thinking. Should our resolutions should be focused on the things we want to start? Or the things we want to stop?

The article I’m referring to is 30 Things To Stop Doing To Yourself. In the post, the author shares ideas under the following presmise:

In order to “begin [the] process of transformation you have to stop doing the things that have been holding you back.”

And there are some GREAT ideas there. Things to stop doing that probably sound like common sense after you read through it, but somehow we keep doing them anyway.

After about the 4th time I saw this on Facebook, it really started to make me think about what I might be doing now that I need to STOP doing in order to make room for what I WANT to do. Maybe our resolutions to start something new are unsuccessful because we just don’t have room for those new things? And maybe some of the things we do are a little self-destructive and don’t allow us to get beyond them?

Personally, back in early December my husband and I committed (again) to be healthier. I have a milestone birthday coming up in 2012, and I want this to be a really stellar year. This time, we embarked on a program that had us focusing on eliminating some foods that we had hung on to (yes, I’m a self-proclaimed carb junkie), but I had to learn enough about it to make the important decision to STOP eating processed carbs and foods. But I also go to START eating more natural fats – and yes that includes bacon and real butter (yum!).

Professionally, I’m trying to focus on what I need to stop doing, or those things I need to let go of, in order to make room for growth and progress that I want to push myself to this year. I need to finally admit that I am more of a control freak and perfectionist than I really want to be, and hope that I can stop that enough to start being a better mentor and leader.

So what about you…did you make any resolutions for 2012? Were they resolutions to stop or start something? Even if you didn’t make any resolutions, what might you consider STOPPING this year in order to make room for something new?

Oh, and whether or not you choose to make a resolution – make it an incredible year!

5 Tips For Making it Past the Phone Screen

Real World BA — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 12:45:38 +0000

Over the course of my career, I have had the opportunity to be part of the recruiting process for hiring Business Analysts for a few companies I’ve worked for. Most recently, I have spent the last 3-4 weeks up to my eyebrows trying to find senior BAs to join our quickly growing team. Having screened what feels like hundreds of resumes, and conducting the initial phone screen for dozens of candidates, I’ve gotten better at quickly determining whether or not to pass the candidate through the for additional interviews.

So, here are my top 5 tips for making it past the initial phone screen.

*I should start off by saying – all of the below assumes that you actually have the right qualifications for the job. No matter how well you address the following, you will not make it through if you don’t have the experience a company is looking for.

1. Know What the Company Does

I’ve been amazed at how many candidates I’ve interviewed that barely know what we do, other than what the recruiter may have told them. The really sad part is that it is SO easy to do.

Check out the company website. Read their press releases. Learn about their product. You don’t have to be an expert, but at least be aware what industry the company is in.
Google search the company. In addition to the company’s own site, see who else is talking about them.
See if you know anyone who has worked with/for them. LinkedIn is a great way to do this!

2. Fine-Tune Your Resume

Your resume is your very first deliverable to a prospective employer. It is a reflection of your written communication skills, and we all know that business analysts tend to write a lot.

Please check for spelling and grammar.
Tell me what I need to know without drowning me in words. Be clear, concise and specific. If I have to go to page 2 to see your actual skills, I’m probably not going to waste my time; and I’m going to be deathly afraid of what your requirements and specification documents will look like.
Customize your resume to the job you’re applying for. Every company defines the role of the BA slightly differently. If you have seen a job description, tailor your resume to the job description as best as you can. This takes extra time – but if the job description is the requirements…could you trace your experience back to match up with whether you meet those requirements or not?

3. Build a Relationship

Phone screens can typically last 15 minutes to an hour depending on who you’re talking to and whether this is your first, second, or third interview. But a good business analyst needs to quickly build relationships with their clients. If you can’t build a rapport with the interviewer in the first 5 minutes, how are you going to win over the client I need to put you in front of? Don’t overdo it. I mean, be yourself. But if all I can get out of you is one-word answers, and you don’t come across as “likeable”, you probably won’t make it through.

4. Be Prepared to Give Specifics

Be prepared to give very specific answers to the questions being asked of you, especially when they are related to the tasks that you’re attempting to prove you are knowledgeable about. If you can’t explain the information that will go in the Requirements or Specification documents to me, how are you going to help your stakeholders understand the information you’re trying to get. And how do I REALLY know that you know your stuff. Just because I am also a BA, please don’t give me answers like “you know”. Yes, I do know. But I’m trying to figure if YOU do.

5. Have Questions

Business analysts, by their nature, are inquisitive. It’s our job to ask questions and want to know more, right? So, please have questions prepared to ask during the interview. I always allot time for questions at the end – and tell candidates that right up front – so when I get to the end and I ask “What questions do you have?”, please have some. Why do I care?

I want to know that you care about your next job. How do you know if this is the right fit for you if you’re not asking any questions to better understand it. Ask me about the work environment. Ask me about the challenges. Ask me what my favorite part is. Just please ask me something that lets me know you’ve been around the block a little and you know what you like and don’t like, and that you’re looking for a place that’s a right fit for you.

I also want to know that you don’t just take the information handed to you, and that you can think of questions on your feet. You’re going to need to do this a lot in your day-to-day job, and if you took all the information as it was presented to you and didn’t ask any clarifying questions, how will you know you have the whole picture.

What else would you recommend to your fellow BA’s on the job-hunt? Have you peer-interviewed BAs? What do you look for?

I’m also working on a post about the Top 10 Things Never to Say (or Do) to the Person Interviewing You. I’m honestly amazed at some of the things I’ve heard. I’m trying to get to a place where it can be some comic relief before I share though – right now I’m too close to the pain and disappointment of hearing them that it would just come out as a rant. LOL

Sometimes the 28th Time’s a Charm

Real World BA — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 13:41:05 +0000

Last week, I spent a full day on-site with the client to provide more in-depth training of our software. The goal was to make sure their project leads had a solid understanding to help frame their process analysis. However, since the client is still in their internal requirements analysis process, this came with the inherent risk that they would want to design the solution. And we really weren’t at that point in the process yet.

There is a delicate balancing act between helping a client understand their new software solution while keeping them focused on the requirements. Remember, requirements are the what but not the how. And it’s our job as business analysts to help our clients remember that what we really need to understand is their what, and that it’s our job to find the how.

But sometimes you have to remind them of that.

And sometimes it takes 28 times.

All throughout the day, as questions came up like “Can’t we modify this screen to do X?” or “How come this screen doesn’t do Y?”, I gently coached the client that what was important was for us to understand what their needs were and then we could recommend ways to meet those needs. It was their job (as client-side BAs) to make sure I understood what they needed, and my job (as the software-side BA) to figure out how to help them achieve that. Because as much as we wanted them to understand the software they will be using, it’s not their job to be the expect in the software. It’s mine.

By the end of the day, the client leads were catching each other when they went too far into solution space. And they even joked that we needed to get t-shirts – theirs with the word “What” on the front…mine with the word “How”. (Oh, and the PMs would get a “When” shirt. ) Not such a bad idea, huh?

The trick is not to get frustrated when this happens. Gently coach and reinforce the goal. Remember, it’s hard for people to stay away from wanting to try and talk solution. It’s in our nature as thinking beings to want to find answers. Just continue to remind them until it starts to sink in. Sometimes it’s not the first, second or third time, but the 28th time that’s the charm.

Sometimes You Just Need to Reboot

Real World BA — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 12:30:40 +0000

Have you ever been on a project where you feel like nothing is going your way? Where it seems like no matter how hard you try, it’s just so much harder than it needs to be? If you’ve been working on projects for any length of time, I’m sure you’ve felt this way at least once.

A few months ago I started a new job, and was immediately assigned to a very large project. Honestly, I’d been struggling with the approach but being the newbie, I was trying to balance bringing my expertise to the table and being open to a new way. But as we got into it…it just kept getting harder and harder. We were not on a path to success. We all knew it. The client finally admitted it, too.

And then…we decided to regroup.

We pulled the core team together for a 2-day, in-person intensive working session. We went in with open minds, and the goal of unifying around a common goal. We came away with a new-found understanding of each other. We got on the same page. We unified as a team.

I’m not going to pretend that it’s perfect now (no project ever is), but what we collectively realized is that we were struggling in the direction we were headed. We needed an opportunity to sit back and re-strategize. We were two months in to the project….but this is a multi-year, transitional effort for my client’s organization. Rebooting the project now would save us countless struggles over the next few years.

It’s sort of like working with a computer with maxed out memory…churning, struggling, on the edge of the blue screen of death. But if you save your work and reboot, sometimes that clears up the excess baggage and allows you to focus on the task at hand.

I also realized that I needed a reboot for this blog. A year ago at this time I was planning and preparing for the launch. I had ambitious goals I wanted to achieve, and I still have ambitious goals. But I also need to realize that my circumstances have changed. I’ve taken an exciting new job that challenges me in new ways…and consumes my time differently than my previous job. I haven’t ~~had~~ made the time to write as frequently. I haven’t made much progress on the book I outlined nearly 8 months ago. I haven’t been as active in the online communities I so thoroughly enjoy being a part of.

And I have to give myself a break.

I am still ever-focused on sharing the life of a Real World BA^®. So rather than fail at trying to write everything in my head at once, I realize it’s a great opportunity for me to share my journey in starting a new job, a new project, and everything that a BA encounters in their real world job.

I’m going to try to write more frequently…and maybe shorter posts…sharing the daily struggles and triumphs that I am experiencing on the front lines. Doing the work I love to do.

I’ll also start posting more regularly on my Facebook page – trying for tidbits a couple times a week of things I’m working on. I hope this helps the newer business analyst start to get an idea of what it’s really like day-in, day-out. And to get your feedback and suggestions as I struggle with many of the sames things that you might be struggling with.

But I have to admit, I’m terrible at keeping up on Twitter. I want to. I really do. But I’m probably not going to do a very good job of that – at least for now.

So I hope you’ll accept the reboot of Real World BA for what it is – a chance to start fresh, try something new, and see if this new approach works for all of us.

Are you in need of a reboot? On your project, in your career, or life in general? What would it take for you to stop, reassess, and start again?

Knowledge Transfer Tips – From The Departing Employee’s Side

Real World BA — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 13:30:33 +0000

A couple months ago, I decided it was time make a change in my career and look for another job (thus the lack of fresh articles lately – sorry!). I had been with my previous employer for 3.5 years and it was great! But I was ready for a new challenge. Something to re-excite me, offer me new challenges, and push me to grow. Since I had been working on basically the same project for the last few years, it presented me with the challenge of being able to offer my replacement as much knowledge as I could in the time we had together. I had the luxury of giving 3 weeks notice – I was invested in the project and really wanted to see it continue to be successful – and I didn’t want a single day to go to waste. So I thought I’d share some tips for transferring knowledge when you are the departing employee.

Create a Transition Plan

If you’ve read some of my past articles, this will come as no surprise. I’m a strong proponent of spending time in planning. But transitioning your responsibilities is a mini-project all on its own and deserves its own planning time as well. No matter how much time you have (a couple days or a few weeks), you need to figure out what you need to transition so you can determine the best and most efficient way to do that.

I recommend you start by making a list of:

Every task currently assigned to you
Every document you own or contribute to
Every system you are a knowledge source for
Every on-going responsibility you have
Every stakeholder that you work with

From that list, start to identify how you can effectively transfer the knowledge.

Wrap Up What You Can

You’re going to be scrambling to transition knowledge probably to a variety of people, but if there are things you can actually wrap up and complete before you leave, that will actually make everyone’s lives a little easier. On-going items you’re obviously going to need to work into your transition plan to someone else. But are there items you can wrap up and finish? Have you been working on a few change requests? Or have a spec or requirements doc to finalize? Try and knock those out! Transitioning a completed document is easier than transitioning one in process – and having to get someone else up to speed in order to continue facilitating those discussions can be challenging for both of you.

Make Sure Your Documentation is Up To Date

If you’ve been doing your job, this is actually something you’re doing all the time and not just when you’re transitioning out of a project or position. (But as I’ll talk about next week, this isn’t always the case so please do your part!) Throughout my projects, I always make time to update documentation to reflect decisions and changes. This is partly selfish – usually I am working on large system implementations and there is just no way that I can remember every decision and detail over time. But honestly, how are my developers and testers supposed to build and validate that we delivered what the client wanted if the source documents (BRDs and FSDs) are not accurate?

There is a balance to “just enough” documentation though – continue to keep that in mind. But a couple things that I did make extra time to update include:

System Integration Overview Diagrams - Since I had been working on a highly integrated system, and I was the last person from the integration project still around, I made the time to put together some high level diagrams showing the interfaces between systems. We actually had a diagram from the project itself, but it was time to add some additional details to help further explain some of the lower-level details.
Troubleshooting Steps – To help support the production support team, I started documenting specific troubleshooting steps for the most common types of issues we’d seen over the past couple years. Thankfully, we were at a place where we had a very stable environment. But there were a couple scenarios where users were making a similar mistake which caused a specific problem, and I was able to document the troubleshooting steps to help resolve the issue. (Even providing SQL queries for finding the right data to prove that was the problem.)

I actually saved a TON of time trying to transition system knowledge to the production support team because the project functional specification documents had been continuously updated, and I met with them with every release to review new changes. They felt comfortable that they had solid documentation to refer to and needed very minimal additional time from me (except for documenting some of the additional troubleshooting steps).

Identify Additional System Resources

In addition to putting together a System Integration diagram, I wanted to be sure that people had other resources to turn to with system knowledge. Honestly, this one was a challenge – I was the last person still with the company who was intimately involved with defining and building the integrated solution. But, there were new developers that had their own knowledge transfer sessions with departing developers and solution architects, and I needed to count on those knowledge transfer sessions being effective too. The key was identifying who the new resources were and making sure people knew who they could go to – even if that meant it was now 4 different people with partial knowledge since there wasn’t anyone left with a holistic view of it all.

When Your On-Going Responsibilities Will No Longer Be On-Going

As you look at your list of on-going responsibilities, you may just realize that some things will stop. This could be due to lack of available resources, or lack of interest. One of the items I took such personal pleasure in was starting and running the beginnings of a Business Analyst Center of Excellence. This was driven by a personal desire to see the BA role unified across the organization, and over the past couple years it’s really been due to a personal interest in this that it even kept going. With reductions in staff, and the resulting over-allocation of work, however, this was one item that was going by the way-side.

As organizations experience change (and departing employees cause change), it’s time to reevaluate and reprioritize tasks and responsibilities. Don’t be offended if things you were really passionate about don’t make the cut. (Although I do hope they see the value in continuing some knowledge sharing across the organization, but that is up to them now.)

Don’t Forget About the People

Kupe wrote a great article about focusing on transitioning stakeholder knowledge a while back. He goes so far as to say that it is MORE important than transitioning system knowledge. I would say that it is AS important – so make time for both. You’ve been working with many stakeholders and hopefully they’ve come to trust you. Now, you’re going to ask them to trust someone else. You’ll be spending time with your stakeholders to make the transition smooth, but be sure to give your replacement as much background info as you can. Kupe gives great suggestions for how to do this. But if I can share one tip with you, it is to personally introduce your replacement to your stakeholders, and then let your replacement take the lead while you’re still there to support them. This gives your replacement a chance to build the relationship while you still have an opportunity to gives them insight and feedback.

Bonus tip: Record Your Sessions

I happened to work remotely for my previous employer, which often has its pros and cons. While flying out in person would have been great, we actually made it work for us by recording our web/phone sessions. For each of our knowledge transfer sessions (with the primary BA taking over most of my responsibilities), we recorded each session and she now has it to be able to play back whenever she needs a refresher. Gotta’ love technology! (Even if you’re not doing web sessions, I’ve known other people to tape record information they wanted to share. This is great because you often give tidbits of info when you talk that you might not think worth writing down.)

What else would you suggest?

There is so much to consider when trying to give your replacement(s) as much information as you can in such a short amount of time. What am I missing? What else would you do to transition your responsibilities? Please share your comments below!

Next week, I’ll take the opposite approach and share some knowledge transfer tips as the new employee who needed to quickly ramp up. Don’t miss it!

Q&A: Modifying an Existing System

Real World BA — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 13:00:15 +0000

I recently received an email from Anthony who asks:

How would you go about gathering and documenting requirements for modifications to an existing system?

Let me start of by saying that I LOVE getting questions – because it always gets me thinking of things that I sometimes take for granted. It makes me step back and really think about the details of things that I sometimes do on auto-pilot. And it gives me a chance to reach out to others to get their input to constantly refine and tune how I do what I do.

So…below are some of my thoughts on how I might tackle such a project. Add your comments below and help both Anthony and I think about what we might consider in this type of situation.

And yes, my advice starts with “it depends”. This is probably frustrating for new business analysts, but the truth of the matter is that there is no “right” or “wrong” way – but there are lots of things you can consider for crafting a plan that will work for you in your specific situation. With that in mind, I have three suggestions for things you might want to consider when starting on this type of project.

1. Define the Purpose of the Change

What is the purpose, pain, or need that is driving the change? Are they looking for minor changes that can improve inefficiencies? Are they looking to implement entirely new modules or functionality that is not already is use? Understanding this will help you to devise a plan to work with the right stakeholders to understand their need and also gives you a sense of the size and scope of the project.

2. Get Your Hands on the System

If you’re not already familiar with the system that will be modified, get your hands dirty! Get familiar with the existing functionality and its interdependencies. How are users using it today? What systems feed data to this system, and what systems rely on data from this system? No matter what the scope of the requested changes, you’re going to want to perform thorough impact analysis to fully understand how a change in one area could impact other areas.

3. Review Existing Documentation

If there is existing system/process documentation, study up! Hopefully there is at least some (although don’t be alarmed if it’s incomplete or non-existent because that happens sometimes too). But if you can get your hands on any system, process or technical documentation, it will help you to understand the intended purpose of the system and also may be helpful in identifying impacts. You hopefully will be able to see business rules and decisions that the system makes that might not be obvious from an end-user’s perspective.

What else would you recommend that someone consider when preparing to elicit requirements for modifications to an existing system? Help us out by posting your comments below!

An Elephant Really Does Have a Great Memory

Real World BA — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 12:00:40 +0000

As Business Analysts (and people in general), we encounter a lot of information on a daily basis. To be successful, we have to keep a lot of it in the front of our minds and be able to quickly access and analyze that information. If you’re like me, you’ve used a variety of methods to keep track of all of that information – sticky notes, task lists, notebooks. But recently, I’ve learned that many of my previous “systems” for keeping information did not make it easy for me to retrieve it. Then, I discovered that elephants really do have a great memory, and I was able to harness that power.

Introducing Evernote.

I love finding effective tools for helping me to do my job – and I love sharing those tools with others if I think they can help someone out. And I have fallen in love with Evernote! Here are just a few of the reasons why:

It’s a single account available anywhere! From your Mac or PC, the web, your iPhone, iPad, Android device or Blackberry. Capture information in one place, access it from any of these places!
Anything you capture in Evernote is fully searchable – even images and documents! Like to conduct your requirements session on white boards? Snap a picture with your phone, send it to Evernote and have fully-searchable notes when you’re back at your desk. Add a PDF to an Evernote, and your search will include the document content.
Need to keep track of information from the web and the source? With the Evernote browser add-in a single click saves the entire article (or highlighted portion) along with the source URL (and all active links).

There are other great features that I haven’t even started to use yet, including the ability to store documents and collaborate with others in a shared portal.

I personally use the free version and so far have not had a need to upgrade to the Premium/paid version – although there are some nice additional features if you wanted to expand its use. It’s one of the best note-taking/retrieving systems I’ve come across to date (and I’ve tried a LOT).

So, if you’re looking for a way to minimize the random bits of paper, and need an easy way to save and retrieve information for your projects or personal life, check it out! Just my way of sharing a cool tool that I find helpful.

Do you have any tools/applications that you wonder how you lived without? Share them in the comments below so we can check those out too!

*Some links in this post may be affiliate links. All that means is that I may receive a commission if you purchase paid services using the links above at no additional cost to you. Please read our Disclosure Page for more information.

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Is It Really Mid-February Already?

Real World BA — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 12:00:53 +0000

Happy Valentine's Day!

Yes, 2011 is off to a fast and busy start! I can’t believe it has been 4 weeks since I’ve last posted! In addition to throwing all my mental energy into a high-priority project at work that we kicked off at the first of the year, I’ve also made a personal move which has consumed many weeks of packing, moving and unpacking – followed by a week without Internet. I think we’re in the home stretch now! Oh, and did I mention that Houston had freakishly freezing cold weather and we had rolling power outages and arctic temperatures? Yeah, it’s been crazy around here!

So…I’m close to feeling like life could get back to some semblance of normal, but will be taking some time to regroup and re-energize so that I can put my energies back into creating (hopefully) helpful blog topics, getting back to work on the ebook, and rolling out some fun new ways for us to interact. I just wanted you to know that I haven’t fallen off the face of the Earth (although some days it felt like it) and I will be back to share my experiences and hear your thoughts in March.

Until then, I hope that the new year has been amazing for you so far and that the rest of year holds many wonderful things!

Look forward to engaging with you more consistently in a couple weeks!