REQUIREMENTS !

I am involved in my first two small User Centered projects (UX) and.... to my big surprise ... in both projects we are asked to do design WITHOUT talking to the end users ! We talk with some "intermediaries" that THINK they know what the users want.  Ah ah

We all know that many software projects don't end up well because in the beginning phase it is not clear what will really be useful, yet there are always more job postings for Technical Analyst or Architect than for "Requirements Seekers". Perhaps many believe that intelligent and experienced people in their field can also explain well all they need from a software application. I don't think so, and I believe this is a very specific job. I think we need more Socrates-like people, that is,  meticulous and sometimes "pain in the ass" persons that can really "extract"  everything they can out of those users who express their (often complicated) business needs.

At training courses they talk 6 hours about listening, win-win, batna, zopa . Then when you explain to them the real cases... in 3 minutes they switch straight to old Cardinal Mazarin tactics. Tactics of which I am ALMOST already an expert ...

Your product or service has problems ? Half of the problems comes from a bad analysis.  Half of the bad analysis comes from  the fear of asking a lot of questions .   Be bold, be an Analist !