Surviving Layoffs Without Losing Confidence

Surviving Layoffs Without Losing Confidence

This week Susan is joined again by Yvonne Ruke Akpoveta— change management strategist, founder of the Change Leadership Community, and author of the newly released Anatomy of a Change Leader — for a conversation we don't discuss enough of in this profession: layoffs.We talk about it from every angle we've each lived. Being let go. Staying behind while your team disappears around you. And the part that's uniquely uncomfortable for business analysts — sometimes our own analysis is the data that leads to the decision. Yvonne and I both got laid off early in our careers, and we get honest about how it shaped us, what organizations still get wrong about "survivor" support, and why mindset determines what you do with the time you're given.If you've been laid off, are watching it happen around you right now, or just know it's possible in this AI-disrupted moment — this one's for you.🎙️Episode Highlights● Yvonne's first layoff — and the mindset shift that came from it● Why organizations plan for the people they let go, but not the people who stay● Survivor's guilt and the anxiety loop of "am I next?"● The ethics of being the BA whose analysis feeds a layoff decision● Cognitive empathy vs. reassurance in change communication● Building "indispensable" skills before the layoff happens● Why breadth — not just technical BA skill — is what organizations want now● The Kübler-Ross change curve and getting to acceptance🔗 Resources• Connect with Susan on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanallenmoore/]• Connect with Yvonne on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/yvonneakpoveta/]Have you been laid off? IIBA [https://www.iiba.org/]has resources and a community to help! Business Analysis Live is hosted by Susan Moore, CommunityEngagement Manager with the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA). We talk with business analysis professionals about business analysistopics and answer questions from our live audience. If you enjoyed the episode, don’t forget to hit that Likebutton, subscribe to the channel, and share it with your friends. Your support helps us keep bringing you great content! The International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) is anon-profit professional association serving the field of business analysis. As the global thought leader and voice of the business analysis community, IIBAactively supports the recognition of the profession, and works to maintain global standards for the ongoing development of the practice and certifications. #BusinessAnalysis#ChangeLeadership #CareerResilience

Applied AI for Business Analysis Professionals

The future doesn’t belong to the BA who writes the best requirements. It belongs to the one who can design an environment where AI amplifies human judgment. Ready to think differently about your career?A note: this conversation was recorded in May 2025 — more than a year before this episode aired. A lot of what Susan Yu talked about has since caught up with the rest of the world. That’s what futurists do!In this episode, host Susan Moore sits down with IIBA president and CEO Delvin and Susan Yu, chair of the IIBA Sydney chapter, futurist, and author of the upcoming book on AI-augmented business analysis. The result is one of the most grounded, practitioner-level conversations on agentic AI you’ll hear—no hype, just real talk from people who are living through this shift.Susan Yu brings a perspective most of us haven’t heard before: she fell into generative AI through a book club full of movie directors, startup founders, and university professors—not enterprise folks. That outside-in lens shapes everything she shares in this episode. She’s direct about where organizations are versus where the tech industry thinks they are, and why this is important for business analysis professionals as they are trying to figure out where they fit.The conversation zeroes in on agentic AI—AI that can execute entire decision chains. The stakes are different here. When an agent can write, send, and optimize a process end-to-end, someone has to be thinking about the ethical architecture underneath it. That someone, as Delvin and both Susans make clear, should be us.🎙️Episode Highlights• Why agentic AI is both “yes” and “no” for 2026• The enterprise reality gap: where organizations really are• Decision architecture and why it’s the business analysis professional’s new frontier• Human-in-the-loop: art form or non-negotiable?• The UAE’s Regulatory Intelligence Office as a governance model• Skills business analysts need to stay relevant in the agentic era• Why documentation obsession will cost business analysts their jobs• Courage and speaking up as a core business analysis competency• An AI reframe: BA for AI, not AI for BA🔗 Resources * Connect with Susan Moore on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanallenmoore/] * Connect with Susan Yu on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/susan-kl-yu-futurist/] * International Institute of Business Analysis [https://www.iiba.org] (IIBA): https://www.iiba.org Business Analysis Live is hosted by Susan Moore, Community Engagement Manager with the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA). We talk with business analysis professionals about business analysis topics and answer questions from our live audience. If you enjoyed the episode, don’t forget to hit that Like button, subscribe to the channel, and share it with your friends. Your support helps us keep bringing you great content!The International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) is a non-profit professional association serving the field of business analysis. As the global thought leader and voice of the business analysis community, IIBA actively supports the recognition of the profession, and works to maintain global standards for the ongoing development of the practice and certifications.#BusinessAnalysis #AgenticAI #IIBA

Certification in the Age of AI

Certifications aren’t obsolete but the reasons for getting them are changing. In this episode of Business Analysis Live!, Susan Moore sits down with Tyler Kenny, Product Manager for Certifications at IIBA, to dig into what professional credentials mean in a world where knowledge and skill are being rapidly reshaped by AI. This won’t be a conversation about exam prep. It's about why the principles behind certification are still sound, and how to think about your own professional development when the tools and expectations in business analysis work keep changing.Tyler brings a refreshingly grounded take: IIBA has always been vendor-agnostic, and that same thinking applies to AI. Rather than chasing every new tool, the goal is to build the kind of foundational knowledge that travels — the skills and knowledge you can carry into any context, any platform, any future. He also gets candid about AI hype, technical debt, and what skills he believes will be future-proof (spoiler: documentation and process modeling are not going away).This is a must-listen for any business analysis professional wondering how to invest in themselves right now — certification and beyond.🎙️Episode Highlights• Why IIBA stays at the skill level — not the tool level• How AI fits into certification design (and what it doesn't replace)• The "primitives" of business analysis that transfer to any context• What "human in the loop" means in practice• Skills Tyler predicts will matter most• Why 100x productivity claims don't account for what x really means• The case for continuous learning — including in your personal life • Certifications as a foundation you build on, not a finish line🔗 Resources •  Connect with Susan on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanallenmoore/] • Connect with Tyler on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/tykenny/] •  Learn more about IIBA certifications [https://www.iiba.org/business-analysis-certifications/iiba-certifications/] • International Institute of Business Analysis [iiba.org] (IIBA) Business Analysis Live is hosted by Susan Moore, Community Engagement Manager with the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA). We talk with business analysis professionals about business analysis topics and answer questions from our live audience. If you enjoyed the episode, don’t forget to hit that Like button, subscribe to the channel, and share it with your friends. Your support helps us keep bringing you great content! The International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) is a non-profit professional association serving the field of business analysis. As the global thought leader and voice of the business analysis community, IIBA actively supports the recognition of the profession, and works to maintain global standards for the ongoing development of the practice and certifications.#BusinessAnalysis #Certifications #AI

What Global Business Analysts Are Seeing Right Now

What's really happening in business analysis around the world — and what does it mean for you?I sat down with Fabricio Laguna — the Brazilian BA and Senior Advisor to the IIBA President — fresh off a global listening tour where he interviewed ten senior business analysis professionals from every continent. (Spoiler: none of them had the title "Business Analyst.") What he heard will make you rethink what it means to be a senior BA, where AI is actually showing up in BA work, and why the profession might be its own best-kept secret.We covered a lot of ground in this one. Fabricio broke down how business analysis looks wildly different depending on the industry — from manufacturing to banking to ERP implementation — and why that's not a bug, it's the whole point. We talked about the soft skills vs. hard skills debate (and why it's a false choice), what makes someone a senior BA versus just an experienced one, and how the dance analogy actually explains career development better than most frameworks. And of course, AI came up. Not in the "will it take your job" way — nobody Fabricio interviewed believes that — but in the more important question: are BAs just using AI, or are they leading their organizations into it? There's a big difference, and this episode gets into it. 🎙️Episode Highlights• What 10 senior BAs from around the world are seeing in their organizations right now• How business analysis varies by industry — not by region• Why job titles are becoming more fluid (and what that means for the profession)• Soft skills vs. hard skills — and why senior BAs need both• The "conductor" and "dancer" frameworks for career development• AI as a productivity tool vs. AI as a strategic leadership opportunity• How BAs should be leading AI adoption, not just reacting to it 🔗 Resources ·  Connect with Susan on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanallenmoore/]·  Connect with Fabricio on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/fabricio-laguna/]·  The Brazilian BA website [https://thebrazilianba.com/] Business Analysis Live! is hosted by Susan Moore, Community Engagement Manager with the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA). We talk with business analysis professionals about business analysis topics and answer questions from our live audience. If you enjoyed the episode, don’t forget to hit that Like button, subscribe to the channel, and share it with your friends. Your support helps us keep bringing you great content! The International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) is a non-profit professional association serving the field of business analysis. As the global thought leader and voice of the business analysis community, IIBA actively supports the recognition of the profession, and works to maintain global standards for the ongoing development of the practice and certifications. Learn more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.iiba.org/ [https://www.iiba.org/]#BusinessAnalysis #AILeadership #IIBA

What's Redefining Business Analysis Right Now?

What does it actually mean to be a business analyst when everything you knew about the role is changing — fast?In this episode, I sat down with Ryan Folster, a product leader based in Johannesburg, South Africa, who's been deep in the trenches thinking, speaking, and honestly losing sleep over exactly this question. Ryan came fresh off delivering a talk at the BBC conference in Toronto (where, for the record, neither of us dressed for the weather 😄), and he brought all of that energy and insight straight to our conversation.Here's what I love about Ryan's perspective — it's not an AI hype (or doom) talk. It's about the human things that enable AI: structured thinking, context-gathering, decomposition, and the very human judgment that no prompt can replace. We got into why experienced BAs sometimes struggle most with this moment of change, why your ability to think is still your greatest professional asset, and what it looks like to lean into adaptability when you genuinely don't know what next week will bring.We also talked about the pressure. The very real pressure organizations are putting on analysts right now — the "you have AI, so why isn't this done yet?" pressure — and what Ryan is actually doing to manage it. Spoiler: it involves automation, focus, and a healthy acceptance of what you can and can't control.This is a conversation for every BA who's excited, a little scared, and trying to figure out where they fit in a profession that's redefining itself in real time.🎙️Episode Highlights• Why this moment in business analysis isn't really about AI — it's about what enables AI• Cognitive load theory and why it maps directly to what business analysis professionals have always done• Decomposition as a core, enduring skill in an AI-accelerated world• AI speeds up execution, not thinking — and why that distinction matters• How BRDs and FRDs are evolving into "thinking documents"• The rising expectations problem and how to manage scope and pressure• Authenticity, AI slop, and protecting the human element in our work• Whether the BA title survives — and why your skill set matters more than your label• Role convergence: BA, PM, tester, developer — and what that means for you• Compliance, judgment, and information security in an AI-first environment• Building automations that work for you even when you're not working• Continuous learning as a muscle you have to actively maintain🔗 Resources ·     Connect with Susan on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanallenmoore/]• Connect with Ryan on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanfolster/]• South Africa Summit info [https://basummit.co.za/]Business Analysis Live is hosted by Susan Moore, Community Engagement Manager with the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA). We talk with business analysis professionals about business analysis topics and answer questions from our live audience. If you enjoyed the episode, don’t forget to hit that Like button, subscribe to the channel, and share it with your friends. Your support helps us keep bringing you great content!The International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) is a non-profit professional association serving the field of business analysis. As the global thought leader and voice of the business analysis community, IIBA actively supports the recognition of the profession, and works to maintain global standards for the ongoing development of the practice and certifications. Learn more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.iiba.org/ [https://www.iiba.org/] #BusinessAnalysis #AI #FutureOfWork