Having interviewed and worked with hundreds of business analysts and P&L owners, I am impressed by the capacity of human intuition. People who have been in role for more than a couple of years can often balance multiple complex considerations and quickly make a good decision. This frees up time for the employee. Unfortunately, this spare time is more often used to increase the frequency at which they look at the standard reports, rather than deep analysis to try and challenge their already impressive understanding of the business. A common problem with this is confirmation bias and existing misunderstandings of true drivers can persist or a change in underlying fundamental is overlooked. In the next couple of posts, I will share techniques that I have seen successfully employed to counter common heuristics and to increase the chance of continuous improvement.
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