How to understand more about business process
Posted by Financial_Job_1564@reddit | ExperiencedDevs | View on Reddit | 14 comments
I am currently a Junior Manager at a bank. My role requires me to not only possess technical skills such as coding and system design but also to have a thorough understanding of our business processes. This allows me to identify pain points in both the internal and external software products we develop.
However, as a Software Engineer by background, I find that I tend to think too technically and struggle to fully grasp the business side of things.
Weekly_Accident7552@reddit
one thing that helped me was actually turning processes into something executable, not just diagrams. using a tool like Manifestly forces you to think in real steps, ownership, and outcomes, which makes the business side click way faster than just mapping it.
TangerineAcademic565@reddit
Grab a book like "Business Process Management" by Weske, it's got solid basics on modeling with BPMN without the fluff.
I was the same way as a dev, always heads down in code and ignoring the messy handoffs to ops or sales.
Ended up using Process Street to mock up a few real processes at work, clicked for me quick.
ThlintoRatscar@reddit
Where technical people ( especially developers ) really shine is in their ability to reason about complex distributed systems.
Guess what a business is?
A complex distributed system!
A business can be modelled as a series of queues and independent threads. Work is the process of taking an input from a queue, applying labour to it, and then putting the output back on a different queue. Mapping out the system is about tracking pieces of work from marketing to sales to operations to support.
What's usually missing in our worldview is the people/psychology component which is the human equivalent of the compiler.
A good manager uses their own behaviour to influence others.
Leadership is the art of influencing human behaviour.
So, either look at the work order and flows in the business ( usually the responsibility of the Operations division ), or meet people and learn about how they work ( usually the responsibility of the Sales division ).
Is that helpful?
throwaway_0x90@reddit
"Junior Manager" is your job title? So you weren't hired as a SWE/dev?
Financial_Job_1564@reddit (OP)
it's a long story and different hiring process
newnimprovedk@reddit
Im curious to hear about it. First time I’ve ever seen “Junior Manager” used anywhere
throwaway_0x90@reddit
okay that's cool; I guess I can't judge or say anything then.
CaptainCactus124@reddit
I’ve struggled with this before earlier in my career. I had 6 years of experience then.
Your problem is probably that you are not interested in the business side. You are not interested in business, only building things.
I recommend by starting to talk to people all over your organization. Product managers, customer success, marketing, sales. The biggest skill to flex would be listening. Listen to how they do their job, what problems they have, and what brings them a sense of pride and accomplishment. Literally schedule meetings or huddles to accomplish this with them. They will likely be glad you did.
You need to foster interest. Maybe you become interested in collaborating and improving these people’s purpose and lives at the company. Maybe you see a game emerge and are able to identify what is actually important to the business and own a part of it. Either way, you are going to learn the true interests of the business, and you will see how you fit in it all. You will look at your job much differently, and align better with whomever gave you this feedback in the first place.
Financial_Job_1564@reddit (OP)
> Your problem is probably that you are not interested in the business side. You are not interested in business, only building things.
omg, your comment is so relatable! Coming from a software engineering background, I've always been focused on building things and paid little attention to the business side, such as process optimization or profitability.
At this stage in my career, should I focus on understanding business processes in order to build better products, or should I start thinking about how to drive more profit for the company?
CaptainCactus124@reddit
Both. But you do that through communication and collaboration with other departments at your company
endurbro420@reddit
If you really want to learn you need to walk a mile in their shoes. Play the customer and try to use your app and make a deposit, transfer, etc.
Then play teller and use their system etc.
If they still have QA, sit with them as they are the ones who know the customer experience best.
johnpeters42@reddit
You may want to put them through the rubber duck process, with you as the duck. Have them pretend that you don't know much about either the tech side or the business side, and just explain stuff to you as they see it. Wait till later to try to map that back to tech details.
rushblyatiful@reddit
Read their documentations, identify knowledge owners and ask them to document things, document things yourself.
yibster2008@reddit
Lead at cap1?