Hello there,
Yes, It’s been awhile..
A lot has happened over the past couple of months — energy poured into exciting projects and initiatives, both at work and on a personal level.
I came across a quote that perfectly sums up my experience in April and May:
“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” – Albert Einstein
Haven’t read the Footnotes of March? Click Here
As for today’s Footnotes, I had quite a few ideas to choose from — ranging from strategy in times of crisis, to reflections on what it truly means to be a business analyst, and even the rise of physical AI. A lot was discussed, read, and heard, so I’ll keep it simple and share what had the most impact on me.
Here are the footnotes of April and May.
On Personal
For your projects: you have to trust people, but you can’t trust them
This topics deserves an entire post about, so I wont dive into it right now.
What’s important in the context of these Footnotes is the reminder that, as professionals, we need to be mindful of who we bring on our projects and what are our expectations about it. Some work is best done within really small groups.
Learning about storytelling is changing the way I see all narratives
In my work, I’m often required to analyze and understand the stories we tell in professional settings. These can range from a company’s vision for the future, to explanations for poor results, or pitches for ambitious projects.
The way people create these stories and communicate them is an art, and can either engage or demotivate employees, partners and everyone else.
As I learn more about the techniques behind storytelling, it becomes increasingly clear how intentionally stories are constructed — and how narrators shape certain elements to build empathy, create illusions, or simply entertain.
The more I learn, the better I can anticipate outcomes, read between the lines, and understand the narrator’s interests and personality.
It’s quite interesting.
Hey! I landed my first webinar for the BA French community
It happened last May 22nd and it was an amazing experience.
I’ll obviously dedicate a full post about it once the replay is live, but until then, here’s a quick photo of me stressing during the session, haha
The opportunity came from IIBA France, as part of their “Vis-ma-vie de BA” initiative to spotlight French Business Analysts and give them a platform to introduce themselves, share their career paths, and highlight something unique about their role.
In my case, I spoke about how I apply storytelling techniques as a Business Analyst working in Strategy. More info soon..
On Professional
Testing tools to improve my Projects
I had the opportunity to test Canva, the online platform for graphic design that took pitch decks and social media visuals to a new level. Turns out, it’s also a great tool for strategy presentations — though there’s a bit of a learning curve, especially for Powerpoint veterans.
The AI function is still in its early stages, and it can slow things down, but all in all the platform held up well and I was able to deliver the deck I was working on.
The main downside for me — and maybe it’s just part of the learning curve — is how tricky it is to work with data visualisation. Plotting graphs and making them visually convincing was more difficult than expected. I’ll explore a few integrations that might improve the output, but for now, I’m sticking with the classic PowerPoint + Excel combo when data is key.
Doubling down on soft(human) skills to staying relevant in the AI world
We’re no longer talking about prompt engineering, that was stupid… Now it’s all about AI agents… Tomorrow we won’t be talking about agents, but agents that build agents…. And one day we’ll have fully autonomous androids and the access to AI will be simply cut off from individuals (as all systems will have embedded AI).
I’m trying to stay positive, but something tells me this shift will hurt a lot more before bringing the value we expect from it. In the meantime, introverts all around the world will lose nights of sleep grasping to this simple truth: social and people skills will remain critical for professionals willing to stay relevant in the labor market.
For me, that means sharpening skills that help me be a better strategist — navigating top-down and bottom-up, and pushing projects forward with empathy and impact.
So yes: negotiation, communication, relationship-building… The classic toolkit.
Just a heads-up in case you haven’t started your upskilling/reskilling journey (yep, still trending keywords).
And hey — feel free to reach out on LinkedIn or Instagram if you want to chat more about any of this 🙂