Kurtis Papple

BNZ let go of all of their contractors during Covid, so I was scrambling for work and ended up on a piece of work almost completely opposite to what I was doing at BNZ. So as far as my learning goes, it was an absolute blessing in disguise.
I am on a team working on improving the web application people use to apply for benefits and interact with MSD. I am more of a Product Owner to the team right now as they are going through a transformation themselves, and as such far more responsibility is falling down than planned.
I am a visionary for the product and customer representative, working very closely with the client experience team, who organises Work and Income site visits to test our ideas with real clients. I also work very closely with accessibility and user experience specialists, gleaming as much knowledge as I can absorb in the process.
I do of perform a lot of typical BA activities, mainly in the way of getting stories ready for the scrum team, and communicating in an effective and timely manner to ensure all parties are kept in the loop and have their say. It is a tough balancing act, as we are very focused on getting things ready fast. Has been great for keeping me sharp.

doing the easy right thing maximising the work not done experimentation
challenging assumptions balancing perspectives accessibility user experience
product ownership data driven decision making transparency research

Started in a Junior position and had an incredible support network which enable me to grow rapidly. I quickly become trusted by the Senior BA on our team to lead a lot of our work, and recently we had a positive direction change as a brainchild of mine that was adopted by the team. We had a new Product Owner step in and within a week requested I become Scrum Master for the team due to how well I facilitated our meetings and kept us on track.
I currently manage artefacts and our backlog doing collation, assessment and sizing. I ensure we are outcome focused, understand functional requirements and are aware of dependencies. I conduct research and data analysis to assist decision making. I engage with stakeholders including external service providers to ensure their and our own expectations are being met.
For examples of my work please read Business Analysis portfolio 2019-2020
Jeff McKee has worked with me through this, you can call him on 021 1889 086

facilitation backlog refinement design thinking story writing agile
conflict resolution lean sizing & estimation servant leadership
collaboration dependency mapping prioritisation functional requirements

I took this job very seriously. Applying the same holistic approach to improving that I always do, I was able to lead store operations and was able to practice business analysis activities. Now that I was a high performer, I was able to work on improving operational processes in the realm I had influence of.
branch operations management multitasking process analysis leadership

Explored various vocational pathways as I tried to find what called to me.

business acumen time management coaching people skills strategy
perseverance negotiation