IntermediateBEHAVIORAL
Describe a time when your analysis of an existing business process led to a measurable improvement in efficiency or cost reduction. How did you map the current state, design the future state, and validate the benefits?
Business Analyst
General

Sample Answer

At my last company, I was asked to review our quote‑to‑cash process for mid‑market deals. Average cycle time was 27 days, and sales leadership wanted it under 20. I started by mapping the current state end‑to‑end in a swimlane diagram, interviewing about 15 people across sales, legal, and finance and pulling three months of Salesforce and ERP data. We found three approval loops and a manual spreadsheet step that added roughly 6 days of wait time. I partnered with sales ops to design a future state that consolidated approvals, added simple guardrails for discount thresholds, and automated data handoff from Salesforce to the ERP. We piloted with one region for six weeks, tracking cycle time, error rates, and discount leakage. Cycle time dropped to 16 days (40% faster), rework tickets fell by 30%, and we eliminated about 400 manual hours per quarter. After that, we rolled it out globally.

Keywords

Used interviews and data to create detailed current-state process mapIdentified bottlenecks in approvals and manual spreadsheet workDesigned streamlined approval workflow and system integrationValidated impact via pilot: 40% faster cycle time and reduced rework
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