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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Business Analyst Intern

💰 $ - $

Business AnalystInternshipData AnalysisBusiness Intelligence

🎯 Role Definition

As a Business Analyst Intern, you will work closely with product owners, business stakeholders, and data teams to translate business needs into actionable requirements, perform data analysis to identify trends and opportunities, and support process improvement and reporting initiatives. This internship is designed to build foundational skills in requirements elicitation, data analysis (SQL/Excel/BI tools), documentation, and stakeholder communication while contributing to measurable business outcomes.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Undergraduate/graduate degree in Business, Economics, Information Systems, Computer Science, Statistics, or related fields.
  • Prior internship experience in data, operations, finance, or product teams.
  • Relevant coursework or capstone projects involving data analysis, business process mapping, or product requirements.

Advancement To:

  • Junior/Associate Business Analyst
  • Business Analyst
  • Product Analyst / Data Analyst
  • Business Systems Analyst

Lateral Moves:

  • Operations Analyst
  • Project Coordinator
  • Customer Success Analyst

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Gather, document, and validate business requirements through interviews, workshops, and stakeholder observation; translate high-level goals into clear functional and non-functional specifications that drive development and reporting work.
  • Analyze transactional and operational data using SQL, Excel, Python or R to identify trends, anomalies, and opportunities for process improvements; summarize findings in executive-ready dashboards and concise written reports.
  • Create and maintain data visualizations in Power BI, Tableau, or Looker to monitor key performance indicators (KPIs), support weekly/monthly reporting cycles, and communicate business performance to stakeholders.
  • Collaborate with cross-functional teams (product, engineering, marketing, finance, operations) to scope project deliverables, prioritize backlog items, and ensure alignment between business objectives and technical implementation.
  • Support user acceptance testing (UAT) by preparing test cases, coordinating test execution with business owners, documenting defects, and verifying fixes to ensure solutions meet requirements.
  • Map and document current-state and future-state business processes using tools like Visio, Lucidchart, or draw.io; identify bottlenecks and recommend process redesigns to increase efficiency and reduce cycle time.
  • Perform root-cause analysis on operational issues using quantitative and qualitative methods; propose corrective actions and track outcomes to demonstrate impact.
  • Assist in the creation of product requirement documents (PRDs), user stories, acceptance criteria, and wireframes to guide product and engineering teams through iterative delivery.
  • Conduct competitive benchmarking and market research to inform business cases and feature prioritization; synthesize market trends and customer feedback into actionable recommendations.
  • Support ad-hoc financial analysis, build basic forecasting models, and assist in cost/benefit analysis for proposed initiatives to underpin prioritization decisions.
  • Prepare and present stakeholder-facing slide decks that synthesize analysis, recommended actions, and implementation plans in a clear, persuasive manner.
  • Maintain clear, up-to-date project documentation (requirements traceability matrix, decision logs, process flows) to ensure knowledge continuity and regulatory compliance.
  • Participate in sprint planning, stand-ups, retrospectives, and backlog grooming to ensure analytical tasks and requirements are integrated into Agile delivery cycles.
  • Assist with data quality assessments by profiling datasets, documenting data lineage issues, and collaborating with data engineers to implement cleansing or transformation rules.
  • Support the development and rollout of internal tools, reports, and dashboards by coordinating stakeholder training, creating help documentation, and gathering post-deployment feedback for iterative improvement.
  • Capture and prioritize user feedback through interviews, surveys, and support ticket analysis to continuously refine product features and reporting requirements.
  • Help build proof-of-concept analyses and rapid prototypes to validate hypotheses and inform MVP decisions in partnership with product managers and designers.
  • Coordinate with compliance, legal, or risk teams to ensure proposed solutions adhere to internal controls and regulatory requirements, documenting any gaps and mitigation plans.
  • Monitor and report on the status of assigned projects, including milestones, risks, dependencies, and resource needs; escalate issues with proposed mitigation options.
  • Support process automation initiatives by documenting repetitive manual tasks, collaborating with RPA/business automation teams, and testing automated workflows for accuracy.
  • Translate complex technical concepts into simple, business-friendly language for non-technical stakeholders, ensuring adoption and alignment.
  • Collect and analyze customer support and CRM data (e.g., Salesforce) to identify friction points in customer journeys and propose structural improvements.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
  • Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
  • Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
  • Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.
  • Assist in onboarding new interns or junior analysts by sharing documentation, templates, and best practices.
  • Help maintain and enforce documentation standards and naming conventions for reports, dashboards, and datasets.
  • Contribute to knowledge-sharing sessions, brown-bag presentations, and internal training on analytics tools and business processes.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • SQL — ability to write complex SELECTs, joins, CTEs, aggregations, and window functions for data extraction and analysis.
  • Advanced Excel — pivot tables, VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, INDEX/MATCH, data modeling, and scenario analysis.
  • Data visualization — experience creating dashboards and visual stories in Power BI, Tableau, or Looker.
  • Basic programming for analysis — familiarity with Python (pandas) or R for data cleaning, analysis, and simple scripts.
  • Business requirements documentation — writing PRDs, user stories, acceptance criteria, and requirement traceability.
  • Reporting and BI tools — building, maintaining, and optimizing recurring reports and automated dashboards.
  • Data profiling & QA — experience identifying data quality issues, performing sanity checks, and documenting fixes.
  • Process mapping — ability to create AS-IS/TO-BE process diagrams and swimlane flows using Visio, Lucidchart, or similar.
  • Familiarity with Agile tools — JIRA, Confluence, or Trello for managing tasks, user stories, and documentation.
  • Basic statistical literacy — understanding of descriptive statistics, correlation, A/B test basics, and hypothesis testing.
  • CRM / analytics platforms — exposure to Salesforce, HubSpot, Google Analytics or Mixpanel is a plus.
  • ETL and data warehousing concepts — understanding of data pipelines, transformations, and schema design.

Soft Skills

  • Strong written and verbal communication — craft concise reports, present findings, and align stakeholders with clarity.
  • Analytical thinking and problem solving — break down ambiguous problems into testable hypotheses and actionable insights.
  • Attention to detail — accurate documentation, precise data validation, and rigorous testing mindset.
  • Stakeholder management — build relationships, manage expectations, and facilitate alignment across cross-functional teams.
  • Time management and prioritization — handle multiple requests and deliver high-quality work on tight timelines.
  • Curiosity and continuous learning — proactively upskill on new tools, techniques, and domain knowledge.
  • Team collaboration — work effectively with designers, engineers, and business partners in a collaborative environment.
  • Adaptability — comfortable operating in fast-paced, changing environments and shifting priorities.
  • Presentation and storytelling — synthesize data into a compelling narrative that drives decisions.
  • Ethical judgment and data privacy awareness — handle sensitive data responsibly and adhere to data governance policies.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Currently enrolled in or recent graduate of a Bachelor's degree program.

Preferred Education:

  • Bachelor's or Master's degree in Business Administration, Economics, Finance, Information Systems, Computer Science, Data Science, Statistics, or a related quantitative field.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Business Administration
  • Economics
  • Information Systems
  • Data Science
  • Computer Science
  • Statistics
  • Finance
  • Operations Research

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 0–2 years (internships, co-ops, relevant academic projects, or part-time roles)

Preferred:

  • Prior internship or project experience involving SQL, Excel-based analysis, BI dashboard creation, or requirements gathering. Experience working in Agile teams, exposure to CRM/analytics platforms, and documented contributions to process improvement or product analytics projects are strongly preferred.
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