DIGITAL CAPABILITY CONSULTANT | IGNITE
Tara Sutherland
Tara Sutherland is a Digital Capability Consultant and senior Business Analyst who helps organisations turn good analysis into clear decisions. She’s worked across complex change programmes and product delivery, partnering with project managers, delivery leads, and executive governance forums to reduce “decision drag” – the gap between knowing what needs to happen and getting a decision that sticks.
In her sessions, Tara blends practical tools with real-world examples: decision notes that make options and trade-offs explicit, narrative patterns that prevent BA – PM drift, and simple coaching approaches that help teams show up with recommendations (not just updates). She also mentors developing BAs through on-the-job coaching, formally and informally, helping them build confidence in executive conversations and turn strong analysis into clear, decision-ready recommendations.
Her work focuses on making the invisible “managing up” effort teachable and repeatable, so clarity scales beyond one person.
Presentation: From Analysis to Action: Anti‑Distortion Tools for Faster, Cleaner Steering Decisions
Ever watched a steering decision “land”… then quietly fall apart a week later? It’s rarely because the analysis was wrong. It’s because the meaning got compressed, paraphrased, and diluted as it travelled from the team room to the PM update to the exec forum. This session names that invisible gap and gives you practical ways to stop it.
In 50 minutes you’ll learn (and see examples of) three “anti distortion” tools used by experienced BAs to make decisions stick: the Message Ladder (one story, multiple altitudes – from sentence to slide to decision pack), the One Page Decision Note (options, recommendation, risks, and a clean ask), and a 5 part Exec Update Pattern that leads with meaning, makes the decision explicit, and prevents the dreaded “so what?” loop. You’ll also get a simple Known/Assumed/Needed check to stop BA-PM narrative drift before it hits governance.
Perfect for senior BAs, lead BAs, and delivery leads who regularly brief PMs, sponsors, or exec forums and are tired of rewrite cycles, mixed signals, and “we need more detail” after you’ve already done the thinking.
You’ll leave with a lightweight, repeatable toolkit to design your message so it survives retelling, reduces decision drag, and speeds up delivery without relying on heroic effort.