Rather than focusing heavily on technical questions, I centred the conversations around the essential skills that underpin any technical discipline — the capabilities that allow people to translate knowledge into impact in real organisations.

We talked specifically about:

• Communication

• Problem-solving

• Stakeholder awareness

• Critical thinking

In many ways, these are the capabilities that sit at the heart of effective Business Analysis. They’re also the kinds of skills we spend a lot of time thinking about at Opencast — how they develop, how they show up in practice, and how we as an organisation can create environments where our people continue to strengthen them throughout their employment with us.

In fact, at Opencast we’re increasingly exploring how Essential Skills feature more intentionally in our own interview processes. Technical expertise will always matter, particularly in consultancy, but it’s often these underlying capabilities — how someone communicates, thinks critically, navigates stakeholders and approaches problems — that determine how effectively that expertise translates into real impact. In many ways, these skills form the foundation on which truly excellent technical capability is built.