An analyst is responsible for transforming input from the other village members into a shared, clear understanding of precisely what to build: the solution.
An analyst is a team member responsible for transforming the sometimes competing wants, hopes, interests, and aspirations of the customer, stakeholder, and solution owner— as well as the contributions of the subject matter expert—into a shared, clear understanding of precisely what to build: the solution. The analyst role includes business analysts, requirements engineers, systems analysts, and other analysis roles.
Many organizations eliminated analyst roles in their rush to adopt agile as a development cost-reduction strategy. In the minds of many, the product owner role made analysts redundant. Unfortunately, many organizations that followed this path were soon harshly reminded of why the analyst role emerged in the first place. This is another example of overloading the product owner role with too many responsibilities.