Storytelling    Challenge  I am currently working as a design consultant in an Indian IT services organization. As part of  the presales / bidding team pitching for design, development, testing services for different  customers around the globe, we are faced with a complex problem as the customer  audience varies from marketing, technology, sales, etc.    Sometimes the questions miss out on the front of the experience, although found to be an  essential component of the outcome's success, based on our initial research. A standard  method of starting the discussion is needed in order to provide the client with a vision to  begin the discussion and then expand it into the different domains.    Once we replied to a proposal for a global consumer goods corporation, an opportunity was  raised, the request was to unify the online presence of their laundry services, currently in  the form of three different websites for their dry cleaning, self-service locker and campus  laundry services, also present was a mobile application limited to monitoring the clothes.  The basic need was to switch to an online presence that was cohesive. The query was  specific, to create one of the three websites.    Selection  The main concern was that the customer was not aware of the difficulty of establishing a  unifying presence from currently 3 different sites with different users, their journeys and  expectations. Simple scope listed the development of the web-based site and the extension  of services to their current mobile application. The requirement did not meet the current  mobile dependency trends and all the target users of the clients needed a seamless  experience. This aspect had to be effectively communicated to the customer.    I decided to use storytelling as a tool to create the right impact to communicate what our  vision was for the unified portal of the brands. Storytelling would also help explain to the  client how to look at the development of the marketplace for their clients (such as offering  later cross-selling and upselling opportunities), which seemed to have been ignored in their  need. Last but not least, since the result was to be a B2C (Business to Customer) experience,  the need was for a deeper extension of the product story to make the connection to their  customers through empathy. Telling stories would be an appropriate tool for the above.    Application  I wanted the story to contribute from the client's side to the reviewers (audience). So the  story line I created was from a campus student's point of view, not only because the student  was also a recipient of the services of clients, but also because they will have the connection  for them based on their similar past experience (nearly all of them must have been a  student at some point in time).    Another justification to choose the student on campus was that he / she might be more  willing to make more transparent use of other services offered by the company. A woman  named Jessica has been selected as the story's main character where she enters as a college  freshman. For her journey to college, the concept was also developed. Jessica's life in a day

was the main storyline that focused on the pain points, for example: time juggling between  classes, preparation required before laundry, stress she's going through thinking about the  same, etc. It illustrated the main challenges. The story was told using storyboarding and  imagination and the video conference was used to render the presentation.    The main issues were highlighted after the story telling which were: availability of  convenience-based laundry options, preparation assistance needed, laundry cycle  scheduling, etc. A description of the solution was also portrayed in a story form as the  happy state. The argument was also posed that in the future the consumer will become a  different client of the segment and as the connection is made he / she could become loyal  to the brand and continue the journey through other services. There has also been a strong  business case of upsell / cross sale throughout the plot. I was able to highlight a major  strategic turning point that the customer wanted in terms of strategy, which was to focus on  the mobile presence approach rather than the new web-based application.    So the plot was constructed from a present-day concept to a future scenario and steps of  how to achieve that state.    Insight  The presentation was well received by the consumer, they agreed with most of the  suggested changes to the range. Few of which they stated was reserved for the future scope  of work that could not be implemented. Overall, using story telling to drive forward our  strategic vision and win the project was a fair and acceptable case.    Storytelling as a method is very powerful but has its limitations. It is very effective in cases  where the story of the brand needs to be enhanced, created or re-looked. The method of  telling the story also works in cases where the strategic changes are to be suggested. But it's  hard to use storytelling to build use cases or business cases when the context of something  is already well-defined or solution clarity is very current, examples of which would be B2B  (business to business applications).    Approach  The approach I adopted for the above scenario was ideal and worked perfectly, but as I face  different customers with different needs this method may not produce the same results as  others.    As mentioned above, telling stories would be helpful in cases where the brand value and  user-centric layout play a major role, but many times I or we face customers from the B2B  sector where the queries are not so focused towards the above points. I'd try to use a  storytelling mix with the streamlined process / service flow approaches in that case.

