Stephanie Gonzalez

Storytelling Reflection

Challenge

I work at a Transnational huge company where Design Thinking is now part of the business  strategy; the company has managed to adapt Design Thinking to its own business so it can focus  in the users that really matter and in the type of business it offers. As this is a huge company  every center in each country had to start learning and applying Design Thinking and as change  is never easy but always good, in my country I was part of the leadership that was bringing Design  Thinking to everybody’s lives.

I started with education and it was naturally becoming known and used among my peers;  however, there was an important challenge in all the business processes when applying Design  Thinking as the framework it is; and the challenge was: How can we engage with our clients so  we can also design better experiences in the solutions we offer to them, including team  involvement, workshop management, projects and more.

Selection

I selected then Storytelling because I think telling a story is the best approach to get someone not  only to pay attention to something, but to understand and act with purpose and it was just what  was needed. This tool allowed every client real or potential and every person interested in  applying Design Thinking with their clients to actually had a guide on how to really engage.

Application

I got together with a group of other four Design Thinkers as passionate as me and with their  support a Playbook was created. This Playbook is a document that is now available for all of the  employees of the company I work for and intends to help any other team in the world that wants  to use Design Thinking to achieve a great engagement with their clients. In the playbook it is first  specified that a group of people working together is always necessary and that in our case we  received also guidance and strategic support from an Executive of the company. We also defined  the tasks of this team.

The playbook was also created in the format of Storytelling so there is this main Character that  will guide the reader through the playbook; she is the hypothetic user and she wants to implement  Design Thinking but she does not now how and explains a little bit of the background.Then, the  book shows how in our company there are different ways to make the first contact with the clients  and that having the final objective in mind is very important to know which one to choose.

In this storytelling playbook there is also visualization used; so our main character shows a simple  and visual depiction of how a Design Thinking engagement works to help the readers understand  that it is not just a workshop but a creative process. Then, the book shows step by step from the  planning with the problem statement or design prompt, going through gathering information and  research to creating a proposal, working on several tools in one or more workshops involving the  right stakeholders (being this moment where the creative work is on top), and then evaluating the  workshop or activities results. At the end it suggests some client playbacks to get the team aligned  and the way the implementation will work. All of this explanation is shown as a story that tells the

Stephanie Gonzalez

main character in the book, it is created with images, brief explanations and examples from real  business life and even maps so it can be better understood.

Insight

When every team in our company uses this guide and actually applies it, they know the case  study in a storytelling format will allow them and other people who read it to analyze the situation  including complexities, present results in a brief, accurate and creative way and at the end  learning from the challenges faced.

What did I gain? The learning that Design Thinking tools like storytelling are not only to tell a story  and solve a problem; but are a great learning tool as well. I this case I got to solve a problem (no  one new how to engage with commercial clients using Design Thinking) and also I got to share a  guide for learning a new framework and I think that is one of the most exciting experiences any  user could have.

Approach

Probably I would use more communication tools and strategies to make this playbook visible so  literally everyone knows about it’s existence. – Also maybe I would add the information in  animated videos and not just images and examples as it is right know. Just because learning  experiences are always into transformation.

