Reflection: Storytelling

Challenge: My client is one of the largest electronic payment company in the world. The client

was working to build a global merchant database product & while building the datasets the client faced  a lot of difficulty in identifying correct brands in different dispersed geographical locations.  The Problem  the Product team/Technology Development Team was having to create business rules which will  correctly identify the merchant. Like BP is a global oil giant, but does it mean all the Merchant which has  some sort of name variation close to BP globally (BP GAS, Harry BP GAS etc..) are all same brand or they  are diff entity.. The Product team needed to on board with different business cases & different scenarios  so that the Business Logic to build the Data Products can be modified & Fine Tuned.

Selection:    I used the process of storytelling to engage the product office/business

team/engineering leads & created several storytelling concepts for Brands to make the Product team  understand the crux of the issues. Storytelling helps user to visualize the problem makes them more  connected, makes them more aware of the scenarios & make them relate to the scenario.

The technique that I have used here is the FREYTAG’S PYRAMID method.

Application:

FREYTAG’S PYRAMID is a widely used Storytelling application that consists of five elements. Exposition,  rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution/revelation/catastrophe. I have used this  concepts to create an scenario replica of my client product managers to understand country  wise business dynamics/Business Policy Condition/Policy Condition & how all these conditions  should be used/Considered for the product development activity.to fine tune the Data Strategy.

I started with creating Exposition elements of the Business,, How the Business conditions are  diff in Different country, how is the corporate governance different in diff regions & created a  background for everyone for the Business Scenario.

Once the Product Strategy Teams are on boarded with the problem scenarios I raised the pitch  to have a rising action scenario, Like Wal-Mart when they wanted to expand its business to

Indian market how they faced political roadblock due to Political Roadblock how they almost  pulled out from the market. This helped me to evoke the Interest of the stakeholder through  creating internal tension of the Business Impact & what its obligation.

I then take the story to its climax by raising the curtain how the problem is resolved. Here Wal- Mart joined hands with a Leading Indian Conglomerate Bharti Enterprise then Launched a New  Brand & Business Model Bharti-Walmart in India in the Retail Segment & how they started &  continues its operation. This helped also to have the Falling action in the storytelling &  stakeholders are completely engrossed with the story.

What is the Resolution/Revelation of the Story: The Resolution/Revelation of the Story is that  The Business Rule Cannot be Same Everywhere. The Business Rules needs to be  changed/Changed in design as there is a need to understand geo Political Scenario/Business  Condition/Country policy for any global product development stage.

Insight & Approach

The Actual getaway of this story is that The Business Rule to identify all Transaction coming  from India where the Name Contains “Bharti” needs to be changed. A new Business rule has to  be implemented so that Retail category Business Volume That Begins with Bharti (ie Bhar- Walmart) are not actually the business volume Of Bharti Enterprise, but that is of a diff corporate  Entity, Bharti-Walmart Enterprise.

This Insight has changed the entire ballgame of making the Data Strategy of the Product. This  Insight gave Product Team Vision that There has to have Other Geo Political/Business  Regulation View of the product Design that needs to be incorporated & fine-tuned.

The Story Telling Concept here helped me to make the Product Team to look at the problem  into a completely different viewpoint, make them emphasize & understand the Global economic  condition & gave insight & roadmap of how these can be incorporated in the Product Strategy &  Innovation part.

Submitted By: Nitish Kumar

