Design Thinking for Innovation    Reflection Assignment - Design Thinking in the Broadcast and Media Industry    Richard Moseley  23 July 2021    Challenge & Selection    Part of my job in business development and sales requires telling a story to communicate a  compelling message to my customers to identify mutual new business opportunities, and ultimately  sell a product, solution, or service.    I work in the television broadcast and media industry, in which the technical landscape is constantly  evolving with new and interesting ways to deliver and consume video, audio, and data content.   Many of my customers can be overwhelmed by the broad-ranging new technologies available and  struggle to understand how they can adopt such technologies to create additional revenue streams  or generate greater profit margins.    I chose the Storytelling tool to help take my customers on an imaginative, learning, and interactive  journey to explore what their business model and consumer offering could look like embracing some  of these new technologies.  The aim is to ultimately generate interest in one or more of the products  or services I am tasked with selling and lead the way to produce a new technology design, agree on  commercial pricing and terms, and deployment of the new service.    Application    Since the successful deal closure with one of my customers’ a tier 1 UK broadcaster, using a state-of- the-art cloud-based technology solution, there have been no further immediate new business  opportunities emerging.  I, therefore, prepared two stories linked to new technologies that would  complement their cloud-based solution, which could ultimately once validated and refined, generate  additional revenue for my customer.    My first story relates to an enhanced consumer TV experience using personalised TV technology for  delivery of television channels through the Internet, providing a more immersive experience for the  end consumer, as the television programme content is specifically selected to match the individuals’  tastes.  The business proposition for my customer is (i) improved consumer retention as the TV  channels become more appealing to each individual and (ii) a greater commercial value of the  advertisement slots, as they too can be targeted and adapted to suite the individuals’ tastes.    I then told the story of another customer who also adopted a cloud-based technology solution and  how they capitalised on its attributes, such as flexibility, scalability, and speed to launch new TV  channels and services.  I explained all of these attributes enabled that customer to secure new  business over the competition, enabling new profitable revenue streams.  For example, (i) the  flexibility comes from a pure software solution enabling changes to take place with ease, such as  changing a standard definition channel to a high or ultra-high definition channel, (ii) the scalability  come from cloud solution expansion simplicity, enabling extra channels to be launched without the  need for significant investment, and (iii) the software and cloud solution facilitates the rapid launch  of new channels and feature, such as ‘ad-hoc’ PoP up thematic channels for special events such as  the Olympics and Christmas TV Shows.

Insight and Approach    With these first two stories my customer became fully engaged, not so much about what I was trying  to sell to them, but how they could now see the new business opportunities for them and how they  could succeed.  On reflection, perhaps the stories could have been enhanced with the aid of a  visualisation tool.    As for the next steps, I plan to deliver a broader version of the stories to a wider audience from  different departments within the customer’s organisation, this time with the aid of complementary  visualisation tools to help reinforce the message.  The visualisation tool will show (i) how the  technology will integrate within their new cloud solution, (ii) how the flow of the costs and revenue  streams will occur, and (iii) the human interactivity from my company, my customer, and the end  consumer.    Although telling a story about a new business idea seems to go hand-in-hand, I hadn’t fully  appreciated it as a ‘tool’ until this course.  I now feel story preparation and delivery complementary  to the product or service I am selling is a key item for success.

