Reflection – Storytelling

Challenge

What I am invariably trying to deliver is IT Projects and Services to a variety of clients where the  outcomes range from improvements to products and services. Because the pace of technological change  is so fast, it is not easy for non-IT functions or managers to always grasp what they are investing in and  why. Furthermore, non IT managers, especially in business, are becoming increasingly important to  decision-making and instrumental in determining a long range view or product road-map, along with  having control over budgets.

Selection

Not being an IT professional, it is important for me to capture complex concepts in as many dimensions  possible and in the future, making recommendations that executives approve of and trust me. I spend a  significant amount of time with various stakeholders to understand what they experience and what they  expect from IT programs following which I go back to my team of technology subject matter experts for  problem solving and solution development. Story-telling lends itself rather well to being among the  better approaches in putting together propositions or recommendations, likely to meet with more  success with decision makers.

Application

In order to meet the technology needs of a few of my clients within an organization I was required to  form a partnership for the technology vendor with the ‘digital partnership’ team who in turn wanted to  see many more users of the technology for it to make sense for them to invest in. I had not explored the  full potential of an ‘API marketplace platform’ I was proposing and we were far down the budgeting  timeline so I did not have the luxury of exploration. Furthermore, the ‘digital partnership’ team did not  have an interest in understanding the technology but were rather more interested in revenue or  monetization models. Our first workshop we were required to conduct was for the business folks of the  ‘global data-team’ who wanted to explore data-monetization. They had no understanding of technology  and were looking to get an estimate of how much it would cost them to develop the relevant technology  solution. Using the story-telling model, I suggested to my subject matter expert to unbundle the ‘API  marketplace’ by full functionalities and be ready to dive deep into specific features which met these  functionalities. While the underlying technology was very superior we decided to focus on the ability of  users to ‘mash-up’ with fin-techs and how light assets like APIs were being monetized by other players.  Both these features were related to one another in a sliver. But while amplifying the features of the  sliver we were able to build a story whereby data could be packaged as APIs which met the needs of the  ‘global data team’ and we could use the monetization models for APIs to develop the revenue model to  satisfy the needs of the ‘digital partnership team’. And my subject matter experts worked these two  features backwards into an estimate of the technology investments required and returns thereof.

The success in my mind however was that my team of technology subject matter experts went back to  their drawing board to return with a unique domain led set of solutions which made it possible to use  common financial processes as a service which would cross organization lines.

Insight & Approach

While I have mostly used story-telling to paint the big picture and secure buy-in, it became clearer to me  that it is also very effective in addressing point-problems, gaps in solutions, and making workshops more  inclusive to gather better feedback and have better outcomes.

I also realized story-telling helps convey passion and commitment. Many new technology programs are  challenging and create change which can be disruptive at times. If one cannot convey that one knows  how various parts of the organization are addressing change, and how the program being  recommending is aligned with it, it lessens the chances of getting executive buy-in.  The same goes for  factors like risk which can have different meanings to different people in different parts of the  organization. One may not be able to capture all the risks of the organization and their mitigants but it  does highlight that the recommendations consider them.

This is very relevant today, and one of my client organizations is using the phrase ‘consider everything’  as quintessential to decision making going forward.

