1. Challenge & Selection

Storytelling is a useful tool in both industry and research. I used this tool to describe my Ph.D. research at  conferences and symposiums. Ph.D. students usually face challenges when presenting their research  because the research is usually based on a detailed problem or an abstract concept that could be difficult  to describe, especially if the presentation is addressed to an audience different than academia. The  success of research is based on identifying new knowledge that must contributed to the advances of  science. My research was titled “Framework addressed to financial analysis of solution architectures  considering uncertainty and flexibility”. When my audience read the thesis’s title, few people were  interested in hearing more about the research. Most of them ran away because it sounded complicated.  It was hard to describe my research during the first years of my Ph.D. until I learned about Storytelling.  Then, I used stories to illustrate the different steps of my research as well as the results of using the  proposed framework.

2. Application

To use Storytelling, I created stories based on real businesses that helped me to describe the problem,  objectives, strategy, and research proposal. I used a specific case of a Healthcare company that needed  to invest in a new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to achieve its business objectives  and maintain alignment with its business strategy. The stories were written with simple words and graphs  that were associated with the main concepts (solution architecture, financial analysis, uncertainty, and  flexibility). The stories were described step by step presenting the connections between the concepts. I  took my audience through a timeline, where the problems and risks were showed clearly. The strategy  included the following steps:

I.  Describing the context of a story using business words and simple vocabulary for the audience (I  used technical vocabulary depending on the audience).  II.  Introducing in the story the concepts of the research and their definitions.  III.  Illustrating the problem of the research using the story, so the problem was described in simple  words that were connected with the story’s context. In this step, I avoided presenting the  problem as a paragraph or a separate idea of the story.  IV.  Explaining the consequences of the problem using the story.  V.  Describing the objectives and the proposal using scenarios in the story.  VI.  Explaining the contribution of the research illustrated in the story.

As a result, the audience started to understand the problem of my research as well as the objective and  proposal. Through the use of Storytelling, it was less difficult to respond to questions such as: What is it?  How will you solve it? When can it happen? Who is involved in that problem/solution? Why is this research  an important contribution? Finally, when I defended my thesis, the use of stories was a plus that was  highlighted by the committee because the story structure established the concepts, their relationships,  and the results of the research with coherence and clarity.

3. Insight

Storytelling helped me in a few different ways. First, the use of Storytelling helped me to illustrate my  research to different audiences (business and research), so the acceptance level increased and the  engagement from the audience was higher than when I only used conceptual concepts. Second, through  Storytelling, I described the research’s benefits so my research was more competitive and relevant in  conferences and symposiums. Third, when I had the option to associate a story with my research, I found  that it was necessary to have a clear context of the problem, not just an idea, and I understood the  importance of the connection between the concepts with using vocabulary that are more used in daily  life. Fourth, Storytelling gave me more structure and concrete details that allow an audience to have  something to anchor/attach new knowledge to. Finally, Storytelling permitted me to connect the audience  to problems that their companies have as well as to situations that they face frequently and show them  how my framework was a possible solution to solve those problematic situations.


1 . Challenge & Selection Storytelling is a useful tool in both industry and research . I used this tool to describe my Ph.D. research at conferences and symposiums . Ph.D. students usually face challenges when presenting their research because the research is usually based on a detailed problem or an abstract concept that could be difficult to describe , especially if the presentation is addressed to an audience different than academia . The success of research is based on identifying new knowledge that must contributed to the advances of science . My research was titled “ Framework addressed to financial analysis of solution architectures considering uncertainty and flexibility ” . When my audience read the thesis ’s title , few people were interested in hearing more about the research . Most of them ran away because it sounded complicated . It was hard to describe my research during the first years of my Ph.D. until I learned about Storytelling . Then , I used stories to illustrate the different steps of my research as well as the results of using the proposed framework . 2 . Application To use Storytelling , I created stories based on real businesses that helped me to describe the problem , objectives , strategy , and research proposal . I used a specific case of a Healthcare company that needed to invest in a new Customer Relationship Management ( CRM ) system to achieve its business objectives and maintain alignment with its business strategy . The stories were written with simple words and graphs that were associated with the main concepts ( solution architecture , financial analysis , uncertainty , and flexibility ) . The stories were described step by step presenting the connections between the concepts . I took my audience through a timeline , where the problems and risks were showed clearly . The strategy included the following steps : I. Describing the context of a story using business words and simple vocabulary for the audience ( I used technical vocabulary depending on the audience ) . II . Introducing in the story the concepts of the research and their definitions . III . Illustrating the problem of the research using the story , so the problem was described in simple words that were connected with the story ’s context . In this step , I avoided presenting the problem as a paragraph or a separate idea of the story . IV . Explaining the consequences of the problem using the story . V. Describing the objectives and the proposal using scenarios in the story . VI . Explaining the contribution of the research illustrated in the story . As a result , the audience started to understand the problem of my research as well as the objective and proposal . Through the use of Storytelling , it was less difficult to respond to questions such as : What is it ? How will you solve it ? When can it happen ? Who is involved in that problem / solution ? Why is this research an important contribution ? Finally , when I defended my thesis , the use of stories was a plus that was highlighted by the committee because the story structure established the concepts , their relationships , and the results of the research with coherence and clarity . 3 . Insight Storytelling helped me in a few different ways . First , the use of Storytelling helped me to illustrate my research to different audiences ( business and research ) , so the acceptance level increased and the engagement from the audience was higher than when I only used conceptual concepts . Second , through Storytelling , I described the research ’s benefits so my research was more competitive and relevant in conferences and symposiums . Third , when I had the option to associate a story with my research , I found that it was necessary to have a clear context of the problem , not just an idea , and I understood the importance of the connection between the concepts with using vocabulary that are more used in daily life . Fourth , Storytelling gave me more structure and concrete details that allow an audience to have something to anchor / attach new knowledge to . Finally , Storytelling permitted me to connect the audience to problems that their companies have as well as to situations that they face frequently and show them how my framework was a possible solution to solve those problematic situations .