Design Thinking Reflection: A Tale of Jackson, Tina & Terry – Storytelling with Michellin's    CHALLENGE    In the highly competitive technology consulting industry, being able to show expertise in any given  sought-after platform is table stakes. To be known for your expertise on the technology platform and  show demonstrable knowledge in solving industry-specific problems is the key to connecting with  potential clients and earning their trust. Using a Design Thinking approach, we needed to combine our  knowledge of the Consumer Goods industry with the power of a cloud-based platform to build a  hypothetical concept that would resonate with our B2B prospects. But without a real company to  evaluate and clients to interview, how would we know what features would be important to the  consumer? We decided to make up a company that specialized in a product that we all knew well from  our own personal experience… coffee.     SELECTION    Since we were challenged to combine past client experiences into the design of one product, we knew  that we’d need to be able to center around a set of unique and credible customer personas. Whenever  we thought about the product feature set, we’d need to be able to anchor back to the needs of our  customers; thus, Storytelling became extremely important and therefore one key Design Thinking tool  we leveraged as a part of this project. Following this step, we also leveraged Mind Mapping to connect  related concepts and choose which were the most important aspects we needed to address.     APPLICATION    As part of the Design Thinking flow (Empathize>>Define>>Ideate>>Prototype>>Test)  we were starting  at the very beginning, even in the creation of our brand. And so, Michellin’s – a sustainability-focused  coffee company was born. We based the Michellin’s business model around a locally owned coffee  company we had worked with in the past, which had brick and mortar coffeehouses as well as  distribution of beans in groceries and an online + mobile app presence. The focus on sustainability also  made Michellin’s connection directly with their suppliers an important part of the equation as well.     In order to build a solution for these coffee enthusiasts that actually provided value for them and our  CPG B2C prospects trying to attract customers, we wanted to tell a story that would inspire our solution  build team and connect them with the end user’s needs. Born from our personal experiences and  translation of individual values into buyer influences, we created personas for Jackson, Tina and Tammy.    For each individual persona we created a profile which included a quick bio, along with their job title,  age, location, favorite coffee drink, daily challenges, goals, tech empathy, and a quick snapshot  photo/quote. Even though we had never met Tammy in person or worked with Jackson or volunteered  with Tina, after building their personas we felt like we had an opportunity to have a conversation with  each of them. However, the downside of our application of storytelling was that the information- gathering interviews we used to build our personas were more out of convenience (i.e. coworkers,  family, friends) versus making a bigger effort to reach out to a variety of real customers using our  product because Michellin’s (unfortunately) did not exist in real life.

INSIGHT    Storytelling is extremely important for customer-centric design. We didn’t want to build a product that  only showed off cool features of the software; by running our ideas past these personas we were able to  get a much better guess as to whether or not it would provide value and resonate with each of the three  unique customers. It also helped us to identify issues or concerns that were common across everyone  (i.e. high-value problems to solve) as well as qualities that they might be looking for in their brands.  Today’s culture is highly aware of how their choices as consumers represent their values, so this was  especially important in how we wanted to present the Michellin’s brand in the marketing strategy and  product design.    We also leveraged storytelling to imagine a “day in the life” for each of our personas, including a trip to  a Michellin’s retail location. This exercise actually highlighted additional pain points and really allowed the  team to use empathy to generate discussion ideas for what we could do to improve the customer  experience. Once we were in the prototyping phase, we also used storytelling to connect our  stakeholders to the customer story and bring them along the journey with us so that they were also able  to see the inspiration for our design.

APPROACH    In a similar situation, I would still encourage the use of Storytelling to start by grounding the team in  empathy for their end-user and also providing an expansive and diverse source of customer experiences  through which they can deduce which touchpoints to address. If you are able to create empathy by  telling the customer’s side of the story effectively, your stakeholders put more value on a project with  tangible impact and your solution team can build smarter by solving problems as they actually exist.  The important distinction to make is that although Storytelling can and should be used during multiple  steps in the Design Thinking process (when drafting a design brief, making a pitch, getting feedback from  stakeholders, brainstorming ideas, etc.) it will not be the only tool used in each phase. For example,  once we were able to tell the story of Tina’s typical coffee run, we quickly found the need for  visualization and mind mapping to share a more in-depth picture of the issues we were trying to solve.


Design Thinking Reflection : A Tale of Jackson , Tina & Terry – Storytelling with Michellin 's CHALLENGE In the highly competitive technology consulting industry , being able to show expertise in any given sought - after platform is table stakes . To be known for your expertise on the technology platform and show demonstrable knowledge in solving industry - specific problems is the key to connecting with potential clients and earning their trust . Using a Design Thinking approach , we needed to combine our knowledge of the Consumer Goods industry with the power of a cloud - based platform to build a hypothetical concept that would resonate with our B2B prospects . But without a real company to evaluate and clients to interview , how would we know what features would be important to the consumer ? We decided to make up a company that specialized in a product that we all knew well from our own personal experience … coffee . SELECTION Since we were challenged to combine past client experiences into the design of one product , we knew that we ’d need to be able to center around a set of unique and credible customer personas . Whenever we thought about the product feature set , we ’d need to be able to anchor back to the needs of our customers ; thus , Storytelling became extremely important and therefore one key Design Thinking tool we leveraged as a part of this project . Following this step , we also leveraged Mind Mapping to connect related concepts and choose which were the most important aspects we needed to address . APPLICATION As part of the Design Thinking flow ( Empathize>>Define>>Ideate>>Prototype>>Test ) we were starting at the very beginning , even in the creation of our brand . And so , Michellin ’s – a sustainability - focused coffee company was born . We based the Michellin ’s business model around a locally owned coffee company we had worked with in the past , which had brick and mortar coffeehouses as well as distribution of beans in groceries and an online + mobile app presence . The focus on sustainability also made Michellin ’s connection directly with their suppliers an important part of the equation as well . In order to build a solution for these coffee enthusiasts that actually provided value for them and our CPG B2C prospects trying to attract customers , we wanted to tell a story that would inspire our solution build team and connect them with the end user ’s needs . Born from our personal experiences and translation of individual values into buyer influences , we created personas for Jackson , Tina and Tammy . For each individual persona we created a profile which included a quick bio , along with their job title , age , location , favorite coffee drink , daily challenges , goals , tech empathy , and a quick snapshot photo / quote . Even though we had never met Tammy in person or worked with Jackson or volunteered with Tina , after building their personas we felt like we had an opportunity to have a conversation with each of them . However , the downside of our application of storytelling was that the information- gathering interviews we used to build our personas were more out of convenience ( i.e. coworkers , family , friends ) versus making a bigger effort to reach out to a variety of real customers using our product because Michellin ’s ( unfortunately ) did not exist in real life . INSIGHT Storytelling is extremely important for customer - centric design . We did n’t want to build a product that only showed off cool features of the software ; by running our ideas past these personas we were able to get a much better guess as to whether or not it would provide value and resonate with each of the three unique customers . It also helped us to identify issues or concerns that were common across everyone ( i.e. high - value problems to solve ) as well as qualities that they might be looking for in their brands . Today ’s culture is highly aware of how their choices as consumers represent their values , so this was especially important in how we wanted to present the Michellin ’s brand in the marketing strategy and product design . We also leveraged storytelling to imagine a “ day in the life ” for each of our personas , including a trip to a Michellin ’s retail location . This exercise actually highlighted additional pain points and really allowed the team to use empathy to generate discussion ideas for what we could do to improve the customer experience . Once we were in the prototyping phase , we also used storytelling to connect our stakeholders to the customer story and bring them along the journey with us so that they were also able to see the inspiration for our design . APPROACH In a similar situation , I would still encourage the use of Storytelling to start by grounding the team in empathy for their end - user and also providing an expansive and diverse source of customer experiences through which they can deduce which touchpoints to address . If you are able to create empathy by telling the customer ’s side of the story effectively , your stakeholders put more value on a project with tangible impact and your solution team can build smarter by solving problems as they actually exist . The important distinction to make is that although Storytelling can and should be used during multiple steps in the Design Thinking process ( when drafting a design brief , making a pitch , getting feedback from stakeholders , brainstorming ideas , etc . ) it will not be the only tool used in each phase . For example , once we were able to tell the story of Tina ’s typical coffee run , we quickly found the need for visualization and mind mapping to share a more in - depth picture of the issues we were trying to solve .