Reﬂection: Storytelling

Challenge & Selection

I use storytelling all the time in my work to establish emotional connections with my audience; helping stakeholders relate and getting them inspired with a narrative.

In this challenge, I work with our SaSS customers who have been very much loyal in subscribing to the company’s oﬀerings. Many of these customers are “old-timers” who have been with the company since the days of perpetual maintenance licensing and are resistant to the slightest change. I spend a lot of time understanding these customers who are mostly in middle age or even in their senior years, getting deep into the trenches of what their context is like; what is their motivation and what are attributing factors to their resistance to change.

With the understanding gained from my customers, I shared stories about these customers to my stakeholders, helping them understand the peril of the current state and place them into a frame of investment to solve the problem at hand - visualizing a state where these senior customers can grow and evolve in a manner that is personalized and assistive to their context. Augmenting data, facts and recommendations to the story helps to drive the thinking forward, paving possibilities of solutions that will lift the current barriers imposed by these customers.

Application

Collating the data from interviews and slices from service audits, I built a narrative of how our senior customers are experiencing our service, building a shared understanding and empathy for this group of archetypes. My audiences are mainly directors and senior managers, so I had to explain my story in relation to business importance by augmenting sales data involved and painting the pitfalls of customer detraction, along with the beneﬁts of nurturing the customer through their lifecycle even at a senior stage.

I started with a story about our primary persona, Javier who had invested in learning our products since his youth days and over time became a proponent of our brand. However with the fast changing technological landscape and software changes, he has diﬃculty catching up and is feeling left behind. Although he is still engaged with our company, he is feeling very much disconnected and is hanging on the cliﬀ when it comes to promoting the product he has been using for the past 15 years.

Then I contrasted the earlier story with a “hero ﬂow”, depicting what an ideal situation Javier will be placed in, how he could “evolve” comfortably with our company, and eventually being a strong promoter for the company and inﬂuencing further growth.

Insight & Approach

Narrating the story of Javier worked really well. I was able to get my stakeholders on the same page. Adding the hard facts from research and data elements of monetization helped the executives concur on the need for investing to solve the problem. This also established a baseline on how similar challenges (relating to customer lifecycle) should be addressed and also became a conversation starter on strategies for the next step.

For similar context, I would still apply storytelling as the tool of choice given that it helps best in building empathy amongst my audience; relate who the customer is, how their journey looks like along with their pains and motivations. It’ll be interesting to apply “learning launch” (something I have yet to experiment)  to determine “what wows” & “what works” but at this moment, my biggest barrier is changing mindset to adopt innovation and growth and that has to start oﬀ with customer empathy.

If there is anything that I would do diﬀerently for storytelling, I would highlight the struggles of the hero (Javier) to make it more compelling, along with more practice using this tool.


Reﬂection : Storytelling Challenge & Selection I use storytelling all the time in my work to establish emotional connections with my audience ; helping stakeholders relate and getting them inspired with a narrative . In this challenge , I work with our SaSS customers who have been very much loyal in subscribing to the company ’s oﬀerings . Many of these customers are “ old - timers ” who have been with the company since the days of perpetual maintenance licensing and are resistant to the slightest change . I spend a lot of time understanding these customers who are mostly in middle age or even in their senior years , getting deep into the trenches of what their context is like ; what is their motivation and what are attributing factors to their resistance to change . With the understanding gained from my customers , I shared stories about these customers to my stakeholders , helping them understand the peril of the current state and place them into a frame of investment to solve the problem at hand - visualizing a state where these senior customers can grow and evolve in a manner that is personalized and assistive to their context . Augmenting data , facts and recommendations to the story helps to drive the thinking forward , paving possibilities of solutions that will lift the current barriers imposed by these customers . Application Collating the data from interviews and slices from service audits , I built a narrative of how our senior customers are experiencing our service , building a shared understanding and empathy for this group of archetypes . My audiences are mainly directors and senior managers , so I had to explain my story in relation to business importance by augmenting sales data involved and painting the pitfalls of customer detraction , along with the beneﬁts of nurturing the customer through their lifecycle even at a senior stage . I started with a story about our primary persona , Javier who had invested in learning our products since his youth days and over time became a proponent of our brand . However with the fast changing technological landscape and software changes , he has diﬃculty catching up and is feeling left behind . Although he is still engaged with our company , he is feeling very much disconnected and is hanging on the cliﬀ when it comes to promoting the product he has been using for the past 15 years . Then I contrasted the earlier story with a “ hero ﬂow ” , depicting what an ideal situation Javier will be placed in , how he could “ evolve ” comfortably with our company , and eventually being a strong promoter for the company and inﬂuencing further growth . Insight & Approach Narrating the story of Javier worked really well . I was able to get my stakeholders on the same page . Adding the hard facts from research and data elements of monetization helped the executives concur on the need for investing to solve the problem . This also established a baseline on how similar challenges ( relating to customer lifecycle ) should be addressed and also became a conversation starter on strategies for the next step . For similar context , I would still apply storytelling as the tool of choice given that it helps best in building empathy amongst my audience ; relate who the customer is , how their journey looks like along with their pains and motivations . It ’ll be interesting to apply “ learning launch ” ( something I have yet to experiment ) to determine “ what wows ” & “ what works ” but at this moment , my biggest barrier is changing mindset to adopt innovation and growth and that has to start oﬀ with customer empathy . If there is anything that I would do diﬀerently for storytelling , I would highlight the struggles of the hero ( Javier ) to make it more compelling , along with more practice using this tool .