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Storytelling in A Payroll System Development for a Chain  of Restaurants

By Daniel Almeida  Dec 16th, 2019

1. Challenge  My responsibility was to lead a Product / UX Team in the development of a Human Resources  Product, mainly focused on the Payroll subsystem, for our Company’s customers, which in turn  use our ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) to support a restaurant chain.

Our Company has offices in Palo Alto, California, and in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and the project  should involve people from both Offices.

2. Selection  The main challenge was to bring the team the reality of our customers: what their business is,  what are their needs, what they believe should be improved in the relationship between  Employer and Employees.

Bring to the team information and facts on how a restaurant works, what are their needs, and  why our solution requires a deep understanding of those needs made Storytelling the right  tool for our discovery of “What Is.”

3. Application  The central aspect used was to create sections of our customer story like chapters. From the  hiring process, benefits and deductions, clock-ins and clock-outs, rest breaks, how do they  organize themselves to serve different dinner parties, to how clients tip one or more waiters in  different scenarios. Also, how to issue paychecks, what tax forms issuing along the year, tax  payment, and how to terminate employment contracts.

4. Insight  After sequencing all epics, we then divided them into stories, which are events that occur and  their outcomes. In these stories, we describe the events from the perspective of the people  involved.

The significant insight: the broader the vision of who is who in the Human Resources and  Payroll subjects and why some things happen, the better the comprehension of what can be  improved.

5. Approach  Next time we should use more pictures and videos to present a more detailed vision of our  customer needs.


Page 1 of 1 Storytelling in A Payroll System Development for a Chain of Restaurants By Daniel Almeida Dec 16th , 2019 1 . Challenge My responsibility was to lead a Product / UX Team in the development of a Human Resources Product , mainly focused on the Payroll subsystem , for our Company ’s customers , which in turn use our ERP ( Enterprise Resource Planning ) to support a restaurant chain . Our Company has offices in Palo Alto , California , and in Sao Paulo , Brazil , and the project should involve people from both Offices . 2 . Selection The main challenge was to bring the team the reality of our customers : what their business is , what are their needs , what they believe should be improved in the relationship between Employer and Employees . Bring to the team information and facts on how a restaurant works , what are their needs , and why our solution requires a deep understanding of those needs made Storytelling the right tool for our discovery of “ What Is . ” 3 . Application The central aspect used was to create sections of our customer story like chapters . From the hiring process , benefits and deductions , clock - ins and clock - outs , rest breaks , how do they organize themselves to serve different dinner parties , to how clients tip one or more waiters in different scenarios . Also , how to issue paychecks , what tax forms issuing along the year , tax payment , and how to terminate employment contracts . 4 . Insight After sequencing all epics , we then divided them into stories , which are events that occur and their outcomes . In these stories , we describe the events from the perspective of the people involved . The significant insight : the broader the vision of who is who in the Human Resources and Payroll subjects and why some things happen , the better the comprehension of what can be improved . 5 . Approach Next time we should use more pictures and videos to present a more detailed vision of our customer needs .