REFLECTION – STORYTELLING

Challenge    As the Business Development Manager of a large Consulting & System Integration firm, I have been  asked by a Prospect Customer to make a proposal for preparing, according to their needs, a set of  detailed requirements regarding the development of a new e-commerce portal. Then we should  have used these requirements for a complete technical feasibility study, including an estimated  budget for the development and for the running phase.

The Prospect Customer is the Management Board of an association which groups several networks  of durable consumer goods resellers and the portal to be developed should allow each associate to  easily publish information regarding their stock and their special offers, to be searched, consulted  and, hopefully bought, by buyers from the Consumer market.

My colleagues and me strongly believed that the main key to win this assignment should had been  the proposal of innovative and attractive ways to enable our Customer’s associates, generally Sales  Reps. without particular experience in Information Technology, to imagine and clearly express a set  of requirements leading the development of a portal that would outstand from the competition of  similar marketplaces.

Selection

According to our experience, Storytelling is a really powerful tool for helping the stakeholders of a  project to express their requirements, particularly in case they are unclear and/or related to a brand  new product.

In Information & Communication Technology industry, one the most effective form of Storytelling  is the so-called “User Stories”. User stories are simple but structured forms of Storytelling that  enable to capture the features of a new Information System from the end-user perspective. User  stories can be used to express both functional and non-functional (e.g. performance or security  requirements) requirements.

According to Mike Cohn (“User Stories Applied: For Agile Software Development”, Addison Wesley  2004) the suggested format is “As a (role) I want (something) so that (benefit)”.

Once gathered from the Project Stakeholders, User Stories can be categorized and collected in a  prioritized list, that can be used for System Development purpose.

So, our proposal was centered about working as a team of enabling consultants, organizing a set of  workshops with representatives of the population of our Prospect’s associates, finalized to gather  and collect the needed set of User Stories.

Since a pivotal category of stakeholders, the representatives of Consumer Market (the “buyers”)  couldn’t be included, we also decided to use the technique of defining some “Personas”: fictional  characters that describe an organization’s customers behavior1. Then we also proposed that the  attendees to each workshop will also act as some “Persona”, describing their own stories.

1 An interesting example of using personas can be found here:  https://digital.gov/2015/04/06/using-personas-to- better-understand-customers-usa-gov-case-study/

Application

To prepare a concrete proposal, we decided to segment our stakeholders according to categories  like:

-  Dealer size,

-  Region,

-  Represented Brands,

-  Customer Segment,

-  …

Each one of these categories would have represented a specific workshop, where to gather User  Stories from our customer’s stakeholder as well as a predefined set of Personas. This led us to about  ten workshops, plus one introductory with our Customer’s Management, to agree with the  segmentation, the description of personas and the script of the stories. During each workshop we  also proposed to use sticky notes on whiteboards preformatted with a user story format.

We also previewed a final workshop in order to agree on the prioritized collection of User Stories.

Finally, according to this collection, our System Specialists would have been able to prepare a  technical feasibility study, together with a time/cost estimate, as required.

Insights

Thanks to this approach we have been able not only to win the assignment, but also to complete it  on-time and on-budget, as well as with a complete satisfaction by our customer.

This strengthened our belief about the effectiveness of this kind of co-designing a new product  together with the customer, as one of the main practices of Design Thinking.

Once the portal will be completed and running, we will also be able to validate its benefits in terms  of sale increase for our Customer Association.

Approach

One lesson learned from this experience is that we could even more effective, both in persuading  our Prospect and leading the project, with a larger set of tools, like workshop scripts, aids for  segmenting the samples workshops attendees, examples of Personas descriptions, etc…

Then we will spend our next week also dedicated preparing this kind of offer/project collaterals.

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REFLECTION – STORYTELLING Challenge As the Business Development Manager of a large Consulting & System Integration firm , I have been asked by a Prospect Customer to make a proposal for preparing , according to their needs , a set of detailed requirements regarding the development of a new e - commerce portal . Then we should have used these requirements for a complete technical feasibility study , including an estimated budget for the development and for the running phase . The Prospect Customer is the Management Board of an association which groups several networks of durable consumer goods resellers and the portal to be developed should allow each associate to easily publish information regarding their stock and their special offers , to be searched , consulted and , hopefully bought , by buyers from the Consumer market . My colleagues and me strongly believed that the main key to win this assignment should had been the proposal of innovative and attractive ways to enable our Customer ’s associates , generally Sales Reps . without particular experience in Information Technology , to imagine and clearly express a set of requirements leading the development of a portal that would outstand from the competition of similar marketplaces . Selection According to our experience , Storytelling is a really powerful tool for helping the stakeholders of a project to express their requirements , particularly in case they are unclear and/or related to a brand new product . In Information & Communication Technology industry , one the most effective form of Storytelling is the so - called “ User Stories ” . User stories are simple but structured forms of Storytelling that enable to capture the features of a new Information System from the end - user perspective . User stories can be used to express both functional and non - functional ( e.g. performance or security requirements ) requirements . According to Mike Cohn ( “ User Stories Applied : For Agile Software Development ” , Addison Wesley 2004 ) the suggested format is “ As a ( role ) I want ( something ) so that ( benefit ) ” . Once gathered from the Project Stakeholders , User Stories can be categorized and collected in a prioritized list , that can be used for System Development purpose . So , our proposal was centered about working as a team of enabling consultants , organizing a set of workshops with representatives of the population of our Prospect ’s associates , finalized to gather and collect the needed set of User Stories . Since a pivotal category of stakeholders , the representatives of Consumer Market ( the “ buyers ” ) could n’t be included , we also decided to use the technique of defining some “ Personas ” : fictional characters that describe an organization ’s customers behavior1 . Then we also proposed that the attendees to each workshop will also act as some “ Persona ” , describing their own stories . 1 An interesting example of using personas can be found here : https://digital.gov/2015/04/06/using-personas-to- better - understand - customers - usa - gov - case - study/ Application To prepare a concrete proposal , we decided to segment our stakeholders according to categories like : - Dealer size , - Region , - Represented Brands , - Customer Segment , - … Each one of these categories would have represented a specific workshop , where to gather User Stories from our customer ’s stakeholder as well as a predefined set of Personas . This led us to about ten workshops , plus one introductory with our Customer ’s Management , to agree with the segmentation , the description of personas and the script of the stories . During each workshop we also proposed to use sticky notes on whiteboards preformatted with a user story format . We also previewed a final workshop in order to agree on the prioritized collection of User Stories . Finally , according to this collection , our System Specialists would have been able to prepare a technical feasibility study , together with a time / cost estimate , as required . Insights Thanks to this approach we have been able not only to win the assignment , but also to complete it on - time and on - budget , as well as with a complete satisfaction by our customer . This strengthened our belief about the effectiveness of this kind of co - designing a new product together with the customer , as one of the main practices of Design Thinking . Once the portal will be completed and running , we will also be able to validate its benefits in terms of sale increase for our Customer Association . Approach One lesson learned from this experience is that we could even more effective , both in persuading our Prospect and leading the project , with a larger set of tools , like workshop scripts , aids for segmenting the samples workshops attendees , examples of Personas descriptions , etc … Then we will spend our next week also dedicated preparing this kind of offer / project collaterals . ----------