CHALLENGE

I am a Master’s student in the field of Human-Computer Interaction and my interests encompass everything  that is useful, usable and innovative. I firmly believe that innovation means solving people’s problems and as  such, innovation is truly a topic dear to my heart; this is the reason for which I often participate in open  innovation challenges. I recently took part in an interesting one; I was working with a multidisciplinary team  towards the definition of a new product or service that could help a multiservice reality in Northern Italy  insert itself into a new field. The mission of the company is that of promoting the socio-economic and  environmental development of the territory in which they historically operate through the enhancement of  the services in the field of energy. Courage, coherence, and respect are the starting points from which the  drive towards innovation and proactivity stems, always with an eye on sustainability. We were asked to  identify the new field into which the company could insert itself, always keeping their aforementioned  mission and vision as a reference point. Hence, our Smart Hospitality Service was proposed, which envisages  an entire ecosystem dedicated to the Hospitality industry (a thriving one in the specific region of interest)  that aims at offering an innovative and sustainable experience of consumption. The real challenge, though,  was properly and thoroughly communicating this new service proposal (we designed the entire service  blueprint and business plan) to a very down-to-earth and historically unchanged reality. My team and I feared  that our innovative service idea would not be understood, especially considering the time limitation given by  the short presentation pitch that we were allowed. Thus, our final challenge was not only finding and defining  a new journey for such a deep-rooted reality but being able to convey the real value of our proposition in a  really short pitch.

SELECTION

As I previously mentioned I believe that the true value of innovation lies in what it can bring to people’s lives.  The reason for which, our communication wanted to focus on our service’s value proposition for the people,  the final consumers of our proposal. Considering this premise, my humanistic background came to help and  I proposed to my team the use of storytelling as a way to pitch our idea as well as to present the findings of  our background research and our customer validation. Given the human-centered perspective we had  adopted in the design of our service and in the validation of our idea, it seemed obvious that narration was  the best way to go. The stories we heard about, the voices we interviewed, the people we talked with  deserved to be represented; they all deserved to be put in the spotlight as they were front and center all  throughout our design process. Furthermore, creating a narration captures people’s attention and helps  empathizing with the people, the final customer, thus helping focus some of the more valuable aspects of  the whole project – which, given the very short time at our disposal, was necessary.

APPLICATION

We used storytelling as a tool to deconstruct, reconstruct, and highlight insights found during our three- months work. Firstly, our human-centered perspective and the adoption of qualitative research  methodologies guided us in the definition of customers’ personas. Personas are a design tool to facilitate  target analysis and are usually developed around people’s archetypes. What makes personas effective tools,  though, is the narration. Personas work because they support storytelling, they help create scenarios and  give meaning to actions and tasks (e.g. they help explaining people’s rationale behind the adoption of a  specific product and/or service, they support the value proposition by underlining how a product and/or  service work in favor of the person to which they are aimed by relieving their pain points). Secondly, we  designed two different customer journeys to outline the final service’s delivery: one for our primary  customers, i.e. the hotels, and one for our secondary customers and final users, the hotels’ guests. Again,  personas and scenarios, as well as customer journeys, are simply tools – powerful ones, sure, but still tools;  what made it possible for us to communicate their content so effectively was the narrative approach we  undertook to present them. Personas and journeys, without a scenario, a narration to support them, risk to

become just blank canvas to simply fill out with information. Our narration weaved together into a  comprehensive story the service experience for both our targets in the most holistic way possible, from the  awareness of the new product to the retention of the brand we intended to create. Furthermore, our  narrative approach was mostly supported by a visual attitude; everything was presented through images,  videos (we transformed our story in a very emotion provoking spot) or mid-fidelity prototypes.

INSIGHT

First and foremost, what storytelling, especially visually implemented, was able to help us with was empathy.  The company that presented us with our challenge could really get to know the people we were working for  and with during the design of our innovative service, and in doing so they were able to gain insights and a  deep understanding of our service’s value proposition. Narration creates a shared symbolism, a shared  language and thus, reciprocal understanding; between the service designers and the people, between the  company and their business unit and the people, between us, the service designers, and the company. I  honestly believe that without storytelling we would not have been able to communicate all the details of our  idea in that small frame of time and with so much efficacy. I feel like the spark of recognition of shared  feelings and experiences I was able to notice in the CEO’s eyes while he was watching our spot (i.e. our users’  stories, narrated) would have not been there if we were just to describe our qualitative research findings to  him. Ultimately, I also feel that our human-centered approach, our advocacy for users and customers, our  narrative aptitude, were very impactful factors on the result of our challenge: we won.

APPROACH

Ultimately, I don’t think I would change our choice of using storytelling to pitch our service blueprint and our  value proposition. Telling a story, narrating our research insights, as well as how our new service  implementation would fit into that narration, really helped me and my team get our point across. Storytelling,  and partly visualization, were definitely helpful and the right tools to use in that specific occasion.


CHALLENGE I am a Master ’s student in the field of Human - Computer Interaction and my interests encompass everything that is useful , usable and innovative . I firmly believe that innovation means solving people ’s problems and as such , innovation is truly a topic dear to my heart ; this is the reason for which I often participate in open innovation challenges . I recently took part in an interesting one ; I was working with a multidisciplinary team towards the definition of a new product or service that could help a multiservice reality in Northern Italy insert itself into a new field . The mission of the company is that of promoting the socio - economic and environmental development of the territory in which they historically operate through the enhancement of the services in the field of energy . Courage , coherence , and respect are the starting points from which the drive towards innovation and proactivity stems , always with an eye on sustainability . We were asked to identify the new field into which the company could insert itself , always keeping their aforementioned mission and vision as a reference point . Hence , our Smart Hospitality Service was proposed , which envisages an entire ecosystem dedicated to the Hospitality industry ( a thriving one in the specific region of interest ) that aims at offering an innovative and sustainable experience of consumption . The real challenge , though , was properly and thoroughly communicating this new service proposal ( we designed the entire service blueprint and business plan ) to a very down - to - earth and historically unchanged reality . My team and I feared that our innovative service idea would not be understood , especially considering the time limitation given by the short presentation pitch that we were allowed . Thus , our final challenge was not only finding and defining a new journey for such a deep - rooted reality but being able to convey the real value of our proposition in a really short pitch . SELECTION As I previously mentioned I believe that the true value of innovation lies in what it can bring to people ’s lives . The reason for which , our communication wanted to focus on our service ’s value proposition for the people , the final consumers of our proposal . Considering this premise , my humanistic background came to help and I proposed to my team the use of storytelling as a way to pitch our idea as well as to present the findings of our background research and our customer validation . Given the human - centered perspective we had adopted in the design of our service and in the validation of our idea , it seemed obvious that narration was the best way to go . The stories we heard about , the voices we interviewed , the people we talked with deserved to be represented ; they all deserved to be put in the spotlight as they were front and center all throughout our design process . Furthermore , creating a narration captures people ’s attention and helps empathizing with the people , the final customer , thus helping focus some of the more valuable aspects of the whole project – which , given the very short time at our disposal , was necessary . APPLICATION We used storytelling as a tool to deconstruct , reconstruct , and highlight insights found during our three- months work . Firstly , our human - centered perspective and the adoption of qualitative research methodologies guided us in the definition of customers ’ personas . Personas are a design tool to facilitate target analysis and are usually developed around people ’s archetypes . What makes personas effective tools , though , is the narration . Personas work because they support storytelling , they help create scenarios and give meaning to actions and tasks ( e.g. they help explaining people ’s rationale behind the adoption of a specific product and/or service , they support the value proposition by underlining how a product and/or service work in favor of the person to which they are aimed by relieving their pain points ) . Secondly , we designed two different customer journeys to outline the final service ’s delivery : one for our primary customers , i.e. the hotels , and one for our secondary customers and final users , the hotels ’ guests . Again , personas and scenarios , as well as customer journeys , are simply tools – powerful ones , sure , but still tools ; what made it possible for us to communicate their content so effectively was the narrative approach we undertook to present them . Personas and journeys , without a scenario , a narration to support them , risk to become just blank canvas to simply fill out with information . Our narration weaved together into a comprehensive story the service experience for both our targets in the most holistic way possible , from the awareness of the new product to the retention of the brand we intended to create . Furthermore , our narrative approach was mostly supported by a visual attitude ; everything was presented through images , videos ( we transformed our story in a very emotion provoking spot ) or mid - fidelity prototypes . INSIGHT First and foremost , what storytelling , especially visually implemented , was able to help us with was empathy . The company that presented us with our challenge could really get to know the people we were working for and with during the design of our innovative service , and in doing so they were able to gain insights and a deep understanding of our service ’s value proposition . Narration creates a shared symbolism , a shared language and thus , reciprocal understanding ; between the service designers and the people , between the company and their business unit and the people , between us , the service designers , and the company . I honestly believe that without storytelling we would not have been able to communicate all the details of our idea in that small frame of time and with so much efficacy . I feel like the spark of recognition of shared feelings and experiences I was able to notice in the CEO ’s eyes while he was watching our spot ( i.e. our users ’ stories , narrated ) would have not been there if we were just to describe our qualitative research findings to him . Ultimately , I also feel that our human - centered approach , our advocacy for users and customers , our narrative aptitude , were very impactful factors on the result of our challenge : we won . APPROACH Ultimately , I do n’t think I would change our choice of using storytelling to pitch our service blueprint and our value proposition . Telling a story , narrating our research insights , as well as how our new service implementation would fit into that narration , really helped me and my team get our point across . Storytelling , and partly visualization , were definitely helpful and the right tools to use in that specific occasion .