Reﬂection-Storytelling

Challenges & Selection

I am a Stanford Ignite fellow and one of the subjects we were taught was design thinking.Out of  which storytelling was one tool tool that I particularly liked.Storytelling is a unique tool that we used  a lot in our line of business.Last year we launched a recruitment product namely a job distribution  engine.Before launching it we did our customer validation exercise and based on the feedback we  received we kept on modifying it till we ﬁnally launched it. After the launch we considered a Beta  we wanted to track all our growth metrics to see where we stand after every 2 weeks.  After a  month we observed that growth hasn’t been that drastic.We again followed a survey based  approach and sent it to people who were either our existing customers or potential customers.As it  happened before we received mixed responses and although most of the responses were similar  to the earlier feedback we received there were a few new ones. We then did a feasibility study to  ﬁnd out which changes would actually make sense at that juncture.Next thing we did was to  implement those changes as soon as possible in our recruitment engine.Even after making those  changes after a few weeks we observed that the growth was again not that drastic and although  people were signing up with us they were not ready to use the product on account of several  reasons.In situations like these I have always resorted to storytelling in my previous line of work as  a product manager and it seemed to work every single time I used it.I decided to use it this time as  well and see where it takes us.

Application Now storytelling is an art and if you can effectively practice it then it would take you places. We  decided to do customer visits and got in touch with several customers. We requested them to  allocate us a day when we could come down and sit with them and observe them while they are  working to know more about their business.Most of our customers readily agreed to the  request.Some of the companies that we were targeting were a little reluctant initially but did buy us  some time to interact with their recruiters.We then went ahead and started spending time with our  customers.In this process we extensively practised storytelling as an exercise where we could put  forward our view as a short story so they can see the underlying beneﬁt that they can derive from  our product.At the same time we also asked them to narrate their individual stories. Most of these  recruiters or HR managers had never done something like this before and they readily obliged.  After we heard their stories we realised we had a lot to do when it comes to taking care of the  existing recruitment market.Most of these recruiters never had never done a drill like this where  someone would sit with them and ask them to narrate their stories and it proved out to be quite an  interactive exercise for us.

Insight & Approach After our little exercise we came back to the drawing board to sum up the list of observations we  made all this while.It was ground breaking. There were so many things which did not pop up during  our customer validation phase as the conversations were brief. As opposed to that when we used  storytelling this time we had a volley of observations and insights which we did not realise the last  time. An example being the fact that earlier our customer segmentation did not take into account  the individual needs of recruiters from different type of companies namely large organisations,  medium sized organisations and startups. We found these needs to be dramatically different from  each other which we had not factored in earlier. As we unraveled these individual stories we  realised we’d have to create another product for the niche market which has the necessary budget  to go for a premium product but lacks the time and resources to take care of recruitment. End of  the day these large organisations wanted to recruit rockstar employees who can enhance the  productivity of the organisation.

Now with a string of these observations we made several changes to our existing product and  created another product that could not only be used as a sourcing engine but could also pick up  the best candidate for a speciﬁc job opening eliminating the rest.Right after we implemented that

we saw exponential rise in our customer base and from 400 customers in 2 months we bagged  5000 customers at the end of 5 months. It turned out to be really fruitful for us.

This course provided me with all the necessary literature that I needed if I were to successfully  implement design thinking again in my business and I am extremely grateful to the staff for all the  pains they took.


Reﬂection - Storytelling Challenges & Selection I am a Stanford Ignite fellow and one of the subjects we were taught was design thinking . Out of which storytelling was one tool tool that I particularly liked . Storytelling is a unique tool that we used a lot in our line of business . Last year we launched a recruitment product namely a job distribution engine . Before launching it we did our customer validation exercise and based on the feedback we received we kept on modifying it till we ﬁnally launched it . After the launch we considered a Beta we wanted to track all our growth metrics to see where we stand after every 2 weeks . After a month we observed that growth has n’t been that drastic . We again followed a survey based approach and sent it to people who were either our existing customers or potential customers . As it happened before we received mixed responses and although most of the responses were similar to the earlier feedback we received there were a few new ones . We then did a feasibility study to ﬁnd out which changes would actually make sense at that juncture . Next thing we did was to implement those changes as soon as possible in our recruitment engine . Even after making those changes after a few weeks we observed that the growth was again not that drastic and although people were signing up with us they were not ready to use the product on account of several reasons . In situations like these I have always resorted to storytelling in my previous line of work as a product manager and it seemed to work every single time I used it . I decided to use it this time as well and see where it takes us . Application Now storytelling is an art and if you can effectively practice it then it would take you places . We decided to do customer visits and got in touch with several customers . We requested them to allocate us a day when we could come down and sit with them and observe them while they are working to know more about their business . Most of our customers readily agreed to the request . Some of the companies that we were targeting were a little reluctant initially but did buy us some time to interact with their recruiters . We then went ahead and started spending time with our customers . In this process we extensively practised storytelling as an exercise where we could put forward our view as a short story so they can see the underlying beneﬁt that they can derive from our product . At the same time we also asked them to narrate their individual stories . Most of these recruiters or HR managers had never done something like this before and they readily obliged . After we heard their stories we realised we had a lot to do when it comes to taking care of the existing recruitment market . Most of these recruiters never had never done a drill like this where someone would sit with them and ask them to narrate their stories and it proved out to be quite an interactive exercise for us . Insight & Approach After our little exercise we came back to the drawing board to sum up the list of observations we made all this while . It was ground breaking . There were so many things which did not pop up during our customer validation phase as the conversations were brief . As opposed to that when we used storytelling this time we had a volley of observations and insights which we did not realise the last time . An example being the fact that earlier our customer segmentation did not take into account the individual needs of recruiters from different type of companies namely large organisations , medium sized organisations and startups . We found these needs to be dramatically different from each other which we had not factored in earlier . As we unraveled these individual stories we realised we ’d have to create another product for the niche market which has the necessary budget to go for a premium product but lacks the time and resources to take care of recruitment . End of the day these large organisations wanted to recruit rockstar employees who can enhance the productivity of the organisation . Now with a string of these observations we made several changes to our existing product and created another product that could not only be used as a sourcing engine but could also pick up the best candidate for a speciﬁc job opening eliminating the rest . Right after we implemented that we saw exponential rise in our customer base and from 400 customers in 2 months we bagged 5000 customers at the end of 5 months . It turned out to be really fruitful for us . This course provided me with all the necessary literature that I needed if I were to successfully implement design thinking again in my business and I am extremely grateful to the staff for all the pains they took .