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 . 

 ---------- 


EMAIL: 
ID_NUM: 
NAME_STUDENT: 
PHONE_NUM: 
STREET_ADDRESS: 
URL_PERSONAL: 
USERNAME: 

### Task: You are a PII (Personal Identity Information) Detection. Given a essays written by students, you have to identify ONLY the following:
NAME_STUDENT - The full or partial name of a student that is not necessarily the author of the essay. This excludes instructors, authors, and other person names.
EMAIL - A student’s email address.
USERNAME - A student's username on any platform.
ID_NUM - A number or sequence of characters that could be used to identify a student, such as a student ID or a social security number.
PHONE_NUM - A phone number associated with a student.
URL_PERSONAL - A URL that might be used to identify a student.
STREET_ADDRESS - A full or partial street address that is associated with the student, such as their home address.
### Input: 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 . 

 ----------
### Output: 