Storytelling – How I used it to create empathy for our   customers 

 Challenge & Selection     After I joined a new company , I was tasked with the further development of a new product that was   released on a rather new market . In my role , I was responsible for a team of developers in the research   and development department . Starting the project , it quickly became apparent , that there was a very   incoherent picture about what further steps should be taken in the future development of this   product . In order to answer this question , I conducted interviews with a diverse group of people as   part of the “ What is?”-phase . One of the key insights , that was revealed during this phase was that the   majority of past and present discussions strongly focused on technical problems that the product   would have to solve going forward . However , what was missing at the time , was the insight of where   these problems came from and why they were important to consider for future development .   Essentially , there was no common understanding about who the customers of this product actually   are , what challenges they are trying to solve with our product and which applications they are having .      “ Storytelling is the difference between solving a problem and creating a cause ” , says Lee Palomino ,   Global Leadership Development Director at Mars Inc.1 Thus , storytelling seemed to be the ideal tool to   create empathy for our customers , their pains and challenges . My goal was to create and use detailed   stories about our customers in order to clarify the cause as the basis on which to decide for new   features and development steps to take for this particular product . 

 Application     In order to learn and to create real - world stories about our customers , their particular pains and   applications and how they use or wish to use our product , I approached and interviewed a large variety   of potential diverse customers . In addition , I conducted interviews with several sales employees , who   shared their insights with me . Next , I had to consider who my audience would be . It turned out , that a   consistent picture about the customers for this product was missing across departments and levels .      Thus , the stories needed to generate value for developers , superiors , marketing and sales employees   alike . They needed to be tangible , short , easy to understand , with a good balance between a high - level   overview about the customers ’ application and technical details . I decided to simplify and abstract the   actual customers into “ personas ” , who could be taken as an example for a larger group of customers .   The personas I created were described with a name , age and occupation , even certain character traits ,   all based on real encounters with our customers . I described their motivation and what they are trying   to do , what their application and particular problem is , how they are trying to solve it and how our   product helps or could help in this endeavor .   I told the stories about our customers in several separate   meetings in smaller groups as well as larger diverse groups , consisting of colleagues from different   departments . 

 1 From Design Thinking for Innovation , University of Virgina , Week 2 , „ Video : Storytelling Tool “ ,   https://www.coursera.org/learn/uva-darden-design-thinking-innovation/lecture/PAXCd/storytelling-tool 

 Insight     As it turned out , this approach was not only beneficial for us in the development department . Here ,   the stories helped me and my team greatly to identify the next steps for the future development of   this product , which was my initial goal . It gave everyone tangible examples on which to base technical   discussions and solution ideas on . The team started talking about how they could solve the problem   of particular personas , even calling them by their names and actively changing perspective from a   technical point of view to the customer ’s point of view . In marketing , the stories sparked new ideas on   how to market the product , which customer groups could be targeted with which topics . The most   unexpected outcome for me was generated in the sales department . Hearing the stories and being   able to relate to the customers and their problems , some sales employees felt a lot more confident in   approaching potential customers . As they now knew more about many of the more common customer   problems , they felt better prepared to enter this still rather unknown market segment . It had a positive   effect on their motivation and even led to people challenging each other about who would probably   make more sales this year . This overwhelmingly positive and unexpected effect generated by the   storytelling tool strengthened my confidence in applying design thinking methods even further . 

 Approach     Having witnessed the strength of the storytelling tool and the value it generated across departments ,   I would choose a similar approach for future development projects . In hindsight , I would probably   combine it more with the visualization tool , in order to bring the personas and their stories more alive   and even more relatable and easy to understand . I will also continue to spread design thinking methods   the best I can amongst colleagues in order to positively influence our mutual way of solving complex   problems in the future . 


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: Storytelling – How I used it to create empathy for our   customers 

 Challenge & Selection     After I joined a new company , I was tasked with the further development of a new product that was   released on a rather new market . In my role , I was responsible for a team of developers in the research   and development department . Starting the project , it quickly became apparent , that there was a very   incoherent picture about what further steps should be taken in the future development of this   product . In order to answer this question , I conducted interviews with a diverse group of people as   part of the “ What is?”-phase . One of the key insights , that was revealed during this phase was that the   majority of past and present discussions strongly focused on technical problems that the product   would have to solve going forward . However , what was missing at the time , was the insight of where   these problems came from and why they were important to consider for future development .   Essentially , there was no common understanding about who the customers of this product actually   are , what challenges they are trying to solve with our product and which applications they are having .      “ Storytelling is the difference between solving a problem and creating a cause ” , says Lee Palomino ,   Global Leadership Development Director at Mars Inc.1 Thus , storytelling seemed to be the ideal tool to   create empathy for our customers , their pains and challenges . My goal was to create and use detailed   stories about our customers in order to clarify the cause as the basis on which to decide for new   features and development steps to take for this particular product . 

 Application     In order to learn and to create real - world stories about our customers , their particular pains and   applications and how they use or wish to use our product , I approached and interviewed a large variety   of potential diverse customers . In addition , I conducted interviews with several sales employees , who   shared their insights with me . Next , I had to consider who my audience would be . It turned out , that a   consistent picture about the customers for this product was missing across departments and levels .      Thus , the stories needed to generate value for developers , superiors , marketing and sales employees   alike . They needed to be tangible , short , easy to understand , with a good balance between a high - level   overview about the customers ’ application and technical details . I decided to simplify and abstract the   actual customers into “ personas ” , who could be taken as an example for a larger group of customers .   The personas I created were described with a name , age and occupation , even certain character traits ,   all based on real encounters with our customers . I described their motivation and what they are trying   to do , what their application and particular problem is , how they are trying to solve it and how our   product helps or could help in this endeavor .   I told the stories about our customers in several separate   meetings in smaller groups as well as larger diverse groups , consisting of colleagues from different   departments . 

 1 From Design Thinking for Innovation , University of Virgina , Week 2 , „ Video : Storytelling Tool “ ,   https://www.coursera.org/learn/uva-darden-design-thinking-innovation/lecture/PAXCd/storytelling-tool 

 Insight     As it turned out , this approach was not only beneficial for us in the development department . Here ,   the stories helped me and my team greatly to identify the next steps for the future development of   this product , which was my initial goal . It gave everyone tangible examples on which to base technical   discussions and solution ideas on . The team started talking about how they could solve the problem   of particular personas , even calling them by their names and actively changing perspective from a   technical point of view to the customer ’s point of view . In marketing , the stories sparked new ideas on   how to market the product , which customer groups could be targeted with which topics . The most   unexpected outcome for me was generated in the sales department . Hearing the stories and being   able to relate to the customers and their problems , some sales employees felt a lot more confident in   approaching potential customers . As they now knew more about many of the more common customer   problems , they felt better prepared to enter this still rather unknown market segment . It had a positive   effect on their motivation and even led to people challenging each other about who would probably   make more sales this year . This overwhelmingly positive and unexpected effect generated by the   storytelling tool strengthened my confidence in applying design thinking methods even further . 

 Approach     Having witnessed the strength of the storytelling tool and the value it generated across departments ,   I would choose a similar approach for future development projects . In hindsight , I would probably   combine it more with the visualization tool , in order to bring the personas and their stories more alive   and even more relatable and easy to understand . I will also continue to spread design thinking methods   the best I can amongst colleagues in order to positively influence our mutual way of solving complex   problems in the future .
### Output: 