Refecton – Storytelling 

 From waitng room to living room – re - designing our theater ’s lounge 

 Challenge 

 In my job as a Controller in a theater , I am ofen faced with a variety of problems caused by artstc , technical and administratve processes and their interacton . While working on the backstage side is already very requiring , the management ofen does not put emphasis on the customer side and just lays down rules without having listened to the users . But partcularly these ofen go through a complex process reaching from buying a tcket untl leaving afer the show combined with the recommendaton to others or getng teased to other shows . In that process it is especially important how they feel in the house before the show and how their feelings are aferwards . When I speak with my colleagues we ofen talk about productons , but rather less about the building and its opportunites . They look for strategies to enhance the atmosphere for VIPs having special evenings at the theater , but never about the feelings people have in general in that building . 

 When I young , going to the theater was always linked to seeing my heroes and I enjoyed that special atmosphere . As I now also have my profession in the theater , I needed to re - think about what makes that locaton so special . I wanted to focus on how we can grasp the customers ' needs   and especially how we can enhance the theaters ' lounge . 

 Selecton 

 That is why I decided to dedicate a certain percentage of my work to think about what our customers need when they visit the theater . While taking the “ Design Thinking ” Course with Shailesh Kumar , I got inspired by how valuable customer insights are . In Week 2 of the course , the presentaton of the tool “ Storytelling ” showed how an inspiring story can motvate the listeners to start a refecton , to start thinking about the subject . As my colleagues in the theater are ofen very busy and do not fnd any tme to come up with new projects or think out of the box . From my point of you , I needed some input for our theater 's lounge redesign . That is why I decided to tell a story : I wanted them to get inspired , think and share their thoughts with me to help me to solve my problem and come up with ideas for our theater lounge . As I wanted to get some intense input , I decided to do a face - to - face situaton . 

 Applicaton 

 My frst interview partner was a young colleague working as a theater manager . As I told her my story – my connecton to this building , how I see and feel it – she answered that she was in theaters from her birth on . Her parents were full - tme working there , so they took her to every rehearsal or to the bar in the evenings . She practcally had her own kid ’s corner . Theater was her home she told me . And she added : “ In the theater , I could live with my parents more intensively than in our empty apartment . Theater was my living - room . ” This word got fxed in my head . Theater as a living room . She could not experience her family life at home , so she re - defned the theater to be a living room . 

 Insight 

 This was a special moment for me and even for her . She refected her job as a theater manager by saying : “ Maybe I need to sometmes think about the theater as I thought before and see my job environment as a huge playground where I can feel comfortable . ” 

 And for me , my eyes got opened for a new thinking about the theater environment and especially the theater lounge . I could start to think broader . Customers have very high barriers by thinking “ maybe I am not dressed appropriately ” or they are afraid of certain rules of etquete . But I asked myself what ’s wrong about feeling “ at home ” , even in a theater ? It ’s not behaving inappropriately , it ’s just feeling more comfortably . So I could think about what people do when they enter their own home and living room . 

 Especially the interacton with this colleague gave a perfect kick of for the whole process of idea generaton . The whole process was heavily valuable for emotonal ideas , as it triggered the personal feelings of the people . So the storytelling tool worked out perfectly for me . For this problem size , it helped a lot , and next tme I will combine it to other tools , like visualizaton , to gain deeper insights in customers ' minds . But storytelling helped me to focus on the redesign of the theater lounge and were then shaped into strategies . 

 Approach 

 We worked out the idea of the living room and created a mult - functonal space for various actvites . It contains food spaces as well as recreaton and conversaton areas in which the introductons can take place . Besides , we built up a working space where students can study in a peaceful atmosphere during the day . As a side efect we can gain them as potental theater visitors . 

 We succeeded by serving diferent needs like recreatng , talking and having food . By storytelling we could broaden the problem and understand the theater as a living room in which all these actvites are possible in parallel . The tool made these ideas accessible and realizable . In the past we have been reluctant about doing partcular things as we did not want to lose customers . But now I know that Storytelling can open the eyes of both sides . Customers maybe can not tell what they are missing , but they probably did not feel comfortable . By talking to certain people , I could link the customers ' problems to a larger purpose and put their unanswered needs into strategies and redesigned the whole space on its emotonal side . For further steps , the other tools like Visualizaton and Mind- Mapping are surely adequate methods . I ’m looking forward to try these out to broaden my expertse in Design Thinking techniques . 

 This will not be my last storytelling project , as I realized my role as a learning mind and gained a powerful new instrument : to simply talk and listen to other people . 


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: Refecton – Storytelling 

 From waitng room to living room – re - designing our theater ’s lounge 

 Challenge 

 In my job as a Controller in a theater , I am ofen faced with a variety of problems caused by artstc , technical and administratve processes and their interacton . While working on the backstage side is already very requiring , the management ofen does not put emphasis on the customer side and just lays down rules without having listened to the users . But partcularly these ofen go through a complex process reaching from buying a tcket untl leaving afer the show combined with the recommendaton to others or getng teased to other shows . In that process it is especially important how they feel in the house before the show and how their feelings are aferwards . When I speak with my colleagues we ofen talk about productons , but rather less about the building and its opportunites . They look for strategies to enhance the atmosphere for VIPs having special evenings at the theater , but never about the feelings people have in general in that building . 

 When I young , going to the theater was always linked to seeing my heroes and I enjoyed that special atmosphere . As I now also have my profession in the theater , I needed to re - think about what makes that locaton so special . I wanted to focus on how we can grasp the customers ' needs   and especially how we can enhance the theaters ' lounge . 

 Selecton 

 That is why I decided to dedicate a certain percentage of my work to think about what our customers need when they visit the theater . While taking the “ Design Thinking ” Course with Shailesh Kumar , I got inspired by how valuable customer insights are . In Week 2 of the course , the presentaton of the tool “ Storytelling ” showed how an inspiring story can motvate the listeners to start a refecton , to start thinking about the subject . As my colleagues in the theater are ofen very busy and do not fnd any tme to come up with new projects or think out of the box . From my point of you , I needed some input for our theater 's lounge redesign . That is why I decided to tell a story : I wanted them to get inspired , think and share their thoughts with me to help me to solve my problem and come up with ideas for our theater lounge . As I wanted to get some intense input , I decided to do a face - to - face situaton . 

 Applicaton 

 My frst interview partner was a young colleague working as a theater manager . As I told her my story – my connecton to this building , how I see and feel it – she answered that she was in theaters from her birth on . Her parents were full - tme working there , so they took her to every rehearsal or to the bar in the evenings . She practcally had her own kid ’s corner . Theater was her home she told me . And she added : “ In the theater , I could live with my parents more intensively than in our empty apartment . Theater was my living - room . ” This word got fxed in my head . Theater as a living room . She could not experience her family life at home , so she re - defned the theater to be a living room . 

 Insight 

 This was a special moment for me and even for her . She refected her job as a theater manager by saying : “ Maybe I need to sometmes think about the theater as I thought before and see my job environment as a huge playground where I can feel comfortable . ” 

 And for me , my eyes got opened for a new thinking about the theater environment and especially the theater lounge . I could start to think broader . Customers have very high barriers by thinking “ maybe I am not dressed appropriately ” or they are afraid of certain rules of etquete . But I asked myself what ’s wrong about feeling “ at home ” , even in a theater ? It ’s not behaving inappropriately , it ’s just feeling more comfortably . So I could think about what people do when they enter their own home and living room . 

 Especially the interacton with this colleague gave a perfect kick of for the whole process of idea generaton . The whole process was heavily valuable for emotonal ideas , as it triggered the personal feelings of the people . So the storytelling tool worked out perfectly for me . For this problem size , it helped a lot , and next tme I will combine it to other tools , like visualizaton , to gain deeper insights in customers ' minds . But storytelling helped me to focus on the redesign of the theater lounge and were then shaped into strategies . 

 Approach 

 We worked out the idea of the living room and created a mult - functonal space for various actvites . It contains food spaces as well as recreaton and conversaton areas in which the introductons can take place . Besides , we built up a working space where students can study in a peaceful atmosphere during the day . As a side efect we can gain them as potental theater visitors . 

 We succeeded by serving diferent needs like recreatng , talking and having food . By storytelling we could broaden the problem and understand the theater as a living room in which all these actvites are possible in parallel . The tool made these ideas accessible and realizable . In the past we have been reluctant about doing partcular things as we did not want to lose customers . But now I know that Storytelling can open the eyes of both sides . Customers maybe can not tell what they are missing , but they probably did not feel comfortable . By talking to certain people , I could link the customers ' problems to a larger purpose and put their unanswered needs into strategies and redesigned the whole space on its emotonal side . For further steps , the other tools like Visualizaton and Mind- Mapping are surely adequate methods . I ’m looking forward to try these out to broaden my expertse in Design Thinking techniques . 

 This will not be my last storytelling project , as I realized my role as a learning mind and gained a powerful new instrument : to simply talk and listen to other people .
### Output: 