Page 1 sur 3 

 Storytelling as a Product Management Tool 

 1 . Challenge 

 As a Partner Product Manager and Product Evangelist of a web conferencing product some of main   responsibilities include : increasing the internal and external product adoption and product 

 knowledge , releasing new product versions throughout the year , train staff , create and deliver   compelling messages about the product in terms of differentiators , value proposition , strategy and   vision . All this happens through different forms of direct and indirect communication , from in - person   meetings and presentation to virtual seminars . 

 The biggest challenge in performing all these was the fact that the product I was in charge of was   not proprietary of the company I was working for ( it was a partner product the company wanted to 

 resell and have in its portfolio ) and it was initially hard to get all the excitement around it from the   internal stakeholders whose focus was on the “ in - home ” products . 

 Another challenge consisted in the fact that my product , at first glance , seemed to be very similar   to the other existing products that made up the company ’s product portfolio and some of the most   asked questions at the beginning was “ Why do we need another product ? We ’ve already have too 

 many products . In what this product is different from the existing ones ? How will we sell it to our   customers ? ” These questions were asked not by the Senior Management who were already   convinced about the product ’s value and ROI , but by the hundreds of internal employees from the   different departments I had to work with on a constant basis . Useless to say that no one was 

 motivated to work on “ just another product ” when they were already having such high - pressure with   the existing hundreds of other projects . 

 Therefore , to sum - up , the challenge for me consisted in : capturing the attention , stimulating the   desire for change and convincing by using reasoned arguments . 

 2 . Selection 

 Facing so much internal resistance with regards to the product adoption , the Storytelling tool almost   imposed by itself . I selected it as I knew that people love stories . I knew that with so many other   products within the company ’s portfolio , talking just about the product ’s features and benefits was   not enough . 

 What people wanted to hear was about success stories . Success stories and different narratives 

 that will create a strong link between the product and the internal stakeholders seemed to be the   key that will help me differentiate the product from the existing one , build a “ sympathy ” capital among   the teams I had to work with , promote strong employees ’ identification with the product and capture 

 their attention . I also wanted the Sales Teams to be inspired by these stories and use them with their   prospects and customers in order to capture even more sales . 

 Page 2 sur 3 

 3 . Application 

 Therefore , the way I decided to apply the Storytelling tool was through almost all the relevant 

 product and company written and non - written supports such as : customer testimonials and stories ,   product presentations and launches , the sales elevator pitch , product sheets , springboard stories ,   website and social media content , different speeches , product workshops and product training   depending on the department I was working with … and the list can go on . 

 However , it ’s good to mention that before starting to use this tool , a real groundwork had been done 

 on the key messages in order to create good momentum and engagement . The idea was to appeal   to the stakeholders ’’ emotions so that they can build themselves the path that will lead them to the   logic of the arguments , become more receptive and especially active players . 

 With regards to the several storytelling elements , I used different elements depending on the factors   and circumstances , the supports used and the audience : 

 -   dynamic user stories in simple , accessible and fluid language , action , beautiful images ,   colour and other elements that stimulated their 5 senses 

 -   I made use of emotions such as passion , joy , curiosity , suspense and surprise   -   I gave examples of experiences that were similar to their own experiences   -   I used a confident , positive and/or humorous tone   -   I used movie scenes , legends and even stories for children 

 The use of metaphors and anecdotes when discussing about the product became a second reflex   in all the conversations I had with ALL the internal and external stakeholders . 

 The results with the product were fantastic : the product has been adopted at 100 % , it became the 

 n ° 1 product in the company with a monthly and year - on - year triple - digit sales increase but   moreover , everybody in the company became an active player and gave their best in terms of time   and effort when working on several product projects . Everybody in the company was happy ,   motivated and proud to be associated with the product . In fact , they became story - tellers   themselves . 

 4 . Insight 

 Even if I somehow intuitively knew it before , storytelling is an extremely powerful tool . As children 

 we love stories and as adults … nothing actually changes . As adults we enjoy stories as much as   children do the only difference probably consisting in the degree of awareness . Maybe this is the   reason we enjoy stories even more as adults , because it appeals to our childhood and our child   dreams . And because of the emotional link stories create . 

 And today , the opportunities for storytelling are even greater thanks to blogs , websites , social 

 networks and other platforms that keep the emotion alive by allowing direct interactions with the   social communities . 

 Page 3 sur 3 

 In my case , the storytelling tool helped me also to appeal the intrinsic motivation of people by making 

 them feel like are part of something bigger . What I also like about stories is that there are easier to   remember and to transmit further . Thus , the storytelling , along with the sharing , the community and   the emotion involved create such beautiful synergies at a workplace . They have an impact in creating   meaning and purpose in people that no other tool really has . 

 For meetings and different presentations , storytelling has also the power of acting as an ice - breaker   which instantly creates a friendly and permissive climate among participants . 

 Storytelling is an art and the secret ingredient to storytelling is empathy . The more empathy the 

 better the story . Or , without empathy there is no story . This is where storytelling as design thinking   tool finds all its meaning and integrates perfectly at all level of the design thinking approach . 

 5 . Approach 

 Because storytelling can be applied at all levels of communication and with different audiences , the   next time , the idea will be to link everything together in a very deliberate and fluid way : the   visualisation tool and the storytelling , then the storytelling with the projective techniques , the mind   mapping , the brainstorming and the learning launches tools for example . 

 I am strongly convinced that making use of the storytelling along with all the other design thinking 

 tools will create powerful synergies as all these tools build in fact upon each other . And when   integrated within the clear sequence of design thinking steps : “ what is ? what if ? what wows ? what   works ? ” , this sequence of steps is what will move the story from the beginning to the end , just like a   smooth process where everything falls into place . 


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: Page 1 sur 3 

 Storytelling as a Product Management Tool 

 1 . Challenge 

 As a Partner Product Manager and Product Evangelist of a web conferencing product some of main   responsibilities include : increasing the internal and external product adoption and product 

 knowledge , releasing new product versions throughout the year , train staff , create and deliver   compelling messages about the product in terms of differentiators , value proposition , strategy and   vision . All this happens through different forms of direct and indirect communication , from in - person   meetings and presentation to virtual seminars . 

 The biggest challenge in performing all these was the fact that the product I was in charge of was   not proprietary of the company I was working for ( it was a partner product the company wanted to 

 resell and have in its portfolio ) and it was initially hard to get all the excitement around it from the   internal stakeholders whose focus was on the “ in - home ” products . 

 Another challenge consisted in the fact that my product , at first glance , seemed to be very similar   to the other existing products that made up the company ’s product portfolio and some of the most   asked questions at the beginning was “ Why do we need another product ? We ’ve already have too 

 many products . In what this product is different from the existing ones ? How will we sell it to our   customers ? ” These questions were asked not by the Senior Management who were already   convinced about the product ’s value and ROI , but by the hundreds of internal employees from the   different departments I had to work with on a constant basis . Useless to say that no one was 

 motivated to work on “ just another product ” when they were already having such high - pressure with   the existing hundreds of other projects . 

 Therefore , to sum - up , the challenge for me consisted in : capturing the attention , stimulating the   desire for change and convincing by using reasoned arguments . 

 2 . Selection 

 Facing so much internal resistance with regards to the product adoption , the Storytelling tool almost   imposed by itself . I selected it as I knew that people love stories . I knew that with so many other   products within the company ’s portfolio , talking just about the product ’s features and benefits was   not enough . 

 What people wanted to hear was about success stories . Success stories and different narratives 

 that will create a strong link between the product and the internal stakeholders seemed to be the   key that will help me differentiate the product from the existing one , build a “ sympathy ” capital among   the teams I had to work with , promote strong employees ’ identification with the product and capture 

 their attention . I also wanted the Sales Teams to be inspired by these stories and use them with their   prospects and customers in order to capture even more sales . 

 Page 2 sur 3 

 3 . Application 

 Therefore , the way I decided to apply the Storytelling tool was through almost all the relevant 

 product and company written and non - written supports such as : customer testimonials and stories ,   product presentations and launches , the sales elevator pitch , product sheets , springboard stories ,   website and social media content , different speeches , product workshops and product training   depending on the department I was working with … and the list can go on . 

 However , it ’s good to mention that before starting to use this tool , a real groundwork had been done 

 on the key messages in order to create good momentum and engagement . The idea was to appeal   to the stakeholders ’’ emotions so that they can build themselves the path that will lead them to the   logic of the arguments , become more receptive and especially active players . 

 With regards to the several storytelling elements , I used different elements depending on the factors   and circumstances , the supports used and the audience : 

 -   dynamic user stories in simple , accessible and fluid language , action , beautiful images ,   colour and other elements that stimulated their 5 senses 

 -   I made use of emotions such as passion , joy , curiosity , suspense and surprise   -   I gave examples of experiences that were similar to their own experiences   -   I used a confident , positive and/or humorous tone   -   I used movie scenes , legends and even stories for children 

 The use of metaphors and anecdotes when discussing about the product became a second reflex   in all the conversations I had with ALL the internal and external stakeholders . 

 The results with the product were fantastic : the product has been adopted at 100 % , it became the 

 n ° 1 product in the company with a monthly and year - on - year triple - digit sales increase but   moreover , everybody in the company became an active player and gave their best in terms of time   and effort when working on several product projects . Everybody in the company was happy ,   motivated and proud to be associated with the product . In fact , they became story - tellers   themselves . 

 4 . Insight 

 Even if I somehow intuitively knew it before , storytelling is an extremely powerful tool . As children 

 we love stories and as adults … nothing actually changes . As adults we enjoy stories as much as   children do the only difference probably consisting in the degree of awareness . Maybe this is the   reason we enjoy stories even more as adults , because it appeals to our childhood and our child   dreams . And because of the emotional link stories create . 

 And today , the opportunities for storytelling are even greater thanks to blogs , websites , social 

 networks and other platforms that keep the emotion alive by allowing direct interactions with the   social communities . 

 Page 3 sur 3 

 In my case , the storytelling tool helped me also to appeal the intrinsic motivation of people by making 

 them feel like are part of something bigger . What I also like about stories is that there are easier to   remember and to transmit further . Thus , the storytelling , along with the sharing , the community and   the emotion involved create such beautiful synergies at a workplace . They have an impact in creating   meaning and purpose in people that no other tool really has . 

 For meetings and different presentations , storytelling has also the power of acting as an ice - breaker   which instantly creates a friendly and permissive climate among participants . 

 Storytelling is an art and the secret ingredient to storytelling is empathy . The more empathy the 

 better the story . Or , without empathy there is no story . This is where storytelling as design thinking   tool finds all its meaning and integrates perfectly at all level of the design thinking approach . 

 5 . Approach 

 Because storytelling can be applied at all levels of communication and with different audiences , the   next time , the idea will be to link everything together in a very deliberate and fluid way : the   visualisation tool and the storytelling , then the storytelling with the projective techniques , the mind   mapping , the brainstorming and the learning launches tools for example . 

 I am strongly convinced that making use of the storytelling along with all the other design thinking 

 tools will create powerful synergies as all these tools build in fact upon each other . And when   integrated within the clear sequence of design thinking steps : “ what is ? what if ? what wows ? what   works ? ” , this sequence of steps is what will move the story from the beginning to the end , just like a   smooth process where everything falls into place .
### Output: 