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 . 


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 

 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 .
### Output: 