Design Thinking for Innovation Course Reflection : Storytelling 

 By Vero Reyes 

 Challenge    One of the biggest challenges I face as a Project Manager in the technology industry is keeping   my Clients on the same page as our internal development team , especially in the face of   problems that need to be solved . It can be difficult to find the right balance between over- sharing and collaboration within the Client - Consultant relationship ; you do n’t want to “ cry   wolf ” too early or often , but you also do n’t want your Clients to feel blindsided when a problem   arises that they did n’t see coming .      Specifically , I found when the need for an increase in budget ( e.g. Change Order ) would arise ,   many of my Clients did n’t understand where the need was coming from and it immediately   created distrust that more budget was being requested without a clear understanding of how   we got there . Upon further reflection , I realized that in an effort to present ourselves as   Consultants who had a plan for solving every issue before our Clients were even aware the   issue existed , that I was leaving them out of the entire process of collaboration and problem   solving .     Selection   While there is a temptation as Consultants to only “ put our best foot forward ” in front of our   Clients and shield them from an issue until we have a solution in mind , it became clear that this   approach does n’t foster understanding – especially when the challenges result in the need for   more funding . I realized we were n’t bringing our Clients along for the journey . With this in   mind , I started thinking of ways we can better “ show and tell ” to Clients through the ups and   downs on projects , while still maintaining a productive relationship . The power of storytelling is   an excellent tool to help find this balance . As noted in the course videos , “ It ’s not about a to - do   list ; it ’s about connection ” – and Storytelling is the vehicle for that connection .     Application   As a way of finding a practical way to start Storytelling with my Clients , I rolled out a project   RAID ( Risks , Assumptions , Issues , Decisions ) Log and requested that we prioritize reviewing the   list once a week with Clients . It was imperative that I did n’t just email this list , but instead we   set aside time to “ story tell ” and talk through it front to end so there was both understanding   and co - ownership of risks , assumptions , issues and decisions . This created open communication   to take Clients on the journey with us for all the potential issues I was seeing on the horizon ,   but also proactively talk about potential solutions before issues became a reality . Within the   RAID Log , we would link to reports and projections and use real - time data to help story tell   where we were at and where we were going . In many ways , the seemingly simple review of this   RAID Log provided the foundation for honest collaboration that allowed us to evaluate the hard   data I was seeing and align that to risks and mitigation plans .     Secondly , as also noted in the training course , true Storytelling can only happen when a clear   sequence of events can be followed from beginning to end . With this in mind , we also started 

 including our Clients in our Sprint Planning meetings in which we created Stories and spread   those Stories into Sprints so the Client could visually see what the path forward looked like . This   was imperative to our Storytelling because it allowed the Client to be a part of the planning   process , but also identify risks with us as we were planning together . Previously , we had   conducted these meetings internally . Conducting these meetings with our Clients allowed them   to see how tasks / bugs were laying out across Sprints , how the timeline and budget were   panning out , and ultimately gave us the chance to tell a story of how we saw this working or   not working – and then it gave our Clients the change to become a part of that story early on by   providing us with input and seeing what we were seeing from the get - go .      Finally , if and when an increase in budget or timeline extension was needed , we leaned again   on the data we were gathering from the plan we created . We could calculate Sprint velocity to   help us project whether or not we were going to meet our target . Giving the Client live access   to these reports ensured they always knew where the project was headed .     Insight & Approach   Once I instituted this new approach of transparent “ Storytelling ” with my Clients , and we came   to a point where we needed to extend our project timeline to accommodate some issues we   had encountered , my Clients were much more open to it than they had in the past . In fact ,   there was one Client who pointed out the need for a scope extension to me before I even   approached them on the issue because they had been a part of the Story and following along   with us from the beginning through the use of the RAID Log , ongoing Sprint Planning every 2   weeks , and live reporting . Through the power of Storytelling , the conversation with our Clients   shifted from feeling like a timeline / budget extension was “ happening to them ” to them   proactively managing risks and issues with us , and ultimately allowing the conversation to focus   on solutions and options .      Ultimately , the level of engagement , passion , and collaboration went up despite challenges   because both Clients and Consultants were on the same page of the Story and aware of how we   arrived at both problem and solution . 


EMAIL: 
ID_NUM: 
NAME_STUDENT: Vero Reyes
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: Design Thinking for Innovation Course Reflection : Storytelling 

 By Vero Reyes 

 Challenge    One of the biggest challenges I face as a Project Manager in the technology industry is keeping   my Clients on the same page as our internal development team , especially in the face of   problems that need to be solved . It can be difficult to find the right balance between over- sharing and collaboration within the Client - Consultant relationship ; you do n’t want to “ cry   wolf ” too early or often , but you also do n’t want your Clients to feel blindsided when a problem   arises that they did n’t see coming .      Specifically , I found when the need for an increase in budget ( e.g. Change Order ) would arise ,   many of my Clients did n’t understand where the need was coming from and it immediately   created distrust that more budget was being requested without a clear understanding of how   we got there . Upon further reflection , I realized that in an effort to present ourselves as   Consultants who had a plan for solving every issue before our Clients were even aware the   issue existed , that I was leaving them out of the entire process of collaboration and problem   solving .     Selection   While there is a temptation as Consultants to only “ put our best foot forward ” in front of our   Clients and shield them from an issue until we have a solution in mind , it became clear that this   approach does n’t foster understanding – especially when the challenges result in the need for   more funding . I realized we were n’t bringing our Clients along for the journey . With this in   mind , I started thinking of ways we can better “ show and tell ” to Clients through the ups and   downs on projects , while still maintaining a productive relationship . The power of storytelling is   an excellent tool to help find this balance . As noted in the course videos , “ It ’s not about a to - do   list ; it ’s about connection ” – and Storytelling is the vehicle for that connection .     Application   As a way of finding a practical way to start Storytelling with my Clients , I rolled out a project   RAID ( Risks , Assumptions , Issues , Decisions ) Log and requested that we prioritize reviewing the   list once a week with Clients . It was imperative that I did n’t just email this list , but instead we   set aside time to “ story tell ” and talk through it front to end so there was both understanding   and co - ownership of risks , assumptions , issues and decisions . This created open communication   to take Clients on the journey with us for all the potential issues I was seeing on the horizon ,   but also proactively talk about potential solutions before issues became a reality . Within the   RAID Log , we would link to reports and projections and use real - time data to help story tell   where we were at and where we were going . In many ways , the seemingly simple review of this   RAID Log provided the foundation for honest collaboration that allowed us to evaluate the hard   data I was seeing and align that to risks and mitigation plans .     Secondly , as also noted in the training course , true Storytelling can only happen when a clear   sequence of events can be followed from beginning to end . With this in mind , we also started 

 including our Clients in our Sprint Planning meetings in which we created Stories and spread   those Stories into Sprints so the Client could visually see what the path forward looked like . This   was imperative to our Storytelling because it allowed the Client to be a part of the planning   process , but also identify risks with us as we were planning together . Previously , we had   conducted these meetings internally . Conducting these meetings with our Clients allowed them   to see how tasks / bugs were laying out across Sprints , how the timeline and budget were   panning out , and ultimately gave us the chance to tell a story of how we saw this working or   not working – and then it gave our Clients the change to become a part of that story early on by   providing us with input and seeing what we were seeing from the get - go .      Finally , if and when an increase in budget or timeline extension was needed , we leaned again   on the data we were gathering from the plan we created . We could calculate Sprint velocity to   help us project whether or not we were going to meet our target . Giving the Client live access   to these reports ensured they always knew where the project was headed .     Insight & Approach   Once I instituted this new approach of transparent “ Storytelling ” with my Clients , and we came   to a point where we needed to extend our project timeline to accommodate some issues we   had encountered , my Clients were much more open to it than they had in the past . In fact ,   there was one Client who pointed out the need for a scope extension to me before I even   approached them on the issue because they had been a part of the Story and following along   with us from the beginning through the use of the RAID Log , ongoing Sprint Planning every 2   weeks , and live reporting . Through the power of Storytelling , the conversation with our Clients   shifted from feeling like a timeline / budget extension was “ happening to them ” to them   proactively managing risks and issues with us , and ultimately allowing the conversation to focus   on solutions and options .      Ultimately , the level of engagement , passion , and collaboration went up despite challenges   because both Clients and Consultants were on the same page of the Story and aware of how we   arrived at both problem and solution .
### Output: 