Reflection - Storytelling 

 Challenge 

 I took part in the hackathon “ We versus Virus ” by the German government to develop   creative ideas in times of the corona pandemic . My team focused on an app for   neighborhood help because we assumed that especially in bigger cities many people have   no friends / family members nearby to help them in need . Our unique selling point was a   secure payment system , because especially in big cities , people rarely know their neighbors   enough to trust them with their money . We were a group of around 10 people with different   professional backgrounds , nationalities , experiences , and personalities . We only had 48   hours to develop our business idea and summarize our results in a two - minute video that a   jury would later evaluate . 23.000 people took part in the hackathon - organized in 1.500   different project . 

 I was part of the PR - team and part of our job was to produce the final video . 

 Selection 

 Form my work as a consultant I know how important storytelling is to convince the audience   of an idea . Since the jury would see many , many videos we knew it was crucial to stand out   with a clear message , a comprehensible storyline , and a focus on the unique selling points .   Therefore , we decided to use storytelling for our video . 

 Application 

 We developed two characters – a person in quarantine , Anna , and a helper from the   neighborhood , Johann . First , we made a rough sketch showing how Anna and Johann would   use our app . We started with explaining the problem ( Anna being alone and not able to leave   her home due to quarantine ) and then presented , step by step , how our app helps them ( e.g.   Anna and Johann get connected via our app ; Johann does the shopping and receives the   money through our secure payment system ) . 

 Then , we reviewed this first draft and asked ourselves , if the message is logical , easy to   understand and creates emotional connection with the audience . These are also key factors   for a good story according to Andre Martin ( week 2 ) . 

 After agreeing on our basic storyline , we refined our story and added more information .   Finally , we had a good story - getting to the point and conveying our main ideas – and   developed a comic video with our two characters in the main roles . 

 We were very happy to hear that our video has convinced the jury so much that out of   1.000 + submissions they picked our project and our video as winner of the hackathon   ( together with 19 other projects ) . 

 Insight & Approach 

 A good story is key to convince the audience of your idea . In our case we only had two   minutes to present 48 hours of work and stand out among 1.500 projects . I saw many , many   great projects that focused a lot on development and came up with innovative ideas but   acted poorly on selling them in the video . Thus , they were not chosen by the jury for further   support . 

 I like to use storytelling a lot in my professional life . This experience reminds me that it is not   sufficient to have a brilliant idea , but that you must build a strong story around it to be   successful . It found it interesting to hear from Andre Martin ( week 2 ) that it is not only about   solving a problem but creating a cause . 

 Besides a lot of valuable insight in design thinking in general , this course helped me to   reflect about the purpose of storytelling and how to improve the application in real life . 


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 

 Challenge 

 I took part in the hackathon “ We versus Virus ” by the German government to develop   creative ideas in times of the corona pandemic . My team focused on an app for   neighborhood help because we assumed that especially in bigger cities many people have   no friends / family members nearby to help them in need . Our unique selling point was a   secure payment system , because especially in big cities , people rarely know their neighbors   enough to trust them with their money . We were a group of around 10 people with different   professional backgrounds , nationalities , experiences , and personalities . We only had 48   hours to develop our business idea and summarize our results in a two - minute video that a   jury would later evaluate . 23.000 people took part in the hackathon - organized in 1.500   different project . 

 I was part of the PR - team and part of our job was to produce the final video . 

 Selection 

 Form my work as a consultant I know how important storytelling is to convince the audience   of an idea . Since the jury would see many , many videos we knew it was crucial to stand out   with a clear message , a comprehensible storyline , and a focus on the unique selling points .   Therefore , we decided to use storytelling for our video . 

 Application 

 We developed two characters – a person in quarantine , Anna , and a helper from the   neighborhood , Johann . First , we made a rough sketch showing how Anna and Johann would   use our app . We started with explaining the problem ( Anna being alone and not able to leave   her home due to quarantine ) and then presented , step by step , how our app helps them ( e.g.   Anna and Johann get connected via our app ; Johann does the shopping and receives the   money through our secure payment system ) . 

 Then , we reviewed this first draft and asked ourselves , if the message is logical , easy to   understand and creates emotional connection with the audience . These are also key factors   for a good story according to Andre Martin ( week 2 ) . 

 After agreeing on our basic storyline , we refined our story and added more information .   Finally , we had a good story - getting to the point and conveying our main ideas – and   developed a comic video with our two characters in the main roles . 

 We were very happy to hear that our video has convinced the jury so much that out of   1.000 + submissions they picked our project and our video as winner of the hackathon   ( together with 19 other projects ) . 

 Insight & Approach 

 A good story is key to convince the audience of your idea . In our case we only had two   minutes to present 48 hours of work and stand out among 1.500 projects . I saw many , many   great projects that focused a lot on development and came up with innovative ideas but   acted poorly on selling them in the video . Thus , they were not chosen by the jury for further   support . 

 I like to use storytelling a lot in my professional life . This experience reminds me that it is not   sufficient to have a brilliant idea , but that you must build a strong story around it to be   successful . It found it interesting to hear from Andre Martin ( week 2 ) that it is not only about   solving a problem but creating a cause . 

 Besides a lot of valuable insight in design thinking in general , this course helped me to   reflect about the purpose of storytelling and how to improve the application in real life .
### Output: 