Enzo Richards , Design Thinking for Innovation 

 Example Reflection : Storytelling 

 Challenge 

 I work in Product Design & Development for a consumer electronics company .   Our products typically   perform very well , and receive great critical acclaim , but in general are primarily adopted by an older   demographic .   Our company had done both analytical and ethnographic research , both of which showed   that we had products that customers were aware of , but younger audiences were unable to move past   the consideration phase of the purchase process .   We had tried different advertising , with different copy   as well as more youthful images or scenes , and time and time again they had only managed to barely   move the needle , if at all .   We also saw that there were competitors with similar product sets that were   able to gain more interest ( and later sales ) with their offerings , which made us question what the   differences were and how we could improve .   My team was challenged to look at our product offering   as a whole and find a way to resonate better with the younger demo ( Millennials ) . 

 Selection 

 The challenge was levied upon my team from an executive management council , who knew we were a   group that was very connected with the product , but also had a good deal of understanding of the   problem , given that many team members were millennials .   I preached that we needed to maintain a   sense of consumer empathy , and that while we were at work , it was easy to ‘ drink the kool - aid ’ and   have an inflated view of how we were perceived .   Given our heightened understanding as a team , and   the need to present a compelling argument to make some potentially radical changes to the products , I   knew we would have to use storytelling to provide a convincing argument .   With that in mind , we   worked together to sell the challenge that we had identified , of updating the image of our products to   enable them to resonate more with Millennials . 

 Application 

 Our company had always made really compelling products with fantastic technical prowess , which had   some of the best performance relative to the competitive set .   But what we needed to sell to our   leadership team was the challenge that the Millennial consumer was looking for more than just a   different color palette or video of younger people using older style products .   We used storytelling to   get this point across by referring to similar challenges faced by similar companies in other industries ,   and how they were able to evolve .   Being a bit of a sneaker fan myself , I told our leadership about New   Balance , which is a very strong brand for high performance footwear , but had n’t necessarily resonated   as well with younger audiences .   To combat that , they worked with some specialty designers to update   their products to feature precision , high value materials in updated colors , and made them somewhat   limited to help drive up interest .   I had shared photos of special edition releases that the New Balance   team had worked on successfully , which led to increased exposure in blogs and had kids camping out   overnight to make sure they could buy these limited sneakers .   I also showed that there were other   ways that the team needed to address the entire product selection holistically , and how that resonated 

 Enzo Richards , Design Thinking for Innovation 

 very well .   For example , Nike has their standard releases which are available broadly , but when they do   a really limited release , they update not only the footwear design , but also the shoebox as well , which   really helps the user validate their purchase ( which is often at a premium over the standard offerings ) . 

 As I was sharing this with the leadership , I could see their eyes light up a bit .   Some were surprised , if not   initially confused , about how sneaker culture could relate to our consumer electronics business .   But   through the storytelling about sneakers , the blog posts and photos of the droves of fans that would wait   in line , and even some in person show - and - tell of how truly unique some of these materials and designs   could get , the leadership team grasped the story we were presenting so much so that I was asked to give   it to an extended team as well .   In summary , we were able to present the point that we needed to make   sure we were holistically approaching the entire product experience to enable Millennial consumers to   really want to purchase our products . 

 Insight 

 The team agreed with our conclusion , and that we could no longer expect to just throw a coat of trendy   paint on and think that would get the job done .   There was of course some tension here : how would   these changes impact our current offerings ?   We had to be sure that we did not artificially move the   needle TOO far in one direction , potentially alienating our current core customer .   This led to us   updating our offerings to have unique , limited variations , complete with custom , refined carry cases and   packaging that was more considered and expressive .   The results were extremely positive : not only did   we move the average age down for the updated products , we also were able to get the gender split ,   which had been skewing far more male than female , to be much closer to a 50 - 50 split , which was a   secondary goal of the program .   What I really appreciated was that this was able to impact our entire   design community , and put the focus that was deserved on making sure we spent as much time curating   our design as well as engineering our performance . 

 Approach 

 Being able to tell a compelling story to leadership to help them understand the challenges of appealing   to a millennial audience was definitely the right method to use for our team ’s time and deliverable   constraints .   Given the scale of our company , and the intricacies with our sales and supply chains , a   learning launch may have seemed helpful , but in the end it was n’t realistic enough for us to execute .   If   we had to go through a different Design Thinking tool or exercise , for future innovations I would   advocate doing some mind mapping exercises in order to get a better picture and answer the “ What Is ? ”   question more thoroughly before transitioning into the actual product design and development . 


EMAIL: 
ID_NUM: 
NAME_STUDENT: Enzo Richards, Enzo Richards
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: Enzo Richards , Design Thinking for Innovation 

 Example Reflection : Storytelling 

 Challenge 

 I work in Product Design & Development for a consumer electronics company .   Our products typically   perform very well , and receive great critical acclaim , but in general are primarily adopted by an older   demographic .   Our company had done both analytical and ethnographic research , both of which showed   that we had products that customers were aware of , but younger audiences were unable to move past   the consideration phase of the purchase process .   We had tried different advertising , with different copy   as well as more youthful images or scenes , and time and time again they had only managed to barely   move the needle , if at all .   We also saw that there were competitors with similar product sets that were   able to gain more interest ( and later sales ) with their offerings , which made us question what the   differences were and how we could improve .   My team was challenged to look at our product offering   as a whole and find a way to resonate better with the younger demo ( Millennials ) . 

 Selection 

 The challenge was levied upon my team from an executive management council , who knew we were a   group that was very connected with the product , but also had a good deal of understanding of the   problem , given that many team members were millennials .   I preached that we needed to maintain a   sense of consumer empathy , and that while we were at work , it was easy to ‘ drink the kool - aid ’ and   have an inflated view of how we were perceived .   Given our heightened understanding as a team , and   the need to present a compelling argument to make some potentially radical changes to the products , I   knew we would have to use storytelling to provide a convincing argument .   With that in mind , we   worked together to sell the challenge that we had identified , of updating the image of our products to   enable them to resonate more with Millennials . 

 Application 

 Our company had always made really compelling products with fantastic technical prowess , which had   some of the best performance relative to the competitive set .   But what we needed to sell to our   leadership team was the challenge that the Millennial consumer was looking for more than just a   different color palette or video of younger people using older style products .   We used storytelling to   get this point across by referring to similar challenges faced by similar companies in other industries ,   and how they were able to evolve .   Being a bit of a sneaker fan myself , I told our leadership about New   Balance , which is a very strong brand for high performance footwear , but had n’t necessarily resonated   as well with younger audiences .   To combat that , they worked with some specialty designers to update   their products to feature precision , high value materials in updated colors , and made them somewhat   limited to help drive up interest .   I had shared photos of special edition releases that the New Balance   team had worked on successfully , which led to increased exposure in blogs and had kids camping out   overnight to make sure they could buy these limited sneakers .   I also showed that there were other   ways that the team needed to address the entire product selection holistically , and how that resonated 

 Enzo Richards , Design Thinking for Innovation 

 very well .   For example , Nike has their standard releases which are available broadly , but when they do   a really limited release , they update not only the footwear design , but also the shoebox as well , which   really helps the user validate their purchase ( which is often at a premium over the standard offerings ) . 

 As I was sharing this with the leadership , I could see their eyes light up a bit .   Some were surprised , if not   initially confused , about how sneaker culture could relate to our consumer electronics business .   But   through the storytelling about sneakers , the blog posts and photos of the droves of fans that would wait   in line , and even some in person show - and - tell of how truly unique some of these materials and designs   could get , the leadership team grasped the story we were presenting so much so that I was asked to give   it to an extended team as well .   In summary , we were able to present the point that we needed to make   sure we were holistically approaching the entire product experience to enable Millennial consumers to   really want to purchase our products . 

 Insight 

 The team agreed with our conclusion , and that we could no longer expect to just throw a coat of trendy   paint on and think that would get the job done .   There was of course some tension here : how would   these changes impact our current offerings ?   We had to be sure that we did not artificially move the   needle TOO far in one direction , potentially alienating our current core customer .   This led to us   updating our offerings to have unique , limited variations , complete with custom , refined carry cases and   packaging that was more considered and expressive .   The results were extremely positive : not only did   we move the average age down for the updated products , we also were able to get the gender split ,   which had been skewing far more male than female , to be much closer to a 50 - 50 split , which was a   secondary goal of the program .   What I really appreciated was that this was able to impact our entire   design community , and put the focus that was deserved on making sure we spent as much time curating   our design as well as engineering our performance . 

 Approach 

 Being able to tell a compelling story to leadership to help them understand the challenges of appealing   to a millennial audience was definitely the right method to use for our team ’s time and deliverable   constraints .   Given the scale of our company , and the intricacies with our sales and supply chains , a   learning launch may have seemed helpful , but in the end it was n’t realistic enough for us to execute .   If   we had to go through a different Design Thinking tool or exercise , for future innovations I would   advocate doing some mind mapping exercises in order to get a better picture and answer the “ What Is ? ”   question more thoroughly before transitioning into the actual product design and development .
### Output: 