Reflection : Storytelling Application 

 Challenge 

 The clients we tend to work with in my company , a small consulting firm for growing 

 businesses , are small to medium busines owners that are starting to experience   significant growth . They still have a small business mentality , used to micromanaging   everything themselves . This makes them lack a big picture mentality and see everything   as a small set of problem , disconnected form each other and without a larger vison for   their company and an idea of where they want to go as a company now that they are   leaving the beginner playing field . They have n’t really understood their business beyond   their initial instinct of wanting to create a product or service and produce it and they   struggle to develop beyond that initial stage . If they have new clients beyond their initial   target group , they are often unaware of them , if they have adjacencies , they are also often   unaware of their existence or how to exploit them . 

 Selection 

 I choose storytelling for these types of clients because it allows them to see the clients   and opportunities that their growth can provided them . Storytelling is the creation of a   cause , a greater narrative beyond a simple problem / solution dynamic . It is customer   centric and searches for their experience , their needs , and their views on both their life ’s   and the product that they are engaging with . Using storytelling with our clients allows them   to articulate a vison of what their company is and where it is going through the creation   of a unified story for the purpose of their company . Most of our clients have never created   a story for why they created their company , what they hope to achieve and how they see   their clients . I also choose storytelling because in certain cases it is a tool , they can use   themselves , depending on their business , to interview their clients and apply it   themselves . 

 Application 

 The best example for how I applied the storytelling tool , is with a client whose company   was a medium , but quickly growing , IT firm .   The company was obsessed with analyzing   every single decision , including things as trivial as cleaning supplies for the office , at every   level , from the person actually in charge of the activity , into his supervisor and then the   founder . At the time of our work with them they had a 3 - layer structure . They had very   little autonomy at the bottom 2 levels . This had brought the company to a state of   perpetual paralysis . They were over emphasized on small process , seeing everything as   induvial problems without connection to the issues their peers had or an overall strategy   for the company . They dealt with every client and issue in a piecemeal fashion and had   to common view to what their purpose or strengths where . This has resulted in their   growth coming form word of mouth form stablished clients that could see that they were   actually good at their jobs but now from new independent client given their poor sales   ability . 

 The way we solved this was by bringing the founder and his manager independently and   making them interview some of their clients with a premade questionnaire in addition for   follow up questions they might have in the moment , we also   told them to ensure that they   only talked 1 minute at most for every 2 minutes there clients talked . The questionnaire   revolved about finding out what their clients needed to commit to further spending on IT ,   how they saw the company and what they valued about them . We also told our client to   ensure that they never talked about specific products they had but to keep the company   discussion in a more general area , to ensure this did n’t devolve into an interview about   specific product performances . Finally , we brought the managers and the founder   together and made them exchange what they had learn into a story of what their company   is and what they are valued for . 

 Insight 

 There were a couple of insight gained for the client and one main one for me . The main   insight the client learned was that what their own clients valued most about them was the   personal touch they received from them . They liked their product but above all they valued   the fact that for them their IT providers were n’t a faceless multinational with a help desk .   They were known faces , people they communicated with on a first name basis . People   that were willing an able to go with their clients through any questions they might have   without billing them froe vey single hour o time spent , that cared enough to congratulate   them on birthdays , and rush to their aide when they had an unforeseen emergency . Our   IT company clients had though that their strength was in their product , but it truly was in   their service . That has been their challenge with sales , they has been emphasizing to   prospective clients their product without telling them how they would implement them ,   how they would support them . This made them look as just another IT provider , without   the benefits of size but also without the benefits of personalized service . 

 For me the greatest insight was the importance of empathy . Empathy with you coworkers ,   empathy with you client . Being connected to the non - technical aspects of the business ,   the emotional connection one has with clients . The bonds of trust are often overlooked   but are a stronger link that most people assume . This increased my regard for design   thinking because it is a process that allows the inclusion of such non - quantitative aspects   of business that most other processes ignore . 

 Approach 

 If I ha to deal with the same client again I believe I would still use the storytelling tool for   them . It was effective in helping them realize their unknow strengths , in giving them a   vison for the company and bringing them outside their focus on minutia and technical   aspects . What I would change would be to add the Mind Mapping tool as well to the   process . Including some Mind Mapping between the managers before and after the   interviews would have probably clarified their new joint vison even further and might have   given a couple of extra insights . 


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 Application 

 Challenge 

 The clients we tend to work with in my company , a small consulting firm for growing 

 businesses , are small to medium busines owners that are starting to experience   significant growth . They still have a small business mentality , used to micromanaging   everything themselves . This makes them lack a big picture mentality and see everything   as a small set of problem , disconnected form each other and without a larger vison for   their company and an idea of where they want to go as a company now that they are   leaving the beginner playing field . They have n’t really understood their business beyond   their initial instinct of wanting to create a product or service and produce it and they   struggle to develop beyond that initial stage . If they have new clients beyond their initial   target group , they are often unaware of them , if they have adjacencies , they are also often   unaware of their existence or how to exploit them . 

 Selection 

 I choose storytelling for these types of clients because it allows them to see the clients   and opportunities that their growth can provided them . Storytelling is the creation of a   cause , a greater narrative beyond a simple problem / solution dynamic . It is customer   centric and searches for their experience , their needs , and their views on both their life ’s   and the product that they are engaging with . Using storytelling with our clients allows them   to articulate a vison of what their company is and where it is going through the creation   of a unified story for the purpose of their company . Most of our clients have never created   a story for why they created their company , what they hope to achieve and how they see   their clients . I also choose storytelling because in certain cases it is a tool , they can use   themselves , depending on their business , to interview their clients and apply it   themselves . 

 Application 

 The best example for how I applied the storytelling tool , is with a client whose company   was a medium , but quickly growing , IT firm .   The company was obsessed with analyzing   every single decision , including things as trivial as cleaning supplies for the office , at every   level , from the person actually in charge of the activity , into his supervisor and then the   founder . At the time of our work with them they had a 3 - layer structure . They had very   little autonomy at the bottom 2 levels . This had brought the company to a state of   perpetual paralysis . They were over emphasized on small process , seeing everything as   induvial problems without connection to the issues their peers had or an overall strategy   for the company . They dealt with every client and issue in a piecemeal fashion and had   to common view to what their purpose or strengths where . This has resulted in their   growth coming form word of mouth form stablished clients that could see that they were   actually good at their jobs but now from new independent client given their poor sales   ability . 

 The way we solved this was by bringing the founder and his manager independently and   making them interview some of their clients with a premade questionnaire in addition for   follow up questions they might have in the moment , we also   told them to ensure that they   only talked 1 minute at most for every 2 minutes there clients talked . The questionnaire   revolved about finding out what their clients needed to commit to further spending on IT ,   how they saw the company and what they valued about them . We also told our client to   ensure that they never talked about specific products they had but to keep the company   discussion in a more general area , to ensure this did n’t devolve into an interview about   specific product performances . Finally , we brought the managers and the founder   together and made them exchange what they had learn into a story of what their company   is and what they are valued for . 

 Insight 

 There were a couple of insight gained for the client and one main one for me . The main   insight the client learned was that what their own clients valued most about them was the   personal touch they received from them . They liked their product but above all they valued   the fact that for them their IT providers were n’t a faceless multinational with a help desk .   They were known faces , people they communicated with on a first name basis . People   that were willing an able to go with their clients through any questions they might have   without billing them froe vey single hour o time spent , that cared enough to congratulate   them on birthdays , and rush to their aide when they had an unforeseen emergency . Our   IT company clients had though that their strength was in their product , but it truly was in   their service . That has been their challenge with sales , they has been emphasizing to   prospective clients their product without telling them how they would implement them ,   how they would support them . This made them look as just another IT provider , without   the benefits of size but also without the benefits of personalized service . 

 For me the greatest insight was the importance of empathy . Empathy with you coworkers ,   empathy with you client . Being connected to the non - technical aspects of the business ,   the emotional connection one has with clients . The bonds of trust are often overlooked   but are a stronger link that most people assume . This increased my regard for design   thinking because it is a process that allows the inclusion of such non - quantitative aspects   of business that most other processes ignore . 

 Approach 

 If I ha to deal with the same client again I believe I would still use the storytelling tool for   them . It was effective in helping them realize their unknow strengths , in giving them a   vison for the company and bringing them outside their focus on minutia and technical   aspects . What I would change would be to add the Mind Mapping tool as well to the   process . Including some Mind Mapping between the managers before and after the   interviews would have probably clarified their new joint vison even further and might have   given a couple of extra insights .
### Output: 