Luka Stanic 

 johnsondavid@hotmail.com 

 Design Thinking Reflection : Storytelling 

 Challenge 

 In my organization , I am responsible for business development in the EMEA region , but apart from my   core role and responsibilities , I “ wear many hats ” , e.g. organize business conferences and events ,   manage alliances and accounts , create collateral , etc . I work with clients , partners , internal teams ,   external teams and various stakeholders , day in , day out and addressing diverse groups with different   goals , backgrounds , challenges , needs and wants has always been a known challenge , not only for me . I   needed to communicate more efficiently with different stakeholder groups , structure messages and key   takeaways better , create build up and align meeting participants , regardless if they are from Marketing   or IT , around a single vision of the problem we are trying to solve . 

 Selection 

 Unfortunately , I have limited opportunities under the circumstances of COVID-19 global pandemic and   lockdown to practice my new design thinking knowledge acquired during the course , however , luckily ,   storytelling is a design tool I can practice every day on infinite Zoom meetings and it can be applied to   multiple contexts . Apart from the reason mentioned above , we learned from both Barry and   the Chief Learning Officer of Mars Inc. how storytelling is an important design tool and a tool that has   been increasingly leveraged in the business world as every product , service , solution and institution has a   story behind it . A good story in a nutshell is more than just conveying a message that has logic , it has a   larger emotional connection and purpose or i.e. it creates a cause that according to the CLO of Mars Inc.   “ ignites people and unites people ” . Hence , storytelling makes a difference between problem solving and   creating a cause ; it is about taking listeners on a journey where human beings and their experience are   front and center . We as humans respond to stories , which can aid us in gaining deeper empathy of the   present and developing vivid images about the novel future that we are trying to create together . To   sum up , I agree that storytelling is a powerful tool to capture listeners ’ attention and bring stakeholders   of different background together around a common definition of a problem , using clear structure ,   empathy , problem statement and reflection . 

 Application 

 Although , storytelling is typically used in “ What wows ? ” stage , where it is a powerful design tool to share   ideas generated during “ What if ? ” stage , I applied storytelling in a different context , what might be   considered as “ What is ? ” stage of the design thinking process . Furthermore , the example that I would   like to share was on a recent stakeholder call and my application of storytelling revolves around the   notion of aligning stakeholders around a common definition of the problem and the criteria of a solution ,   which we heard numerous times from Barry , is a prerequisite for success . 

 We have been developing client - facing web and mobile apps for one of my clients for almost a year now   and it is time that the apps go live , which requires coordination of multiple stakeholders and a launch   plan . Therefore , I was invited by my client to the app launch kickoff stakeholder meeting with 15 

 Luka Stanic 

 johnsondavid@hotmail.com 

 stakeholders , most of which were from external marketing agencies ; the meeting lasted for 1.5 hours   and of course , nothing actionable came out of the meeting . Most of the external stakeholders had   limited knowledge about the apps , but more importantly , they had no clue about the process , what   problems we were trying to solve and the vision behind our solution . The next stakeholder call we had   with a smaller group and I kicked us off with sharing a compelling story behind the app that had a clear   structure and build up , including context ( what was the current state both related to the market and   client that motivated us to take action ) , vision ( one sentence vision of the problem we are trying to   solve ) , internal and external project goals , overview of the app year - to - date ( what have we developed ,   tech stack , features , etc . ) and lastly , the possibilities for the future , since the launch is just the beginning   of the journey . Having everyone aligned around a clear vision and criteria of building a launch solution ,   enabled us we moved into the “ What if ” phase , where we are currently looking creatively at all the   possibilities and generating ideas on how we are going to launch the app . 

 Insight 

 Storytelling truly is a game changer for me with anything that has to with communication and content ,   whether it is creating a presentation and presenting or communicating to different stakeholders . Overall ,   I think the benefits of storytelling speak for themselves . We have all been on numerous boring   conference calls , uninteresting webinars and dull presentations that we leave exhausted , whereas   hearing a compelling story , on the other hand , is completely different , it moves us , intrigues us and   inspires us ; we leave energized and ready to support its cause . As the CLO of Mars Inc. mentioned in the   lecture that most business leaders nowadays are bored with 90 % of their everyday conversations , this is   especially where storytelling can make a pivotal difference . In my example above , having all the   stakeholders aligned around the same vision and definition of the problem we are trying to solve ,   enabled us to move faster , make meetings actionable and above all , move into the “ What if ” phase and   generate some great “ outside the box ” ideas , which the marketing stakeholders would never had done   based on the limited information and insights they received from the client . 

 Approach 

 I am very much looking forward to trying out the new design thinking knowledge and tools learned   during this course and already have a couple of thoughts related to the existing project : 

 -   Storytelling – by leveraging storytelling on the first stakeholder call could have saved us some   time and effort 

 -   Ethnographic research – reflecting upon a project lifecycle of more than a year long , if I could   redo the ideation phase of our project , I would had applied ethnographic research on end - users   to capture their unarticulated needs , rather than relying only on project stakeholders 

 -   Journey mapping – plan to apply it on end - users once the apps will be live to have a better   understanding how they interact with the apps and what we can improve / streamline 


EMAIL: johnsondavid@hotmail.com, johnsondavid@hotmail.com
ID_NUM: 
NAME_STUDENT: Luka Stanic, Luka Stanic
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: Luka Stanic 

 johnsondavid@hotmail.com 

 Design Thinking Reflection : Storytelling 

 Challenge 

 In my organization , I am responsible for business development in the EMEA region , but apart from my   core role and responsibilities , I “ wear many hats ” , e.g. organize business conferences and events ,   manage alliances and accounts , create collateral , etc . I work with clients , partners , internal teams ,   external teams and various stakeholders , day in , day out and addressing diverse groups with different   goals , backgrounds , challenges , needs and wants has always been a known challenge , not only for me . I   needed to communicate more efficiently with different stakeholder groups , structure messages and key   takeaways better , create build up and align meeting participants , regardless if they are from Marketing   or IT , around a single vision of the problem we are trying to solve . 

 Selection 

 Unfortunately , I have limited opportunities under the circumstances of COVID-19 global pandemic and   lockdown to practice my new design thinking knowledge acquired during the course , however , luckily ,   storytelling is a design tool I can practice every day on infinite Zoom meetings and it can be applied to   multiple contexts . Apart from the reason mentioned above , we learned from both Barry and   the Chief Learning Officer of Mars Inc. how storytelling is an important design tool and a tool that has   been increasingly leveraged in the business world as every product , service , solution and institution has a   story behind it . A good story in a nutshell is more than just conveying a message that has logic , it has a   larger emotional connection and purpose or i.e. it creates a cause that according to the CLO of Mars Inc.   “ ignites people and unites people ” . Hence , storytelling makes a difference between problem solving and   creating a cause ; it is about taking listeners on a journey where human beings and their experience are   front and center . We as humans respond to stories , which can aid us in gaining deeper empathy of the   present and developing vivid images about the novel future that we are trying to create together . To   sum up , I agree that storytelling is a powerful tool to capture listeners ’ attention and bring stakeholders   of different background together around a common definition of a problem , using clear structure ,   empathy , problem statement and reflection . 

 Application 

 Although , storytelling is typically used in “ What wows ? ” stage , where it is a powerful design tool to share   ideas generated during “ What if ? ” stage , I applied storytelling in a different context , what might be   considered as “ What is ? ” stage of the design thinking process . Furthermore , the example that I would   like to share was on a recent stakeholder call and my application of storytelling revolves around the   notion of aligning stakeholders around a common definition of the problem and the criteria of a solution ,   which we heard numerous times from Barry , is a prerequisite for success . 

 We have been developing client - facing web and mobile apps for one of my clients for almost a year now   and it is time that the apps go live , which requires coordination of multiple stakeholders and a launch   plan . Therefore , I was invited by my client to the app launch kickoff stakeholder meeting with 15 

 Luka Stanic 

 johnsondavid@hotmail.com 

 stakeholders , most of which were from external marketing agencies ; the meeting lasted for 1.5 hours   and of course , nothing actionable came out of the meeting . Most of the external stakeholders had   limited knowledge about the apps , but more importantly , they had no clue about the process , what   problems we were trying to solve and the vision behind our solution . The next stakeholder call we had   with a smaller group and I kicked us off with sharing a compelling story behind the app that had a clear   structure and build up , including context ( what was the current state both related to the market and   client that motivated us to take action ) , vision ( one sentence vision of the problem we are trying to   solve ) , internal and external project goals , overview of the app year - to - date ( what have we developed ,   tech stack , features , etc . ) and lastly , the possibilities for the future , since the launch is just the beginning   of the journey . Having everyone aligned around a clear vision and criteria of building a launch solution ,   enabled us we moved into the “ What if ” phase , where we are currently looking creatively at all the   possibilities and generating ideas on how we are going to launch the app . 

 Insight 

 Storytelling truly is a game changer for me with anything that has to with communication and content ,   whether it is creating a presentation and presenting or communicating to different stakeholders . Overall ,   I think the benefits of storytelling speak for themselves . We have all been on numerous boring   conference calls , uninteresting webinars and dull presentations that we leave exhausted , whereas   hearing a compelling story , on the other hand , is completely different , it moves us , intrigues us and   inspires us ; we leave energized and ready to support its cause . As the CLO of Mars Inc. mentioned in the   lecture that most business leaders nowadays are bored with 90 % of their everyday conversations , this is   especially where storytelling can make a pivotal difference . In my example above , having all the   stakeholders aligned around the same vision and definition of the problem we are trying to solve ,   enabled us to move faster , make meetings actionable and above all , move into the “ What if ” phase and   generate some great “ outside the box ” ideas , which the marketing stakeholders would never had done   based on the limited information and insights they received from the client . 

 Approach 

 I am very much looking forward to trying out the new design thinking knowledge and tools learned   during this course and already have a couple of thoughts related to the existing project : 

 -   Storytelling – by leveraging storytelling on the first stakeholder call could have saved us some   time and effort 

 -   Ethnographic research – reflecting upon a project lifecycle of more than a year long , if I could   redo the ideation phase of our project , I would had applied ethnographic research on end - users   to capture their unarticulated needs , rather than relying only on project stakeholders 

 -   Journey mapping – plan to apply it on end - users once the apps will be live to have a better   understanding how they interact with the apps and what we can improve / streamline
### Output: 