Speaker: Devika Ganapathy
Tell us about a time when storytelling had a positive impact on your work.
Devika Ganapathy: We recently did a research study for an online learning platform. Uh And this is one of the leading learning platforms in India, which provides uh you know, coaching for competitive exams, which are a big thing in India. So, uh competitive exams for medicine and engineering. And uh yeah, this uh this study was the, the purpose of this study was to uh talk to students preparing for this exam as well as their parents and try to understand uh you know, their uh behaviors uh as well as any rituals associated with preparing for these competitive exams. Uh and uh identify uh perceptions barriers uh unmet needs experienced by uh these students uh so that our client could uh come up with uh offerings for better learning experiences, right? And uh so uh we did this study and the study was uh a diary study and followed by in context interviews. And uh we spoke to students across uh nine different locations in India. So it was a large study and uh students and parents and uh uh the diary study was over five days followed by contextual inquiries uh sorry in uh in context interviews uh which were 90 minute uh you know, sessions across these uh different locations and uh to frame our findings in an impactful way. Uh We use a framework uh called the heroes uh journey uh framework. And uh the reason why we use this was it just seemed to uh fit very well to this particular uh context. It's a storytelling uh template which involves a hero who goes on an adventure and um you know, goes through different uh challenges and then reaches uh his goal uh changed or transformed and it fit in, fit in uh very well with the journey of a student, uh you know, preparing for these competitive exams. So the hero's journey starts from a call to adventure and ends with new life and resolution. So we started with uh you know, how they actually uh uh go about um deciding that they want to sit for these competitive exams in the first place and what factors actually influence uh this. And uh yeah, ends with uh you know, completing the quest and uh you know, what uh what the way forward for these uh students is. And I think this worked very well uh for this particular context. So um I, I would say that I use uh storytelling as a technique to frame my research, insights for strategic and generative uh research studies because uh it helps to engage the audience better and pull them into uh you know, some of which may not be very exciting uh findings but it just makes the whole thing richer and more engaging. Uh, it's also, yeah, it's, I, I think that's basically, it, it just makes, uh the insights more engaging and easier uh to relate to when it's put into a storytelling format.
Is there anything you want to add about the previous story that you were not able to answer in the five-minute limit?
Devika Ganapathy: Yes, I just wanted to add that. I think uh you know, using a storytelling format also works really well when the audience uh to your research presentation is like a mixed audience. And not necessarily uh just people who are researchers or designers who have done research or design before. So our audience was, you know, a mix of researchers, designers uh people from engineering product. Uh So the storytelling aspect uh helps to engage a diverse audience uh really well, I think, and this client, it was also the first time they were use doing uh user research and qualitative user research. Uh They were coming from a very uh you know, marketing focused perspective. So this helped really helped to engage them and it was very well received because uh we framed our findings within this hero's journey framework.
Now, tell us another story. Tell us about a time when storytelling did not work as you planned/hoped.
Devika Ganapathy: I don't think uh there's been a time where storytelling did not work as uh you know, I planned storytelling always works uh really well. I think the challenge is to know when to use it. So, like I said earlier, I always use uh try to use some element of storytelling in generative uh research. But uh if it's something uh a different type of research, like uh usability testing or uh any kind of evaluative research or also, uh I think depends on like how, how they want to use the findings. So, uh in those cases, I think I would not go for storytelling, it would not be uh well received. Uh Rather I would go for something much crisper to the point, possibly in a format uh which my client could use to quickly uh maybe um prioritize the issues identified in those cases. I think storytelling is uh not required and I don't use it.
Is there anything you want to add about the previous story that you were not able to answer in the five-minute limit?
Devika Ganapathy: Uh, no, nothing else that I want to add.
Is there anything else you would like to tell us?
Devika Ganapathy: I think the other instance of storytelling which comes to mind in my work is uh in context to uh scenarios uh being used in research studies to help participants um imagine themselves in a particular scenario, doing a particular task. And this actually works very well for Indian audiences, uh possibly more so for uh you know, audiences in uh Western uh countries. So there is an interesting uh technique called the Bollywood uh method uh which uh was, which was come up by a person at uh H I uh Mumbai many years back uh which throws some light on why this works best with Indian audiences.
