Storytelling for Design Thinkers at Design for America @ NYU
1. Prepared by: Lee-Sean Huang & David Colby Reed | hello@foossa.com | (917) 727-1610Lee-Sean Huang / ls@foossa.com / @leeseanls@foossa.com / @leesean
Storytelling
Promote
How to market and sell
your ideas to your
community
Capture
How to understand
your community’s
needs
Advocate
How to rally your
colleagues around
new ideas
Storytelling for Design Thinkers
Lee-Sean Huang
19. Learning to Listen
A Quick Guide to Empathetic Understanding
By Chloe Tseung, David Colby Reed, and Lee-Sean Huang
20. It sounds elementary,
but even us grown-ups
need an occasional
refresher course on
how to listen, how to
REALLY listen.
Listening is an essential
part of being a good friend,
colleague, lover, designer,
manager, and PERSON.
It’s a prerequisite for
empathy, creativity,
and collaboration.
21. “The most basic of all human needs is
the need to understand and be understood.
The best way to understand people is to
listen to them.”
Dr. Ralph Nichols, Co-Author of Are you listening?
22. “Most people do not listen with
the intent to understand;
they listen with the intent to reply.”
Stephen R. Covey, Author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
23. The Spirit Animals of Listening
Silent
Sponge
Paraphrasing
Parrot
Probing
Puppy
43. “Always design a thing by
considering it in its next larger
context - a chair in a room, a
room in a house, a house in an
environment, an environment in
a city plan.”
– Eliel Saarinen, Finnish-American architect
@leeseanFOOSSA
45. STARLIGHT RUNNERe n t e r t a i n m e n t
MAXIMUM THREE SENTENCES THAT SET’S UP
THE FRANCHISE, NOT JUST A STORY OR PIECE OF MEDIA!
Compare…
A surprise attack in outer space forces the USS Enterprise to crash-land on a mysterious world.
The leader of the assault, a lizard-like dictator who derives his energy by sucking the life out of his victims,
needs an ancient artifact that's aboard the badly damaged starship. Left stranded in a rugged wilderness,
Captain Kirk and the rest of the crew must now battle a deadly alien race
while trying to find a way off their hostile planet…
TO…
Humankind has created a utopia for itself and its alien allies,
but war is an ever-present danger on the frontier, light-years beyond the Federation’s reach.
It is up to members of Starfleet to protect colonists, prevent conflict, and chart the unknown,
bringing hope to the depths of space even as they struggle with their own frailties.
Yet nothing is impossible for those who boldly go where no one has gone before!
LOGLINE
Source: Steele Filipek
46. STARLIGHT RUNNERe n t e r t a i n m e n t
EACH SENTENCE SHOULD SPEAK TO
AT LEAST TWO ELEMENTS OF YOUR STORY,
AS WELL AS A THEME/SETTING
Humankind has created a utopia for itself and its alien allies,
but war is an ever-present danger on the frontier, light-years beyond the Federation’s reach.
1) This is a future where humanity has found peace (Optimism!)
2) War from outside threatens this utopia (Conflict!)
3) Particularly at the fringes, far away (Scope!)
It is up to members of Starfleet to protect colonists, prevent conflict, and chart the unknown,
bringing hope to the depths of space even as they struggle with their own frailties.
1) Starfleet (Military!)
2) Recounts basic needs (Goals!)
3) That are undermined by their own frailties (Utopia ain’t Perfect!)
Yet nothing is impossible for those crews
who boldly go where no one has gone before!
1) They can do it (Uplifting!)
2) So long as they stick together (Belonging!)
3) Tagline (Tagline!)
LOGLINE
Source: Steele Filipek
69. The Inzovu Curve maps a
prototypical journey of a
person going through the
transformative experience of
a museum reaching a state of
motivation and action.
73. MAPPING THE JOURNEY TO ACTION
PAIN PAIN ACTION
At the beginning
there’s a neutral state
before being slowly
introduced to the
context.
If the beginning is too
brutal, people could
feel disoriented and
unable to establish
an emotional
connection.
74. MAPPING THE JOURNEY TO ACTION
PAIN PAIN ACTION
A genocide memorial
is meant to trigger a
profound personal
reaction.
This is a moment of
suffering and creates
a strong emotional
connection to what
happened.
At the beginning
there’s a neutral state
before being slowly
introduced to the
context.
If the beginning is too
brutal, people could
feel disoriented and
unable to establish
an emotional
connection.
75. MAPPING THE JOURNEY TO ACTION
PAIN PAIN ACTION
A genocide memorial
is meant to trigger a
profound personal
reaction.
This is a moment of
suffering and creates
a strong emotional
connection to what
happened.
At the beginning
there’s a neutral state
before being slowly
introduced to the
context.
If the beginning is too
brutal, people could
feel disoriented and
unable to establish
an emotional
connection.
This moment should
happen multiple times
during the experience
itself.
It’s meant as a way to
decompress for
sensible people, and a
space to
think for everyone.
76. MAPPING THE JOURNEY TO ACTION
PAIN PAIN ACTION
A genocide memorial
is meant to trigger a
profound personal
reaction.
This is a moment of
suffering and creates
a strong emotional
connection to what
happened.
At the beginning
there’s a neutral state
before being slowly
introduced to the
context.
If the beginning is too
brutal, people could
feel disoriented and
unable to establish
an emotional
connection.
This moment should
happen multiple times
during the experience
itself.
It’s meant as a way to
decompress for
sensible people, and a
space to
think for everyone.
While genocides are
terrible events, there
are always heroes
that shine through.
These people are
often highly relatable
because are normal
people that do
positive acts.
77. MAPPING THE JOURNEY TO ACTION
PAIN PAIN ACTION
A genocide memorial
is meant to trigger a
profound personal
reaction.
This is a moment of
suffering and creates
a strong emotional
connection to what
happened.
While it’s difficult to
generate action in
each and every
person, this moment
is made possible by
the ones before.
Hope gives examples
to follow and show
how others acted
positively.
At the beginning
there’s a neutral state
before being slowly
introduced to the
context.
If the beginning is too
brutal, people could
feel disoriented and
unable to establish
an emotional
connection.
This moment should
happen multiple times
during the experience
itself.
It’s meant as a way to
decompress for
sensible people, and a
space to
think for everyone.
While genocides are
terrible events, there
are always heroes
that shine through.
These people are
often highly relatable
because are normal
people that do
positive acts.
79. 79
How do you want visitors
to tell your story?
WE ASKED GENOCIDE SURVIVORS AND AEGIS / KGM STAFF
80. 80
“The people of Rwanda died
but the struggle for the spirit
of a dignified and peaceful country
is now promoted, sustained, encouraged.”
SURVIVOR
87. PAVILION &
REFLECTION GARDEN
Give Survivors a
dedicated place for
remembrance and
reflection. A private space
for fellowship and a place
to share messages of
hope and love.
88. COUNSELING &
SUPPORT SYSTEM
AND INTEGRATED
FACILITIES
The Counseling Support
Program will provide Survivors
with much needed services
and facilities necessary for
continued recovery and
guidance.
89. REST POD
A private space that provides
grief recovery, comfort and
respite for those Survivors
overcome by the emotional
strains of their visit.
91. @leesean
Start with “why”
Craft “snapshots” and “storyboards”
Engage the senses and emotions
Allow time/space for reflection
Make a call to action
92. Marshal Ganz
Elements of a Public Story
A story of self: why you were called
to what you have been called to.
A story of us: what your
constituency, community,
organization has been called to its
shared purposes, goals, vision.
A story of now: the challenge this
community now faces, the choices it
must make, and the hope to which
“we” can aspire.
93. Marshal Ganz
Telling Your Public Story
A good story public story is drawn
from the series of choice points that
have structured the “plot” of your
life – the challenges you faced,
choices you made, and outcomes
you experienced.