Stimulating Thinking at the Design Pitch: Storytelling Approach and Impact

The relationship between design and storytelling is a growing field of research, this paper proposes that the next focus within this field should be the relationship between storytelling approaches and their impacts at the design pitch. Determined through a literature review, the following desirable impacts were used to focus conversation during a series of semi-structured interviews conducted with employees from Unilever and Accenture: ‘Delivering Understanding’, ‘Demonstrating Value’, ‘Stimulating Critique’, and ‘Encouraging more Holistic Thinking’. Storytelling approaches and these impacts were discussed in relation to over fifty design pitches. Emergent themes were deciphered through a thematic analysis of the interview transcriptions. The impacts were found to have significant relationships with the following storytelling approaches: ‘Acknowledging Cultural Perspectives and Beliefs’, ‘Diversity/Difference’, ‘Detailing Concept Development’, and ‘Imagery, in particular Analogy’. A summary of these relationships is detailed in a framework entitled: ‘Design Pitch Storytelling: The Impact-Approach Framework’.