JSCreatives-Content

This storytelling assignment presents the evolution of my capstone project on intercultural communication in virtual teams. It narrates the problem, ideation, prototype development, and user testing stages, highlighting key challenges and learnings. The project aims to foster cultural understanding through a user-friendly onboarding toolkit designed for global workplaces.

Five Keywords in alphabetical order.

· Communication

· Culture

· Global Teams

· Inclusion

· Prototype

Introduction

This assignment focuses on creating a storytelling script to communicate the journey of my capstone project, which explores the topic of intercultural communication in global virtual teams. The idea started with identifying communication challenges faced by culturally diverse teams and led to the development of a solution called the Cultural Onboarding Toolkit. Through a step-by-step process, research, ideation, prototyping, and user testing. I created a medium-fidelity Figma prototype to address real user needs. The purpose of this video script is to share the evolution of this idea, highlight key turning points in its development, and reflect on its final impact. The story will also help promote the toolkit as a thoughtful digital solution for modern workplaces.

Storytelling video

In today’s global workplace, intercultural communication in virtual teams has become a growing challenge. Misunderstandings, language barriers, and cultural differences often affect collaboration and productivity. My capstone project addresses this issue by exploring how we can build better communication practices in remote, multicultural teams. Through structured ideation techniques like SCAMPER and Crazy 8s, I generated several creative solutions and selected the most promising one, a Cultural Onboarding Toolkit. This toolkit includes features like a personal culture profile, cultural norms explorer, communication tips, and virtual meeting etiquette. I developed a medium-fidelity prototype on Figma and refined it after user testing to ensure it better supports team members from diverse backgrounds.

Script

Intro

Imagine joining a virtual team where your colleagues are from five different countries. You log in, eager to contribute, but quickly realize—people communicate differently, expectations are unclear, and even small misunderstandings feel overwhelming. That was the inspiration behind my capstone project.

Hi, I’m Prerna Gautam, and I’ve always been curious about how teams work together across borders, especially in today’s digital world. During one of my earlier work experiences in a multinational setting, I noticed how cultural gaps, even in simple conversations, led to confusion, delays, or even tension. It made me think—what if there was a simple tool to help team members understand each other better from day one?

That question became the starting point of my project on intercultural communication in global virtual teams.

Inspiration and Idea Development

The idea didn’t come all at once. It started with a simple observation thatvirtual meetings often left people confused, especially when team members were from different cultural backgrounds. Further case studies helped me to understand more about work culture differeneces. I realized misunderstandings would happen just because people had different ways of expressing themselves, giving feedback, or making decisions.

When I began this capstone project, I knew I wanted to address that gap. I started by researching how culture shapes communication and how companies like Microsoft and IBM handle global teamwork. Once I had my idea, the next step was to explore different ways to bring it to life. I used two ideation techniques like SCAMPER and Crazy 8s. These helped me think outside the box and push my creativity further. With SCAMPER, I played around with the idea of modifying existing onboarding tools to include culture-based inputs. Could we combine personal cultural stories with team training? Could we simplify cultural learning into a few key points? It really helped me reimagine what an onboarding experience could be like.

Then came Crazy 8s—drawing 8 ideas in 8 minutes. It was fast-paced but fun. I sketched rough screens like “My Culture Profile” and “Cultural Norms Explorer.” These sketches helped me see what the user experience might look like and allowed me to test the flow quickly.

Out of more than ten ideas, one stood out, a “Cultural Onboarding Toolkit”. This toolkit would help new employees learn about their teammates’ cultures, understand norms, and prepare for smoother collaboration. The goal was simple: make people feel understood, respected, and ready to work together from day one.

Prototyping the idea

Once the concept was finalized, I moved on to building a medium-fidelity prototype using Figma. The idea was to visually bring the Cultural Onboarding Toolkit to life and make it easy to navigate for global teams.

I designed a welcome screen that led to four key areas:
My Culture Profile – where users could share cultural traits using five guiding questions.

Cultural Norms Explorer – with six clickable country flags, each showing five work-related cultural insights.
Communication Tips – providing quick and helpful advice on working across cultures.
Virtual Meeting Etiquette – outlining simple dos and don’ts for remote collaboration.

Each section was designed to be simple, interactive, and informative. The goal was to encourage empathy and awareness in global virtual teams—making cultural learning a part of daily onboarding, not just a one-time training.

User Testing & Feedback

Once the prototype was ready, I tested it with a classmate named Mary. She was asked to go through the main features and provide feedback based on her experience.

Her insights were incredibly helpful. She pointed out that the My Culture Profile page lacked structure, which could confuse users. In response, I added five fixed questions to guide users and make responses consistent.

She also noticed that the Cultural Norms Explorer didn’t contain country data. To fix this, I added six country flags. These included India, Canada, USA, Nigeria, Colombia, and the Philippines for now. Clicking on each now opens a page with five cultural work tips. A simple back button helps users navigate easily.

I used an Impact vs. Effort Matrix to evaluate all feedback and prioritized the changes with the most benefit and least complexity. This step made my solution stronger, more user-friendly, and better aligned with real team needs.

Final Impact and Reflection

This capstone journey has been a meaningful experience for me, not just as a student, but as a future digital communicator in a global world. Through research, ideation, prototyping, and testing, I realized how powerful thoughtful design can be in bridging cultural gaps.

The Cultural Onboarding Toolkit is more than just a digital product. It’s a step toward helping global teams feel more included, respected, and connected; no matter where they come from. Small efforts like understanding meeting etiquette or someone’s cultural values can make a big difference in collaboration and trust.

This project also taught me the importance of listening to users. Feedback shaped the final design and made it more relevant. I now see design as a conversation—not just something we create, but something we keep improving.

As I move forward, I hope to keep designing with empathy and cultural awareness at the core of my work.

So, friends, come and try this prototype, lets learn more about different cultures among us.

Storytelling Structure and Visualizations

The storytelling will be a video so the visuals will include text prompts as the story moves forward. Further the video will also highlight the working of prototype to understand it as it is explained.

Conclusions

This storytelling assignment helped me reflect on my capstone journey, from problem discovery to a meaningful solution. It reinforced the value of user-centered design and empathy. I now understand how communication tools can promote inclusion across cultures. This project truly shaped my approach to global digital communication and design.

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