Did you know that many fiction books and films follow a similar narrative pattern? It’s called the hero’s journey. An ordinary person goes on a quest, overcomes challenges along the way, and returns home victorious and improved. You can use the same narrative concept to walk stakeholders through any project.

A project storyboard visualizes the steps of a project, integrating the DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) method for Lean Six Sigma (LSS). When managing projects, this is a helpful tool, offering a clear roadmap to success and efficiency at a glance.

You’ll tell your audience a story of how you identified a problem, navigated obstacles, implemented strategic changes, and emerged on the other side with enhanced performance and tangible results.

Purpose of a Project Storyboard

A project storyboard serves many purposes, most importantly guiding LSS teams through the process improvement journey with clarity and purpose.

It’s not just a tool; it’s a storytelling method that empowers organizations to visualize progress, share insights, and rally around common goals. By weaving together the narrative of a project, it ensures that every stakeholder is aligned and engaged in the pursuit of excellence.

A project storyboard serves many purposes, like:

1. Communicating lessons and successes of applying LSS. They’re valuable points of insight for other teams within your organization.
2. Proof of success for individuals training towards one of the Lean Six Sigma belts, project storyboards serve as integral pieces of evidence.
3. Helping with tollgate reviews as you move between each phase of a project. You can use your storyboard as a reference point to share discoveries, increase understanding, and quantify benefits.

When to Use a Project Storyboard

Developing a project storyboard is invaluable for any Lean Six Sigma implementation. These visual representations will help you and your team understand what you’ve done and where you need to go–like a map guiding your quest.

Project storyboards are excellent reference points for scaling LSS in your organization. After all, your storyboard is your hero’s journey, and writing it down will help other potential heroes in your company to learn, improve, and unlock the benefits of Lean Six Sigma. 

How to Create a Project Storyboard

Your storyboard is just that: a story. So make it engaging, concise, and linear. Take your audience on a journey with a clear start, middle, and end, and avoid unnecessary waffling.

How you present your storyboard is up to you, but an ideal app is Kure, which will automate your Lean Six Sigma projects using AI. Other popular tools are Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Visio, and Lucidchart.

Here’s how to make an effective project storyboard:

Step 1: Define the Business Case

Begin your storyboard with the DMAIC Define Phase. Explain the problem you’ve discovered, the project scope, and your objectives for process improvement. To make your story compelling, combine your analysis of the problem with measurable data to justify your insights.

Step 2: Analyze Root Causes

Here, you’ll explore the problem in more detail, explaining how you analyzed the data to discover patterns that indicate potential root causes. From there, explain how you confirmed the root cause and brainstormed solutions.

Step 3: Implemented Solutions

Next, you’ll highlight the solutions you implemented to address the problem. Again, leaning on data is crucial here. By comparing baseline performance to new and improved process performance, you can show your audience the tangible benefits of your implementations.

Step 4: Project Results

Genuine improvements yield long-lasting results–and this section is your opportunity to show that. Highlight the sustained benefits of your initiative, demonstrating how the process improved in areas such as efficiency, safety, customer satisfaction, and so on.

Finally, you’ll want to share your key learnings and future recommendations. This is the conclusion of your hero’s journey, a chance to share what went well, what could have gone better, and the insights you’ve gathered.

Project Storyboard Examples

An excellent way to gain inspiration for your storyboard and check it’s ready for submission is to compare it to published examples. We have an expansive list of successful storyboards from GoLeanSixSigma.com Black Belts you can access for free.

You can read about how Lean Six Sigma helps:

• Reduce cycle time for national disaster response – FEMA took a good look at its processes, identified opportunities to improve, and reduced its response time by 50%.
• Increase first-run parts – Within two months of implementing LSS, James Fuhrman increased first run parts from 60% to 90%.
• Feed people in need – Learn how LSS helped reorganize food storage and increase flow at a charitable organization.

Templates for Six Sigma DMAIC Storyboards

By now, you’ll be ready to get started with your first DMAIC storyboard–and our Kure App templates are the perfect springboard.

• Reduce Defects: Find out how Piston Automotive reduced defects by 100%.
• Increase Chronic Care Management: Learn how Florida Community Health Centers increased call management by 350%.

Start your free training now to learn more about Lean Six Sigma project storyboards and how they can help you and your team!