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Palo Alto, California
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Can you share an example of a time when you had to think creatively to solve a problem at work ?
Can you share an example of a time when you had to think creatively to solve a problem at work?
4 answers
PwC Impact
884
Answers
Orlando, Florida
Updated
PwC’s Answer
One example was when an Office Managing Partner engaged me in a pilot for a Nonprofit organization in Atlanta. an initiative focused on changing our community, building a more equitable Atlanta, and inspiring the next generation of philanthropy. I took a leading role with the organization in both developing the pilot and designing the execution plan, which included testing the three-hour program in our Atlanta office with partners and staff.
The challenge was figuring out how to deliver the organization's messaging in a way that was not only impactful but also repeatable for other organizations. I worked closely with their team to design a bite-sized, interactive format that kept participants engaged while still addressing complex social issues. By restructuring the content into shorter, more interactive modules, we created an experience that was both meaningful and easy to replicate.
The pilot was a success, giving the organization a model they could roll out to other organizations and providing our people with a powerful, engaging way to connect with the cause. It was a great example of using creativity to translate vision into a scalable, impactful experience.
The challenge was figuring out how to deliver the organization's messaging in a way that was not only impactful but also repeatable for other organizations. I worked closely with their team to design a bite-sized, interactive format that kept participants engaged while still addressing complex social issues. By restructuring the content into shorter, more interactive modules, we created an experience that was both meaningful and easy to replicate.
The pilot was a success, giving the organization a model they could roll out to other organizations and providing our people with a powerful, engaging way to connect with the cause. It was a great example of using creativity to translate vision into a scalable, impactful experience.
PwC Impact
884
Answers
Orlando, Florida
Updated
PwC’s Answer
Everyday. Working with aerospace engineers to create a platform and intake process to streamline their data and meet a launch date.
In a previous role, our team faced a tight deadline to deliver a project with limited resources. Instead of following the conventional approach, I proposed breaking the project into smaller, parallel tasks and leveraging cross-team collaboration tools to streamline communication. I also suggested using a visual project management board to track progress transparently. This creative restructuring allowed us to complete the project on time without compromising quality, and it was later adopted as a best practice for future projects.
Like I said, I believe creativity is a mindset, and a practice. I tapped into this when developing an email campaign to a cold list of CFOs. The goal was to raise awareness about our finance transformation capabilities in Private advisory and to generate meaningful engagement that could result in meetings. This is a challenge with a cold list. Using ChatGPT, I developed resonant sector-specific messaging, and to analyze the behavioral data in the journey. The campaign resulted in four qualified CFO leads responding to a survey assessment. Another good example of using creativity was in solving a long standing problem we had in Private around identifying private company clients and targets in Salesforce. Salesforce did not start off with an easy way to ID these clients in a way that we can efficiently use for building reports, dashboard and campaigns. Collaboration with other teams was key here. Collaborative brainstorming gave us the idea to use account segments in Salesforce to ID clients. Fast forward to today, it takes only a few minutes to build custom family, PE-backed, Sports segments for marketing mailings. Saving hours and days of data wrangling.
In a previous role, our team faced a tight deadline to deliver a project with limited resources. Instead of following the conventional approach, I proposed breaking the project into smaller, parallel tasks and leveraging cross-team collaboration tools to streamline communication. I also suggested using a visual project management board to track progress transparently. This creative restructuring allowed us to complete the project on time without compromising quality, and it was later adopted as a best practice for future projects.
Like I said, I believe creativity is a mindset, and a practice. I tapped into this when developing an email campaign to a cold list of CFOs. The goal was to raise awareness about our finance transformation capabilities in Private advisory and to generate meaningful engagement that could result in meetings. This is a challenge with a cold list. Using ChatGPT, I developed resonant sector-specific messaging, and to analyze the behavioral data in the journey. The campaign resulted in four qualified CFO leads responding to a survey assessment. Another good example of using creativity was in solving a long standing problem we had in Private around identifying private company clients and targets in Salesforce. Salesforce did not start off with an easy way to ID these clients in a way that we can efficiently use for building reports, dashboard and campaigns. Collaboration with other teams was key here. Collaborative brainstorming gave us the idea to use account segments in Salesforce to ID clients. Fast forward to today, it takes only a few minutes to build custom family, PE-backed, Sports segments for marketing mailings. Saving hours and days of data wrangling.
PwC Impact
884
Answers
Orlando, Florida
Updated
PwC’s Answer
"My team faced a tedious process in lease accounting testing where annual revenue recognition and amortization schedules were built using a highly manual, time-consuming process. Each year required significant effort to update dates, pull data, and roll forward values across multiple tabs and amortization schedules.
To reduce the amount of work it took to do that, I designed a smart Excel model incorporating complex formulas that linked all calculations to a single input cell specifying the fiscal year under testing. This idea and implementation helped automate the date roll-forward, data summarization, and highlighting of the relevant fiscal year under audit. The result was a significant reduction in manual effort and valuable time returned to the team for focusing on other critical audit areas."
One example of when I had to think creatively was while developing a sourcing strategy for a hard-to-fill role. Standard outreach wasn’t effective, so I designed more compelling emails and personalized connection notes that better resonated with candidates. I also introduced a new talent tool and collaborated with the TID team to integrate it into our process. These efforts not only increased engagement and built a stronger pipeline, but ultimately resulted in successful hires for critical roles.
Preparing client data is creative - the same path is not regularly taken. Everything depends on what you start with and where you are trying to go with many ways to get there. Creativity is used every time that the opportunity is taken to try new methods on the way.
Received a large procurement data set from a client about their use of software development tools. Parsing it manually was next to impossible. Wrote scripts to parse keywords and created a 2x2 heatmap showing which tools are used the most vs. their cost to the organization.
When working at a Tech company, I had to work in different platforms with different teams. I helped them come together on a single platform by using demos and having them interact with it, basically gamifying it. That allowed them to see what was actually missing from their current set up and paved the way to a new way of working
To reduce the amount of work it took to do that, I designed a smart Excel model incorporating complex formulas that linked all calculations to a single input cell specifying the fiscal year under testing. This idea and implementation helped automate the date roll-forward, data summarization, and highlighting of the relevant fiscal year under audit. The result was a significant reduction in manual effort and valuable time returned to the team for focusing on other critical audit areas."
One example of when I had to think creatively was while developing a sourcing strategy for a hard-to-fill role. Standard outreach wasn’t effective, so I designed more compelling emails and personalized connection notes that better resonated with candidates. I also introduced a new talent tool and collaborated with the TID team to integrate it into our process. These efforts not only increased engagement and built a stronger pipeline, but ultimately resulted in successful hires for critical roles.
Preparing client data is creative - the same path is not regularly taken. Everything depends on what you start with and where you are trying to go with many ways to get there. Creativity is used every time that the opportunity is taken to try new methods on the way.
Received a large procurement data set from a client about their use of software development tools. Parsing it manually was next to impossible. Wrote scripts to parse keywords and created a 2x2 heatmap showing which tools are used the most vs. their cost to the organization.
When working at a Tech company, I had to work in different platforms with different teams. I helped them come together on a single platform by using demos and having them interact with it, basically gamifying it. That allowed them to see what was actually missing from their current set up and paved the way to a new way of working
Karin P.
Lecturer, Academic Advisor, Career Coach, Mentor
1220
Answers
Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany
Updated
Karin’s Answer
Hi there,
There was this time in 2020 when we were suddenly sent home because the COVID pandemic had arrived. Moving all operations online when nobody was prepared for it certainly required some creativity. In the initial stages we had to improvise a lot with whatever devices we had at home to keep the show running.
The good thing is that in emergencies people really do come together to make things work. You can also see that any time disaster strikes somewhere.
I hope this helps! All the best!
KP
There was this time in 2020 when we were suddenly sent home because the COVID pandemic had arrived. Moving all operations online when nobody was prepared for it certainly required some creativity. In the initial stages we had to improvise a lot with whatever devices we had at home to keep the show running.
The good thing is that in emergencies people really do come together to make things work. You can also see that any time disaster strikes somewhere.
I hope this helps! All the best!
KP
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