Storytelling for Product Managers

You’ve probably heard of the power of storytelling: studies have shown that our brains are hardwired to respond to stories, and will even make up stories to make sense of the world. In a case of nature and nurture, conditioning starts at an early age and applies across all cultures.

Product managers in particular need to be aware of how they can use storytelling: one of the key PM skills is to get people (team members, customers, investors) aligned around a concept or product decision.

There are many articles, books, classes and events around the idea of “storytelling for business”. In fact, searching on Google for those terms produced 354,000 results. There is cottage industry of booklets on how to create TED-like presentations and even TED talks on how to give TED talks.

So in the context of all this noise, I want to put forth a very simple concept:

A story is like an arrow

A powerful story requires tension to propel it forward.

A story needs a target audience.

An interesting story makes you hold your breath

A story must cover a long distance in a short time to reach its audience

There is only one story

If you peruse books on business storytelling, the majority tend to offer a particular structure, such as the classic 3 acts. Or maybe you’ve discovered the 5 things that you’re gonna be needin’ when you’re writin’.

In the 1950s, Joseph Campbell advanced the notion that there is really only one story, known as the hero’s journey. In The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Campbell combined psychology and literature to explain why this resonates so strongly and is repeated across cultures. Much reviled by indie filmmakers, who reject any kind of structure, Campbell has influenced many writers and directors. Perhaps the most obvious application of these ideas was the original Star Wars trilogy — George Lucas was an avid admirer of Campbell’s writings.

Whether it’s Star Wars or Beowulf, these epic stories (as well as many love stories, thrillers, etc.) have all the classic elements: the hero was living a normal life when something happened that propelled her/him into taking action, meeting a mentor, completing a series of trials, and returning home victorious (or not), to name a few.

Most Product Managers are not working on the next great novel or movie trilogy, so how can these elements be applied to product stories?

Epic Storytelling for Product Managers

As a Product Manager creating a story, one choice is simple: make the customer the hero. We already talk about the customer journey, so it’s a natural step to make this the hero journey.

You can start by placing the hero in the ordinary world: describe the status quo of how they do things today. Perhaps they make heavy use of email, or they keep track of expenses by saving printed receipts.

The call to adventure could be prompted by a major pain point. This may be a critical email that was missed among the noise or a box full of receipts that need to be processed.

The hero could at first refuse to change, because change is hard. Then they are visited by a mentor. Think creatively here: a mentor could be a targeted marketing message, or a chance conversation at a networking meeting. It could be a friend saying “You’re still doing what?”

This is where the hero crosses the threshold by adopting your new product or feature. At this point, you may be thinking you want to skip to the happy ending, but that’s not going to generate any interest. Remember that a good story needs tension? Your hero must go through the trials and failure phase, and your story must take the audience along that path.

The ordeal part is something that I believe all PMs who have developed empathy for their customers can capture. This could be about overcoming obstacles or gaining new capabilities. Perhaps it is learning where to use that awesome email automation, or filing the first expense report without receipts. The hero starts to gain new skills or powers.

Now comes the pivotal point in the story. This is often referred to as death and rebirth, but don’t take that too literally. It’s the point where the hero makes a fundamental change, and in the context of our product story, this is the a-ha moment, a time when the product clicked for the user, triggering a change in perspective and behavior.

To take storytelling to the max, you can create one last, seemingly insurmountable obstacle that appears when success seemed within grasp. The hero must reach deeper, emotionally if not physically. Perhaps she needs to present to the CEO and CFO on how this new email automation tool is the right approach despite their strong reservations. It could also be something more personal, like filing an expense report for a 2-week, multi-continent trip that racked up many thousands of dollars in expense on a personal credit card just as the hero was saving money to buy a house.

Emerging victorious from this encounter (the CFO is convinced, the expense report is filed and reimbursed in 24 hours,) the customer has figured out how your product can unlock a new way of doing things and can no longer imagine doing things the old way.

From this point on, the hero must embark on the road back home and reap the rewards. For a product story, this is the place to use storytelling through metrics, by showing how the one metric that matters most(1MTMM™) tracks to customer pain points; ideally there is a before and after, contrasting the ordinary world with the special world. Go ahead, give yourself (or rather your product) a pat on the back for being the catalyst for your hero’s change.

To wrap up this epic product story, the hero returns to the ordinary world as a transformed person. Here the story could be about colleagues and friends adopting the same solution, as the hero is now an evangelist for your product. This is an opportunity to recap the lessons learned and highlight the new relationship the hero has with the product. It’s also a great time to banish the doubters who didn’t think the product/feature could work or be sold.

Wrapping up

Next time you watch a superhero movie or read a spy novel, keep an eye out for these elements and think how you might make your product stories more compelling. The key is to get your audience emotionally invested in the outcome.

You can also adapt this to your own needs: you don’t need to follow the full story arc every time, but can sprinkle some elements, such as going straight from the ordinary world to the hero’s transformation.

While every product and every audience is different, we all respond at a visceral level to some aspects of this journey. Figure out how to use that and you can be a hero, too.