PurposeĪs a product manager, before you even begin your story or storyboard, you need to ask yourself: What is your product vision/ objective, and, more importantly, what is the WHY behind your product and each feature/ functionality you develop? Always start at the very beginning by stating the overall objective/ vision of your business and product, irrespective of whether you’re presenting to your internal team, external stakeholders, or a new market. In this section, I’m going to use some general (and proven) principles of storytelling that you can use to tell a product story (using a storyboard is the best way to help you visualize the process). General Principles of Storytelling: Creating Your Product Story They stick with us (especially the good ones). There’s a reason why stories are passed down from one generation to another – it’s because they’re memorable. You see, there’s a science around storytelling – our brains are hardwired for it, and we’ve been communicating via stories since the dawn of time. Sure, they’re impressive and nice to have, but at the end of the day, that’s not the info about your product they’ll retain. Why should they choose YOUR product? What will it do for THEM?Īnd remember, your users, or whoever you’re presenting your product to, aren’t necessarily moved by facts, the data, the specs, and all those jargon-y technical terms. It doesn’t matter whether you’re presenting your product to potential users, external stakeholders, or audiences who aren’t familiar with your product – no matter who your audience is, they’ll be more likely to remember the story you tell. Sure, they can freely roam around and enjoy the experience, but wouldn’t it be better if you prepared a discovery story for them so that they could learn so much more about your castle, its intricacies, its history, etc.?Īnd this is why you, as a product manager, should tell stories. You invite guests over and tell them to wander around and check out all the rooms. Imagine you own a 17th-century castle (nice!). Her story was about her sister, who died from Leukemia at a very young age, and this is why she used her skills as a scientist to found a company that could change the healthcare system. Until she told the story of WHY she founded her company, WHY she has this purpose, and WHAT problems her company will solve. In the first episode, she pitches her idea and company to numerous investors using stats, facts, and data – but no one was really listening or interested. The protagonist, Lisa, is the founder of a medtech company, and she is trying to get investors interested in her solution. I recently finished watching a show on Netflix called What If. How do you tell a good story? And most importantly, why should you, as a product manager, learn how to tell a good story? Once Upon A Time: How and Why You Should Be Good at Product Storytelling So let’s get right to it and get some creativity and ideas flowing! Below, I’ll discuss how you can captivate your users with your product, why you should do so, and give some examples of how good storytelling will make people fall in love with your product. We are all storytellers in one way or another, and telling a story about your product is how you can motivate, captivate, and inspire not only your own team but your users as well. īut why? Why should a product manager have to tell good stories? That should be left to English literature graduates or the likes of J.K. Yup, you guessed it, being a good storyteller. So in the nature of going big and not going home, let’s add another role to the arsenal of a great product manager. In previous blog posts, we’ve spoken about how SaaS product managers are meant to be leaders, managers, marketers, good communicators, forecasters, teachers … the list truly does go on. It seems that the list of roles of a product manager is never-ending. – Robert McKee, professor at University of Michiganīased on this quote, I’m sure you have an idea of what I’ll be writing about in this post … storytelling! But because our blog is connected to SaaS, software, UX, and product (among others, of course), I’ll be talking about product storytelling specifically. Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world.
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