Introduction To Story Telling | Tips & Guidance For Product Managers And Business Analysts

Be Clear on the Purpose

Before even starting to work on a story, you should ask yourself what is your vision for the product or process you’re creating the story about and, even more importantly, why is that product being developed, who are you developing it for, and how is it suppose to solve a certain problem. The What, Why, Who, and How explain the reason behind the product and help everyone get motivated to develop that product and bring it to the customers.

Define the Problem

We already mentioned that every good story has a conflict at the centre of it. In business story telling, the customer’s problem is the central conflict of the story. So when creating a story, it’s necessary to define that problem by answering the question of what the user wants, why they want it, and what is their pain point. Once the problem is defined, it’s easy to use story telling to communicate to the rest of the team and all other interested stakeholders.

Use Personas in the Plot

The plot of the story should connect the characters to certain plot points. In business story telling, this means defining user personas and explaining why the specific feature matters to them, how a certain product feature relates to their problems, or what is the motivation behind their feature request. Plus, you’ll need to determine when, why, and in which context the customer will use a certain product or its feature.

Let Stakeholders Be Ready to Hear the Solution

All stories end, and if you have managed to create a good story, then the resolution to the central conflict should come naturally. Effective story telling should have all the involved stakeholders already invested in the story at this point and more than ready to hear your solution and motivated to work to achieve it.

Use Personal Connection

You shouldn’t forget that for a story to produce the desired effect, it needs to elicit emotions. To do so, it’s necessary to establish a personal connection to its intended audience as that is the only way you’ll get customers to buy a product or stakeholders within the organisation to get on board with your solution.