Story+PD: Five flavors of stories

Part of a series at the intersection of Storytelling and Product Development.

When you taste a variety of stories told in PD, some dominant flavors emerge. Not good nor bad;  just different. For example, empathy vs logic. 

There are 5 flavors of story in product development. 

How many of us have read our CEO’s annual letter, and the part that made you keep reading was not the “outstanding Q4 with 25% CAGR” but the story they told of meeting a customer and learning the impact on their life. Or the story of what will be possible one day when they launch their new platform for customers. Or the story about how the company bounced back after a tough year for the industry. Felt good, didn’t it? 

FLAVORS

And some stories have a similar quality to them. 

I’ve noticed storytelling in PD has a few flavors, or intentions, that seem to come up in different scenarios. Needs are prioritized differently in different scenarios. For now, see if you can recognize the scenarios where the following flavors of story are used:

• Logic

• Empathy

• Purpose

• Resilience/Urgency

• Optimism/Opportunity

GOALS 

Many stories we recognize in PD are meant to boost morale or rally the troops in some way. Or when they’re told well, like a great CEO letter, that’s what they ultimately do. 

However, boosting team morale is just one goal of storytelling in product development. Some types of stories in PD are told for similar reasons:

• To connect us to customers for better value creation

• To shape our future 

• To control chaos and unpredictability

• To instill confidence in our abilities 

Some flavors of story are better for a desired goal. And some stories can hit more than one goal, like the customer story in my archetypal CEO letter.  It takes work to find and to write that kind of story, and the bigger the stage, the more you should invest in that part of the process.