Live Recap: How to Tell Your Product Story

Get the resources and highlights from Product Breaks Live: How to Tell Your Product Story

Last week, we hosted our inaugural live event, Product Breaks Live, which was hosted by Ekaete Inyang (Lead Product Manager, Kin + Carta).

We were joined by 25+ PMs who joined in the discussion about:

1. Why storytelling matters

2. Choosing the most meaningful message

3. How Hollywood uses stories

4. Listening to and discussing an example and our own experiences

5. Key takeaways

Below is our notes and highlights from the evening.

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Get our Miro resources here, using the password PBStorytelling!

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Why storytelling matters

Welcome everyone! This evening we’re going to talk about stories, and how we can use them to do one of the most impactful jobs we do as Product Managers: communicate ideas.

We can use stories in order to:

• Synthesise lots of information

• Relay to our teams what they need to know in order to inspire them to build the right thing

• Help stakeholders make decisions

• Have our customers fall in love with our products

Choosing the most meaningful message

But in order to make sure we’re doing that well, first we need to do two things:

1. Understand your target audience

   Think about who your audience is - how open they already are to hearing your story, and what their needs and pain points are. This forms the foundation of your story and the direction in which you take it.

2. Decide what type of story you’re telling

   Next you should recognise the purpose of your story, whether it’s to communicate a benefit or value, getting a customer, team, or stakeholder to do something, or educate. Notice how you want them to feel when they come across your story.

How Hollywood uses stories

There are a number of storytelling frameworks that are used by Hollywood - and we PMs love a framework! Here are three that are often used by stories (check out the resources to see these as illustrations):

1. Monomyth (Hero’s Journey)

   In this one, the hero leaves home and goes out into the unknown, overcomes some kind of trial, before finally returning home with a prize. We see this everywhere in films, from The Lion King to Star Wars.

2. The Mountain

   In the Mountain we don’t necessarily see a happy ending. Here we see the scene set, before following through rising action, until we reach some climactic conclusion. Most films do some version of this.

3. In Media Res

   This is often used in action films. The hero is dropped right in the middle of the action, before going back to the beginning of the story to see how the events unfolded, and following through to the conclusion from there.

Listening to and discussing an example and our own experiences

We’re now going to spend about 1 minute listening to an example story. While you listen, add your comments about how you felt - we’ll then discuss:

Once upon a time, a curious individual named Emily embarked on a journey with Apple, seeking not just devices but an experience that would seamlessly weave into the fabric of her life.

She started her adventure with an iPhone — a sleek, intuitive companion that effortlessly kept her connected. She soon added a MacBook and an Apple Watch. Her journey with Apple deepened as she explored the Apple Store, each product a potential ally in her quest for efficiency, creativity, and connection.

However, every journey encounters hurdles.

Emily faced the challenge of keeping her devices in sync. Calendar notifications were inconsistent - she was showing up to some meetings 5 minutes early, some 10 minutes late. She would take a screenshot on her phone with the aim to use it on her laptop to add it to a presentation, but alas it was nowhere to be found.

Emily was getting increasingly frustrated and the simplicity that she craved - the very reason she was drawn to Apple - appeared to be unattainable. Could this be the end for our heroine?

But just when she was about to give up and sell all her devices on eBay, the iCloud was launched — a magical force that unified Emily's digital world. Photos, documents and memories seamlessly danced between her devices, creating a symphony of connectivity. It was a complete transformation for Emily, who now had her problem solved.

So now we’re heard a little about Emily’s journey, how did hearing that story make you feel?

Chino:

I was wondering how it was going to end.

Jack:

With real empathy - I get the highs and the lows!

Beth:

I felt it is relatable; we’ve all been in ‘Emily’s’ shoes!

How did it convey the benefits?

Andy:

It focused on the soft points, but maybe less about how they were achieved.

Everyone, please rate the effectiveness of the story, from 1 (not effective) to 10 (very effective). There were a range, from 3 to 8. How would you improve it?

Izzy:

It was too salesy. I would build it around Emily’s challenges instead - and not make it full of Apple product placement.

Moving on from Emily’s story now, what can we learn from Hollywood?

Andy:

I really agree with the key observation, that knowing the audience is the key to getting it right.

Tim:

I’d use storytelling in 2 ways:

• If I’m talking about the vision and the roadmap, taking the audience on the journey is powerful - you can project them into the future so they can really see themselves there.

• But in the case it’s the opposite - if you’re speaking to stakeholders who are very knowledgable about their market or product, they can forget that some people don’t know those as well as they do. Landing them into the shoes of a persona can take those people into a new place of understanding.

What if your product isn’t ‘sexy’?

Ruaridh:

This still plays into empathy.

Izzy:

People are just people. If you tell a story about someone doing something frustrating and struggling for hours with a spreadsheet, which is then reduced to 15 minutes that’s still satisfying. It’s still inspiring to people.

What has a story inspired you to do and why?

John:

At American Express, we always heard stories about wedding dresses left on the other side of the world and figuring out how to get those back to the bride in time, or someone really sick trying to get home. They were about the people who went above and beyond - not about the transactions but about how people behaved. That was important in terms of the cultural identity the organisation wanted to achieve.

Andy:

I worked on a healthcare product and half the team were sobbing after hearing from a person whose life was saved. More motivating than hitting an OKR, that’s for sure!

Has anyone been won over by a product or brand’s story? What lessons?

Euan:

There is a charity that helps people who are less privileged get into the arts. They did a campaign when they were looking for mentors, with people who were comedians from working class and less privileged backgrounds who came on and said, if we didn’t get this kind of support we wouldn’t be here. We need mentors and cash to help the next generation. It inspired me to give, and I still do to this day.

Andy:

Charities are great at storytelling! Often they focus on the individuals.

What is the biggest challenge you find when trying to tell stories?

Chino:

Making it compelling, and keeping the attention of the audience.

John:

That is just practice. Find someone to tell your story and keep doing that.

Andy:

Yes! Reps, reps, reps!

Izzy:

Getting users to tell their stories in user research, in the way that Teresa Torres says to do in Continuous Discovery. It’s more effective to have them talk about their experiences rather than listing facts or what they would do, but it can be hard to do really well.

Key takeaways

1. Resonate with your audience
   If you know your audience you can tailor your story to them, making sure to use the right structure, for example Hero’s Journey and In Media Res which we discussed. Also think about the techniques you use when you think about how you keep your audience’s attention - we live in a low attention world after all!

2. Relatability matters

   This came up when we talked about Emily’s story - a lot of us had device syncing issues! - but also later when we talked about ‘unsexy’ products. Put yourself in other people’s shoes to increase empathy - this can be both engaging and inspiring.

3. There are examples of great stories everywhere!

   American Express, Monzo, charities and more - we are surrounded by great examples of product and brand stories that inspire us to act. It’s worth recognising these and learning from them.

4. Reps, reps, reps

   Find people to practice telling your story to - that’s how you get better at doing it. Keep a bank of stories so you always have them ready, regardless of the circumstance, purpose, or audience you encounter.

Thank you everyone, and we look forward to seeing you next time!

Get the event resources

Password: PBStorytelling!

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Read more about Product Storytelling on Product Breaks

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