Narrative design as a storytelling technique
We hear it a lot, “People don’t care about your features, they care about what those features can help them achieve and the value you provide for them”. Well, another thing you need to remember is that you could have the best product but if you don’t know how to link the product to problems in a compelling way, you could lose your customers.
This is why storytelling is so important- people get bored. Especially now when there are a million and one companies vying for your customer’s attention.
Narrative design is a great way to communicate your product’s message, especially after you’ve done your internal positioning work and outlined exactly what problems your product is solving and how that ties into what your customer is trying to achieve.
Narrative design centres on telling your product’s story in a unique way to your audience. 5 companies could have similar products but tell their story in completely different ways. In this sense, there’s room for almost everyone to shine if the narrative design is done right.
Marcus Andrews breaks narrative design down into 5 simple steps:
A change in the world
The impact the change has had on your audience
How to adapt? The new game
Why it’s so hard!
What we’ve built to help
(I included my two major sources at the bottom of this post!).
1. A change in the world
Narrative design starts with an undeniable change in the world of your customers that’s too big to ignore or deny. “The best changes are big changes in human behaviour that everyone can relate to…”
For instance, the change Hubspot identified to introduce inbound marketing was that people were tuning out outbound marketing because they found it invasive and interruptive.
2. The impact this change has had on your audience
This is where you highlight the effect the change has had on your audience and how it will continue to affect your audience if they don’t adapt to the new way of doing things.
You make a clear distinction between the people who stick to the old way of doing things as losers and the people who adapt to the new way as the winners.
For instance, Hubspot’s message to their customers was that the businesses who stuck to the old way of invasive and interruptive marketing were losers while the people who adopted the new non-invasive way of marketing were winners.
3. How to adapt (a new game)
Now you’ve highlighted the change in the world and who the winners and losers are: this is the time to show your customers how to adapt to the new game and essentially- how to win.
The new game is how your customers should react or adapt to the change you laid out. “Naming your new game is critical to designing a great narrative”. For instance, in our Hubspot example, the new non-invasive way of marketing which centres on interest and letting your customers come to you was called inbound marketing.
4. Why it’s so hard!
This is where you empathise with your customers. you acknowledge and outline the challenges they may be experiencing as they try to switch to the new way of doing things. They need to know that you understand their problems which is why you created the tools to help.
5. Your solution
Now you’ve set the scene and built a case for your product. Your solution comes last as a way to tackle the issues they may be facing which were outlined in the 4th step. This is your chance to get specific and tell customers exactly why your product is the solution to their problems.
”This story isn’t about you, it’s about helping customers adapt to change. That’s why your solution comes last and is a response to point 4. It’s their tool to win at the new game.”
References:
The content in this post is from Marcus Andrews’ talk at the Wynter Olympics on “Narrative Design: How to Create a Story People Can't Ignore” as well as the Narrative Design Module in Product Marketing Alliance’s Product Marketing Core Course.