This month, we’re reviewing “Building A StoryBrand” by Donald Miller. It’s a concise book about using stories and the elements of good storytelling to create messages that help customers understand our products and services, ultimately helping to solve their problems.
I’m always skeptical when I read marketing or sales books because I don’t want to feel like I’m being given a sales pitch, which is often what these books devolve into. The authors are usually very good at marketing and selling, so you get the pitch without meaningful content.
That’s how this book initially felt. It spent a little too much time convincing me that creating good stories was the right path. Personally, I was already convinced (hence why I was reading the book), but the author wasn’t assuming that and spent the first several chapters driving home the point that stories are critical to brands.
Fortunately, the rest of the book outlines a framework for creating stories for your brand (whether personal or professional) and explains how to use specific elements to make each part of the story resonate with customers, employees, and anyone who hears it.
Overview
As product people, stories are critical to everything we do. From our companies to our products to our individual features, we have to understand the customers and their problems, provide a solution, and help everyone see what the potential future can look like.
This is what the book is all about. We can use stories and the framework for creating good stories to create short one-liners that describe our companies and products in ways people can understand. We can simplify and clarify our message so everyone can understand.
This is something we face in product management and software development all the time (as I’m certain anyone in marketing and other areas faces as well)—how to quickly and accurately describe what you do and what you’re trying to accomplish. There is always so much nuance and backstory to everything. But few people care. We have to remember that.
I liked the approach of using a storytelling framework for creating a brand. I enjoy writing and dabbling in fiction, so everything resonated with me, even more than just the marketing and branding advice. But all of it is applicable regardless of whether you are a writer or not.
Key Takeaways
The Customer is the Hero
One of the most important parts of any story is the hero. This is true of a movie, a book, or the story of our product or brand.
We often talk in product management about being customer- or user-focused. Miller takes this idea to another level. The customer or user of our product is the literal hero of the story. The user is the whole reason the story exists!
We all like to see ourselves as the heroes of our own stories. This often becomes a problem for companies, products, or even features we’re building. We talk too often in terms of the feature itself, our company, or our product, setting it up as the hero of the story.
But the hero isn’t the company, the product, or the feature. The hero is the user. And we need to remember that.
You are the Guide
Miller references many stories with guides in them. It is a common storytelling tool, from Obi-Wan to Gandalf. Heroes often have guides who assist them at different stages of their journey, helping them overcome obstacles and achieve their goals.
In our businesses and products, we are the guides. Our customers are the heroes, trying to reach some goal (not necessarily delivering a ring of power to Mount Doom, but something important to them still), and we are the guides offering solutions to their problems so they can reach those goals.
For example, I use several writing tools for all the writing I do. One of them is ProWritingAid, which uses the simple tagline of “A grammar checker, style editor, and writing mentor in one package.” Its whole product is about making me a better writer and sets itself up as a guide for my work. And I appreciate that.
Miller offers the counter-example of Tidal, the music streaming service. When it launched, it focused entirely on musicians and how it would change the streaming music model to better serve musicians. It put musicians in the hero’s role rather than the listener and fan. And it has struggled since its founding. Certainly, musicians and artists deserve to be paid for their work, and other platforms have rightly come under fire, but we can’t forget who the hero of the story is and who the guide is.
Simplify the Narrative
Finally, the book emphasizes simplifying your narrative so customers can understand. This starts with your website, which a visitor should understand within 10 seconds of landing (something that most websites fail at), and extends to your marketing materials and talking points.
For product teams, we should continually work on simplifying our narratives as well. What is the core problem we’re solving? Who are we solving for? What does success look like?
We should be able to answer those questions quickly and succinctly for ourselves, our stakeholders, and our users. And we should talk about it frequently. We know we’re getting the message across when others repeat it back to us.
This applies to our high-level product vision and strategy, as well as our product features. Having clear problems we’re solving and clear success criteria makes for a clear message. It makes for a powerful story. It also makes for a clear direction and keeps our efforts on track.
Conclusion
There are many good lessons in the book “Building A StoryBrand” by Donald Miller. While it is primarily a marketing book, the frameworks and principles can be easily applied to product teams and even personal brands.
Creating stories is a powerful tool for product managers, teams, and companies. I’m a huge believer in the power of a good story (if you can’t tell by the fact that I love writing and enjoy telling lots of stories). We can use stories and the framework for stories to create powerful messages for our products and our companies. And we can use those messages to ensure we’re reaching our users to solve their problems. Because they are the heroes of the stories, and we want to help guide them to their goals.
