Title: Why We Need Storytellers at the Heart of Product Development
Context: There are not enough good storytellers in the world. And certainly not in the business world.
Synopsis: It was a dark and stormy night…Well, not really. Or maybe it was. Either way, it doesn’t really matter. Unless maybe if you’re trying to sell glow in the dark umbrellas. And that’s just it, pitching an idea for luminescent, protective rain gear sounds pretty stupid unless there’s a story, a universal truth, that people can connect with and that allows them to understand your product on a visceral level. People eat up stories (which may be a good enough reason to develop a concept for an edible umbrella, but I digress), they are the things that drive imagination and fuel emotion. The greatest products (like glow in the dark, chocolate chip flavored umbrellas for example) are an anthropomorphic metaphor for these universal narratives. When we are able to articulate these stories and understand the role that the things we make play in allowing people to realize their own personal subplots we are able to speak to our customers in their own language, directly and intimately. Now if you excuse me, I have a meeting with a patent lawyer to discuss my design for the “Choco Glow-brella”. It’s gonna be huge. And what a great story that’ll be.
Best Bit: “Ultimately, an engineering organization is focused on execution and that culture is not optimized for the process of discovery, curiosity, and play, all of which are fundamental to those who engage in storytelling.”
via uxmag.com
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