1. Getting your story straight
Creating and inspiring innovation on the strength of a simple story
Getting your story straight
Creating and inspiring innovation on the strength of a simple story
David Riemer
4/7/14
2. Warm up: let’s all tell a story
Tell a story about an event that you experienced – or
person you met -- that influenced you and possibly
changed you…
2
8. What’s the difference?
IDEA
The Story
Telling
the story
(Getting to Go)
The
narrative: the
problem and
solution
Insights
Customer
Names
Narrative devices
Focus
Showtime
Visuals
9. The power of story
Jack
Dorsey
Twitter,
Square
Peter Guber
Sony Films, Mandalay
Entertainment
1:0024:12
11. The brain science behind it
Activating the insula (emotional region)
When we hear a story, we imagine
ourselves in it.
Synching the listener’s brain
A story activates the same parts of the
teller’s and listener’s brain.
13. Basic story elements for a product (or
idea)
Who is my
customer?
Story Innovation story
Protagonist Customer
Motivation Customer insights
Conflict Problem definition
Plot imperative Value proposition
Plot narrative Product delivery (reasons to
believe)
Setting Positioning
Tone, Voice Attributes and personality
13
34. Find a unique place for your story
LocalNational
Fans voice
Pundit’s voice
35. Reposition (on the fly) if necessary
"Originally, we weren't exactly sure how to market the Touch. Was it an
iPhone without the phone? Was it a pocket computer? What happened was,
what customers told us was, they started to see it as a game machine. We
started to market it that way, and it just took off.” (Steve Jobs, 09/09/09)
37. Possible story challenges…
Do we have a technology looking for a problem to
solve?
Do we have a customer insight; but no clear
problem definition?
Are we debating between first target customers?
Do we have a clear problem definition, but the
inability to provide a viable solution?
Do we have a great story, but someone else got
their first?
40. The Nestio story
1. Customer:
apartment hunter with roommates
2. Insight:
Coordinating a search is a thankless, stressful task.
3. Problem Definition:
Why can’t there be a painless way
To find an apartment with friends?
4. Value Proposition:
The easiest way to organize your
apartment hunt
5. How it works:
•Save and share listings in 1 place
•Add notes, photos and comments
•Contact listers
•Use mobile app
42. Google Wave story starts with a
capability
Customer: Insight:
Problem Definition: Value Proposition:
How it works:
A hosted conversation that
anyone can contribute to in real
time.
Context and Tone:
43. The missing step: customer
hypotheses
Customer: Insight:
Problem Definition: Value Proposition:
How it works:
A hosted conversation that
anyone can contribute to in real
time.
Context and Tone:
? ?
? ?
?
61. Do a demo
This is Kent…
Kent commuted to work by bike
Kent felt vulnerable riding his bike
home at night
Kent wondered why bike
lighting was so terrible
70. 70
When you have a great
story… anyone can tell it.
davidariemer@yahoo.com
Editor's Notes
Discuss characters. Harvard students (and later other college students).
Discuss insights: School, status and girls (or boys). FaceMash.
Discuss deep insight scene. MZ’s buddy asking questions about a girl.
Discuss problem definition: how can I learn more about people – especially are they single -- in an exclusive setting (where people are willing to share more).
Discuss Value proposition: a way to get to know classmates better (with the goal of dating).
And there’s also a broader story that explains the company’s vision (open).
Successful innovation requires equal emphasis on getting to an idea and inspiring others to adopt the idea.
There’s a process of expansion to brainstorm new directions, then narrowing to come to a recommendation (the idea). We call this “getting to the idea.”
There’s an equally important process of taking an idea and blowing it out to inspire others to take it on. We call this “getting to go.”
Jack Dorsey at 24:12 – 25:22
Peter Guber (through :47)
Stories protect and transport ideas
Characters and “Customer Insights” – it’s hard to have a story without central characters. Pinpoint key customers for the idea and describe the insights must relevant to this problem.
Context – what is the environment – global, local, competitive, etc. – that helps us understand the customer issues.
Problem – what problem does our customer face that needs to be addressed?
Solution (idea as hero) – how does our idea solve the problem that we have defined?
Mnemonics/key visuals – how can we make the story more memorable with a key visual(s) or mnemonic device that helps bring more meaning to our story and make it more memorable?
Illustration of great storytelling: we’ll illustrate the power of a story with either a children’s story a movie or both (e.g. Cinderella); we’ll then compare that to a business innovation story (e.g. the Blackberry). Main characters in the Blackberry story was the strapped “in-meetings-from-8-to-5” executive. Problem was he was out of the loop during the day and unresponsive to his/her team and the boss as well. A huge sense of powerlessness. Solution was this amazing device with a cool name, a big screen and cool keyboard that was great for reading and sending e-mail.
Role Play Demo: we will do an exercise where we assign a completed (but poorly articulated) idea to three teams and have the different teams do the following:
Create names
Create a story
Create mnemonic or key visuals
To bring the story to life… (one idea for this is to use the Yahoo! customer segmentation innovation; another is the Huggies story; a third would be Virgin America story). I’m also thinking that this might be impossible to do in a 30 minute slot and we may have to save this for a longer version of the program.
What motivates your key customers?
Don’t ask what technology can do… ask what it can do for a user?
Have I thought about benefits and end benefits?
Am I keeping it simple?
$175M sale to Turner
$175M sale to Turner
Why is this important?
The deck is stacked against you.
Noise in the workplace – We’ll introduce the notion that a million things (competition, politics, distractions, risk aversion) stand in the way of creating a new idea and driving it through the workplace and into the market. It’s not enough to have a good idea -- one has to compete with all the noise in an organization and/or an industry to drive innovation.
What was the “idea” in this case? The product a wheel shaped slide tray.
What was the innovation and the imperative that the Agency came up with? Pictures are about nostalgia, a place to go back to. Imperative: use an emotional not a technical sell.
What elements comprised the “how”. The name: Carousel. The story: Greek copywriter story, the images of the family, the yearning to go back. The visual: carousel image.
Why do we need to inspire innovation? Why can’t an idea sell itself? Transition to next slide…
Staging – The script is just the script. How will the team breathe life into the story? How will you engage the client?
Key visuals/mnemonics – what visuals will help the client grasp the idea and recall it later?
Rehearsal – practice, practice, practice!
Passion – who will be an idea if the presenters aren’t excited about it. Use words that expression that passion, “here’s the best part,” “we think this is exciting, because,” etc.
Cadence – insure that the presentation itself has pauses, appropriately varied pacing and that it builds.
Audience check-in – make certain that the audience is keeping up. Use eye contact, ask questions, double-back on key points.
Demo: Instructors will demo a full presentation with several holes in it.
Audience critiques presentation – the audience will be invited to critique the presentation.
Instructors reprise presentation to address critiques/do it “the right way”
This is most relevant to preparing for Q&A
(will be tough for the teams to do within the context of H@W, but they should understand the process)
Identify (and answer) obstacles – After the presentation the job continues. Note the obstacles and follow-up on each. Yahoo!’s “Project Engage” is a great case study of this (an effort to promote habitual usage of the Yahoo! network).
Road map to get to idea/vision – always be prepared with a roadmap to get to the big idea. If it’s too ambitious to get there at once, show stepping stones that build to the big idea over time. (e.g. hybrid car evolution is our stepping stone to electric cars)
Follow-up plan (next steps) – Go in with a plan for follow-up to make sure the champions truly champion the innovation and the nay-sayers questions are answered.
e.g. test our hypothesis with a pilot which looks like: ___
Answer these questions: _____
Do a brainstorm session with x & y people
