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Getting your story straight (500 start ups)
- 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
- 4. You can’t tell a good story… If you don’t have a good story to tell
- 5. What makes a great story? (Start with a BIG problem) 5
- 6. Behind every great product is a great story Who is my customer?
- 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
- 10. Why do stories work?
- 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.
- 12. Story structure Characters Motivation Plot Symbols Customers Insights Problem/solution Logos/icons
- 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
- 15. Who is the main character in your story? (identify your customer)
- 16. Pick a First target customer First
- 17. Later, find and serve your 2nd target customer
- 18. New take on target can lead to new ideas
- 19. What is the character’s motivation? (dig for insights)
- 20. Go deep to understand the character in your story Zimplistic, Intel-Berkeley Technology Entrepreneur Challenge, 2009 finalist
- 21. Can you have an insight about a business?
- 22. What is the main conflict in the story? (define the problem)
- 24. So you can solve it Zimplistic
- 25. Rainforest alliance romances the problem
- 26. What does the character aspire to? (Identify the value proposition)
- 27. Focus on the benefit (not the technology)
- 28. Boil down the value proposition
- 29. What’s the plot? (how do they get there)? (How does the innovation work?)
- 30. The “how” should be a compelling part of the story
- 31. Do you have your MVP (minimum viable product)?
- 32. Where is your story set? (Provide context and color)
- 33. Find a unique place for your story LocalNational
- 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?
- 38. Story Boarding
- 39. Storyboard framework Customer: Insight: Problem Definition: Value Proposition: How it works: Context and Tone:
- 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
- 41. Google Wave: in search of a story
- 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: ? ? ? ? ?
- 44. How to tell a great story
- 45. The enemy of a good idea - NOISE Pre-Conceived Notions Everyone else’s idea Agendas Distractions Risk Aversion
- 46. Attention and Transformation Think Cortisol and… Oxytocin Work those hormones!!!
- 48. Be brief: distill down to the essence of your story “I would have written you a short letter, but I didn’t have the time.” Pascal (or Twain)
- 49. The art of story telling
- 50. Ideas that Stick
- 51. Jobsian storytelling A headline A simple slide A villain A demo A holy smokes moment 1.25
- 53. Dropbox… like a magic pocket
- 55. Problem/Solution: Lots of clothes, nothing to wear!
- 56. Bring the customer into the room
- 57. Tell them your story
- 59. A picture of the problem is worth a thousand words.
- 60. Bring your idea to life
- 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
- 62. Put on a “show”
- 63. Set the stage
- 64. Rehearse! (with an egg timer!)
- 66. Slay the naysayers (hire a cynic!)
- 68. To share passion, get personal
- 69. Be passionate, use humor, be real
- 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