Story as a Design Tool
Draft, test, and package a leadership story across three lengths and three formats
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 85%
A method for building the motivating stories PMs and leaders need: treat the story as a cheap-to-iterate design artifact, invest real time, strip out jargon, choose a proven structure, and package it in multiple formats and three fixed lengths. It counters the myth that good storytellers are simply born.
Origin
Petra Wille's approach to storytelling coaching, drawing on the hero's journey structure and material from Nancy Duarte / Duarte Inc.; she credits Guy Kawasaki's 'Selling the Dream' and Stephen Pressfield's 'Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t' as trigger/learning material.
Core principles
- 01A story is cheaper to change than a prototype — talk it out before writing it down
- 02Great storytellers invest heavily; budget the time, don't expect overnight talent
- 03Use natural, sensory language that speaks to hearts and minds; strip out three-letter abbreviations and business lingo that causes 'banner blindness'
- 04Only build an elaborate story for something that lasts — not for a single sprint
How to run it
- 1
Budget the time
Plan to invest serious effort. For a story explaining to the company what you and the team are doing for the next three-to-four months, expect about two weeks of work at one-to-two hours a day.
Pro tip Reserve this only for stories with a long shelf life (a quarter's vision/strategy), not for the next sprint where it's a waste of time.
- 2
Talk it before you write it
Don't sit at a blank page. Start talking about the story, see how it lands with people, then tweak — using the story itself as a low-cost design tool.
Pro tip Changing a spoken story is far cheaper than changing a prototype, so iterate verbally first.
- 3
Choose a proven structure and cast the hero
Apply a structure like the hero's journey. Decide who the hero is: put the team at the center to motivate them, or put the user at the center to show how their life improves once the product ships. Map the call to adventure and the brighter future.
Pro tip Match the hero to the goal — team-as-hero for internal motivation, user-as-hero for product vision.
- 4
Remove the jargon
Replace overused internal terms that people now overhear. Even 'product discovery' may be worn out — swap to plainer language like 'we need to learn something about this thing'.
Pro tip Sensory, natural words (smell, feeling, a better life) release the brain hormones that make stories stick; abbreviations don't.
Watch out This is far harder to do in practice than it sounds and takes real time when you actually build the story.
- 5
Package in three formats and three lengths
Prepare the story spoken, written, and illustrated (whiteboard sketch, flip chart, or a few emotional slides). Have it ready at three lengths: a ~75-second elevator pitch, a ~6-minute pre-sprint-planning version, and an ~18-minute all-hands version.
Pro tip 18 minutes is the length of an average TED Talk, tuned to attention spans — use it as your long-form ceiling.
In the wild
Petra's worked example is a PM communicating the vision or strategy for the team for the next four months at a company all-hands — worth roughly two weeks of crafting and delivered in the ~18-minute format.
→ A logical, compelling, motivating story that lasts far longer than a week or two, justifying the heavy time investment.
Common mistakes
Assuming storytelling is innate
Beginners underestimate how much time great storytellers invest and expect to improve overnight, so they under-prepare and deliver weak stories. Plan for practice and iteration.
Drowning the story in business lingo
Overused terms and three-letter abbreviations cause banner blindness — listeners overhear them — and fail to release the hormones that make stories memorable. Use natural, sensory language instead.
Is it for you?
Best for
PMs and leaders preparing a durable vision, strategy, or roadmap narrative they'll retell for a quarter or more
Not ideal for
Quick, disposable updates like a single sprint where the crafting effort isn't worth it
From the transcript
“you have to plan to put in a lot of work to create your story”
“I think that's two weeks of work not eight hours a day obviously but two weeks of work maybe one or two hours a day”
“there's a lot of Beauty in this story as a design tool so to say because it's even easier to change the story than it…”
“remove all your three-letter abbreviations”
“in the super short 75 second elevator pitch version in the six minutes I can do this before we actually start Sprint planning version”
“80 minutes is the length of an average Ted Talk”
From the episode
How to be the best coach to product people
Petra Wille (Strong Product People)