Do you think there is any stage when a strategic narrative is too early for a startup?

No. But I do think their value changes over the lifecycle of a product and company, and the narrative should be re-evaluated at regular intervals. It’s one thing to have a hypothesis and convicted story that gets you to an MVP, but once you have real users giving real feedback in a real marketplace, you likely need to make sure you’re not clinging to an originating narrative at the expense of opportunities in your new context. 

In “Crossing the Chasm” terms, once you’ve secured your beachhead, it’s probably time to see if elements of your strategic narrative need to evolve since you’ve likely made some tradeoffs or entered a market with dynamics that are subject to change.

I think that’s where Eigenquestions (as described my colleagues Shishir & Matt ) go a long way towards making sure everyone at a company is framing the right questions in the right manner, so that the right products and supporting narratives can be built and re-articulated on parallel tracks as needed.

Candidly, this is a personal opinion based on only a handful of experiences. I’m sure there’s quite a bit of room for debate on this one, and I’d encourage you to ask this question oftenーof others and your own teamーand to let me know what you think!

It's never too early to first write down some words about either the problem you're trying to solve (pre-product market fit) or are solving (post-product market fit) — and then running those words by potential customers, investors, employees, and more.

For hundreds of years, humans have explained ourselves, and been moved by others, through narratives. Embrace it every day.