Storytelling

This is a great question and it's really hard to do. First, I would always remain true to your brand voice. If everyone is using the same word, you may need to use it in ...

Strong external messaging starts with clear internal alignment on positioning. Internal positioning should focus on the internal narrative of how your products are clearl...

Bring in cross-functional teams early in the process—Sales, Marketing, Product, Customer Success, and Executive Leadership—so they have a say in shaping the story. Engagi...

When you're selling to multiple audiences, the only way to keep your stories sharp is to anchor each one to a specific hero persona. You might have one corporate narrativ...

I mentioned this in an answer above, but AI has completely changed my workflow. It's really sped up the process, mostly in the research you're able to do on your market s...

Yes — and the biggest mistake I’ve seen is treating re-storying as a creative exercise instead of an organizational one.The danger isn’t saying something new. It’s saying...

Specificity! AI is vague and general. At this point, AI is great for producing generic, mild product marketing content that won't look off-base and also won't resonate we...

I don’t start with slides. I start with listening.Before trying to align anyone, I talk to sales, product, and execs separately and ask the same simple questions: why do ...

Short answer: long enough to make one clear point, short enough to keep momentum. For most platforms, that usually means under a minute — but clarity beats duration every...

I think messaging always has to be personalized and humanized. And AI starts to make that easier because it can help us craft (or edit existing content) for various audie...

Distilling complicated tech into simple stories can be challenging, but I've relied on one of the most basic frameworks to do this since I was a junior PMM, and it consis...

I’ve been guilty of this myself: using data as proof before the audience understands the problem.What I’ve learned is that data works best when it arrives late, not early...

The biggest shift for me was realizing most decks fail before slide one. They fail because no one agreed on what decision the deck is meant to drive.I’ve learned to force...

I’ve never seen storytelling stick because someone declared it important. It sticks when people see it work.In one org, we talked endlessly about “better narratives,” but...

The biggest mistake I see is treating launches as surprises. Buyers hate surprises.In one release cycle, we seeded the problem months ahead — blog posts, sales conversati...

PLG taught me humility. You don’t get to explain yourself.In sales-led motions, storytelling can unfold over time — discovery, objection handling, reframing. In PLG, the ...

I don’t start with a framework. I start with discomfort.In one role, our “enterprise story” kept falling flat. When we listened to actual calls, it became clear we were a...

Consistency doesn’t mean sameness. I learned that while working on a global product where EMEA, APJ, and North America all insisted they were “totally different markets.”...

I learned this the painful way early in my career. We once jumped straight into storytelling — beautiful decks, customer quotes, polished narratives — without alignment o...

The gap usually isn’t technical knowledge — it’s proximity. PMMs don’t need to become engineers; they need to get closer to where decisions are actually made.The fastest ...

I don't have templates, but I do have an understanding of how each audience will likely connect with my business story. Every audience will ask "what's in it for me?" so ...

I'd argue that the story should not differ internally versus externally. I've found that if you're using inconsistent terminology or language when describing your brand o...

I mostly use AI tools to conduct research, refine copy, and create visual assets. Sometimes gen AI is still a hit or miss, but it works much more reliably when you've con...

There's two place I usually go to for inspiration:The customer baseGreat storytelling examples far away from SaaS marketingYour customers are going to have very specific ...

Like James, we've all done this wrong or skipped steps (often at the behest of certain stakeholders)Here are a few ways to get stakeholders invested, informed, and helpfu...

Made to Stick by the Chip Heath and Dan Heath is one of my favorite books. It explores what makes a story stand out and introduces a framework for idea “stickiness” in th...

LOVE this question. From my perspective, there are two common errors I see over and over, and they always sabotage a powerful narrative:Making Your Product/Company the He...

Build the story architecture by tying your portfolio of products together into a cohesive narrative. If you only have one product, you are telling a single hero tale but ...

AI is a powerful storytelling assistant. You have to know the process you want to follow and then use AI at each step to deliver better results. For example... Conflic...

When storytelling loses meaning, it’s because most people are only telling stories about themselves. To truly create a differentiated narrative, you must own a distinct p...

The most important word is contained in your question - balance. Whether you focus first on functionally-oriented or value-oriented language will probably vary based on y...

Prioritize your audiences and recognize that if your message is for everyone, it's truly for no one. While technology is helping us differentiate messaging for different ...

I recently fell into the trap of using generic industry jargon when presenting to analysts instead of maintaining authentic, human-centered language. We're currently refr...

Read widely, especially outside of business literature, to develop your storytelling abilities. My straightforward advice is to read as much as possible, but try to avoid...

AI is most valuable for accelerating research and content syndication, not for core message development which still requires human expertise. I primarily use AI to speed ...

I have used April Dunford's Obviously Awesome framework to develop messaging and create a product narrative. It is simple and can be applied to any setting. I have not ye...

The key to translating messaging frameworks into compelling stories is giving disproportionate weight to certain elements rather than treating all parts equally. Most PMM...

I deeply admire Brene Brown and Malcolm Gladwell for their distinct storytelling approaches. Brene Brown stands out for the simplicity with which she breaks down complex ...

I'm not sure I can point to specific techniques exactly, but I firmly believe that people buy based on emotion. They then use things like business cases and pricing to ju...

There are several ways you can shift your approach.1.      Shift from feature-centric to pillars/themes – instead of diving into features and use cases, create a scenario...

The Process you pick depends on the Story Arc you choose. First, the story arc you choose depends on what you want to achieve. For example if you want to challenge the th...

Interesting question. You made me think. Thank you!Here is my opinion, open to other PoVs. The answer is yes, ultimately it's about sales and revenue, but no, you can’t m...

When you’re launching a genuine disruptor, you can’t rely on customer proof, because that evidence simply doesn't exist yet. My rule is to instantly pivot the focus from ...

Marketers can measure how successful they've been at landing a story in the following ways: Direct feedback on your message: in pre-testing prior to launch and feedback p...

There are messaging frameworks and then storytelling frameworks. For storytelling, start with your goal (what do you want the audience e feeling and thinking) and then br...

In my opinion, product marketing owns the story. Brand marketing helps evangelize it and growth marketing helps activate it via cross-channel campaigns.Brand Marketing --...

It’s easy to look at a great storyteller and think it just comes naturally to them; but, the reality is most great storytellers got there through a lot of hard work and p...

There are a lot of great frameworks for storytelling, and I don’t subscribe to just one. The right framework depends on what you’re trying to achieve and who you’re tryin...

For the most part, I'd say that the answer to this is the same as my advice when someone feels they're not naturally a good storyteller. That said, I think this warrants ...

This is a really hard one, particularly as organizations grow in size and complexity. But, your ability to shape market perception hinges on the consistency and disciplin...