The fundamental elements of any compelling story—a character, a conflict, and a resolution—map directly to product management. The user is the character, their problem is the conflict, and your product provides the resolution. This simplifies story creation.
Storytelling is often mislabeled as a "soft skill" or natural talent. In reality, it's a structured discipline that can be learned and perfected through training and deliberate practice, just like any other professional capability.
Trying to be overly clever with metaphors or complex language can distract and confuse an audience. Simple, direct narratives—like a "Dick and Jane" book—are more effective because they ensure the core message is easily understood and retained.
To develop your storytelling muscle, input a standard communication like an email into an AI and prompt it to restructure the text using a narrative framework. This acts as a training tool to help you internalize new patterns for persuasive communication.
Treat meetings with various stakeholders (CTO, CFO, COO) as practice sessions. Telling the same story multiple times allows you to observe what resonates, identify weak points, and refine the message before a high-stakes presentation.
Your enthusiasm as a storyteller is infectious. Like Steve Jobs marveling at his own products, showing genuine excitement guides your audience on how to react, making them more likely to connect emotionally with your message and vision.
The narrative structure used in Pixar films—"Once upon a time... and every day... until one day... because of that... ever since then"—provides a simple, effective template for product managers to build compelling stories around their users and solutions.
Structure a presentation by alternating between the current, problematic reality ("what is") and the aspirational future your solution enables ("what could be"). This contrast, used by leaders like Steve Jobs, creates tension and makes your call to action more powerful.