Let’s say that you want to build a new product, but aren’t sure if it’s a good idea? That’s a story. You want to help people find your product?
Also a story. You want to get people to try your product out? Yup, story. You want to figure out how your product should work? Story. People try your product, but don’t return to use it again? That’s a story, too. A cliffhanger of a story and one that you can easily fix with some props and ingenuity. Just like MacGyver.
You’ll learn how to ask three simple questions before you start any new project:
• What’s the story?
• Who is the hero?
• What is the hero’s goal?
After a while, you won’t just be asking what the story is, but whether it’s a good story. Because a good story isn’t just a random series of events—that’s a flow chart or a terrible student film. A good story makes things go boom! For your customers. And for your business.
Because Structure Is Key
The book is split into three parts. In the first part (Chapters 1–2), you’ll learn why story matters for things that aren’t just entertainment, fiction, or movies, as well as how story functions in products and services. In the second part (Chapters 3–5), you’ll learn about different types of stories and how those frameworks flow through successful products. Finally, in Chapters 6–8, you’ll see how to apply stories to your own work, in different contexts, so that you can build successful products that resonate with your target audience. By the end of this book, you’ll think like a storyteller and work like a storymaker.
CHAPTER 1
Mapping the Story
“You need a road map, a guide, a direction—a line of development leading from beginning to end. You need a story line. If you don’t have one, you’re in trouble.”
—Syd Field, Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting
In 2004, I presented my year-end documentary film in graduate school to an audience of around 100 people. As soon as the film ended, before the lights went up, one of my classmate’s hands shot up. I will never forget the first words he uttered—they’re etched into my brain.
I can’t believe you made me sit through that. What was the point?
My film was a dud. It had nothing holding it together: no conflict, no climax, and no resolution—ergo, no story. As a result, I failed to engage my audience. I somehow forgot one of the foundational tenets of filmmaking: if you want to engage your audience, your film must have a story at its foundation.
A website, software, app, service, or campaign—for brevity’s-sake I’ll use the term product for the rest of the book—is similar to a film. They are all things that humans experience. Just like with a film, if you want to engage your audience, your product must have a story at its foundation. You can do this by accident like I did when I created films that people loved. (I did have a few of those, I promise.) Or you can map the story with deliberate care and intent like I eventually learned to do, both as a filmmaker and more recently as someone who helps businesses build products that people love.
Making Things Go BOOM!
Vince Gilligan, creator of the television show Breaking Bad, knows a thing or two about using story to engage an audience. In this photo (see Figure 1.1), he is seated in front of the story map for Season 4.
TV writers are smart. They map the story out before they write a line of dialogue or shoot a single scene. TV shows are large, complex things that are built with large, distributed teams over a long period of time. With so many people, scenes, episodes, and seasons to manage, it’s hard to stay focused on the big picture. Mapping the story on a wall helps TV writers plot a course while keeping the big picture in mind.
FIGURE 1.1 Vince Gilligan, creator of Breaking Bad, in front of a story map for season 4.
Mapping the story also helps TV writers build a product that engages an audience by adhering to a millennia-old architecture designed for engagement: a well-crafted story. You’ll learn more about story architecture in Chapter 2, but in the meantime, consider this meticulously placed card near the end of the storyline for Breaking Bad, Season 4 (see Figure 1.2). This card has one word written on it: “BOOM.” If you’ve seen Season 4 of Breaking Bad, you know what this refers to. If you haven’t, you can imagine. Mapping the story helps TV writers make things go BOOM. And it will help you, someone who builds products, make things go BOOM as well.
Story is why people tune in and stayed tuned in, whether you’re creating a TV show, a movie, or a website. Storymapping is how you make that story happen, whether you’re a screenwriter or a product person.
FIGURE 1.2 A close-up of a story card for Breaking Bad.
Storymapping is just what it sounds like: mapping out an intended experience of use for a product, plot point by plot point. This concept of mapping stories is not new. It’s something that Aristotle started doing a very long time ago as he sought to understand what it was about Greek dramas that enraptured audiences, so their success could be reproduced. It’s something screenwriters have been doing for years. It’s something I eventually learned to do for films and more recently with products. And it’s something that you can do on your next project or product.
Why Story?
Story is one of the most powerful tools that humans use to understand and communicate with the outside world. Part evolutionary feature, part survival mechanism harking back to Paleolithic times, part communication tool—story powers the human brain. Story-based cognitive function is so powerful that neuroscientists have a term for it when it doesn’t work: dysnarrativia, the inability to understand or construct stories. Narrative cognition is so central to how humans operate that not having it is debilitating. Like living with