I was helping the team at work today with roadmapping, and trying to sell the brilliance of always thinking in terms of story. Most stories have been told, but the way in which they’re told makes all the difference. I left even more convinced myself that we should literally write the story that we’re looking to tell, and focus on the people, not the product.
We’re building a product to help people write more, or as I like to think of it: to help more people become the kind of person who writes. Our product is one way to do that, but the overall journey probably looks pretty similar regardless of our product. Hopefully we’ll make the journey better, but still. To become a person who writes, you might:
- Try to find inspiration or motivation
- Read widely to improve your own voice
- Start or join a community of writers
- Write daily to build a writing habit
- Get feedback on the things you write
- Research what you’re writing about
There are countless more things, I’m sure, but most folks will do some or all of these along the way. Maybe not all at once, and maybe not in that order, but they might flow between them. They might invest in one more heavily than another on some day; at some hour. They’re simply moments throughout the journey toward becoming a person who writes.
When we think about how we might help, we’re undoubtedly helping with one of those moments. We might solve it better with a new technology, or in a way that makes it feel more fun, but that doesn’t change the story. You could write the story of the writer’s journey and the big moments wouldn’t have changed for a long time (and won’t for longer still).
Folks have done this for a long time—built their product around a story—but rarely do folks really write the story out, and write it well. I wonder why, and what it might look like. Maybe I’ll have to do it and find out. Surely it’s worth the effort; surely we should tell the story of the people we might serve for years, and aim to make their story better.