{"id":100200,"date":"2023-04-19T15:34:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-19T19:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=100200"},"modified":"2025-10-03T11:32:43","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T15:32:43","slug":"product-storytelling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/product-storytelling\/","title":{"rendered":"Product Storytelling: Who Wants Your Product, and Why?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What&#8217;s the most important step when <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/creating-a-product\/\">creating a product<\/a>? How does a product&#8217;s story guide both the product and its marketing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tony Fadell wrote a book called <em>Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making<\/em>. He says that the key to knowing what is actually worth making is in discovering your story. Your product story answers vital questions about your product, so it&#8217;s an indispensable step in the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read on to learn about product storytelling from Fadell, along with some related advice from Eric Ries, John Brooks, and Donald Miller.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p><em>Editor\u2019s note: This article is part of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/hub\/society-culture\/arts\/storytelling-guide\/\">Shortform\u2019s guide to storytelling<\/a>. If you like what you read here, there\u2019s plenty more to check out in the guide!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-product-storytelling\">Product Storytelling<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Once you have a good idea for a product, the experience to start a company, and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/hiring-the-right-people\/\">right people<\/a> with which to build them, <em>how<\/em> do you start building the product? The most crucial step, Fadell argues, is product storytelling. To <strong>discover your story<\/strong>, you must figure out <em>who<\/em> wants your product and <em>why<\/em>, design every conceivable aspect of your product around that story, and test to ensure that story works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: <a href=\"https:\/\/shortform.com\/app\/book\/the-lean-startup\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>The Lean Startup<\/em><\/a> author Eric Ries agrees that it\u2019s crucial to keep your customers\u2019 desires in mind when creating your product. However, he recommends that you figure out those desires as quickly as possible in order to maximize profitability. To do so, first figure out what you <em>think<\/em> your customers want, then <a href=\"https:\/\/shortform.com\/app\/book\/the-lean-startup\/1-page-summary#the-minimum-viable-product\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">create a minimum viable product<\/a> (MVP) to test whether they <em>actually<\/em> want it. This MVP may involve no hardware at all; you could simply build a landing page that describes your product\u2019s features and see how much traffic you attract.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fadell explains that thinking through the whole story with your team (especially marketing) is essential because it drives both <em>what<\/em> you build and <em>how <\/em>you sell it\u2014to investors and later to consumers. Many companies focus too much on the product itself because that\u2019s what they think they\u2019re selling; but in reality, a company sells an <em>experience<\/em> with a product\u2014from how the customer installs it to the customer service they encounter if they run into trouble. Thinking through every aspect of that story will help you build and provide the best possible experience.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: When thinking through your product story, keep <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/your-ego\/\">your ego<\/a> in check. Otherwise, you risk making some ill-advised choices\u2014as the executives at Ford did when creating <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-did-the-ford-edsel-fail\/\">the Ford Edsel<\/a>, a car that\u2019s considered one of the biggest product launch failures of all time. In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/app\/book\/business-adventures\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Business Adventures<\/em><\/a>, John Brooks argues that this happened because the egos of Ford\u2019s executives, designers, and marketers led them to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/app\/book\/business-adventures\/1-page-summary#big-egos-can-make-people-feel-invincible\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">build a product based on what <em>they<\/em> thought consumers wanted<\/a> rather than one that met the market\u2019s <em>actual <\/em>demands. Moreover, Ford built up marketing hype but failed to deliver on any of it; early Edsel buyers complained about subpar quality and reliability, and Ford stopped manufacturing the car just two years after its release.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To tell an<strong> <\/strong>effective story,<strong> <\/strong>include three elements. First, remind people of the annoyance you\u2019re solving so that they can get excited about the solution. Second, provide both logical <em>and<\/em> emotional reasons that your solution is the best possible choice. Third, simplify technical concepts so that your customers can easily grasp them and relate them to others. Try <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/analogical-thinking\/\">using analogies<\/a>. For example, Apple\u2019s description of the iPod as \u201c1,000 songs in your pocket\u201d allowed people to quickly understand what the iPod did and easily explain it to their friends. If you struggle to determine your story, try writing a press release to clarify what you want your product to do and why it matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>A Different Kind of Product Story<\/strong><br><br><a href=\"https:\/\/shortform.com\/app\/book\/building-a-storybrand\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Building a Storybrand<\/em><\/a> author Donald Miller also recommends writing down a good, multi-part story when building your product. But rather than a press release, he asserts that you should create a \u201cstoryline\u201d: a document telling the story of how your brand helps customers achieve their goals.<br><br>Miller recommends that you <a href=\"https:\/\/shortform.com\/app\/book\/building-a-storybrand#the-seven-parts-of-the-marketing-outline\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">include seven elements in this storyline<\/a>. First, understand 1) what the customer wants <em>and<\/em> 2) the problem that prevents them from achieving those desires. Then, get the customer to trust you by 3) <em>demonstrating<\/em> that you understand their needs and 4) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-show-competence\/\">showing competence<\/a> in dealing with this problem. Finally, 5) tell the customer to buy your product, 6) warn them of the consequences of not doing so, and 7) demonstrate the happy ending of buying your product.&nbsp;<br><br>Miller\u2019s system doesn\u2019t include information about explaining technical concepts with analogies, presumably because his text isn\u2019t directed primarily toward technical companies. However, he does suggest another way to encourage <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/word-of-mouth-marketing-strategy-2\/\">word-of-mouth marketing<\/a>: <a href=\"https:\/\/shortform.com\/app\/book\/building-a-storybrand#implementation-5-build-a-rewarding-referral-system\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Implement a referral system<\/a> that enables happy customers to recommend your product to others and rewards them for it.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What&#8217;s the most important step when creating a product? How does a product&#8217;s story guide both the product and its marketing? Tony Fadell wrote a book called Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making. He says that the key to knowing what is actually worth making is in discovering your story. Your product story answers vital questions about your product, so it&#8217;s an indispensable step in the process. Read on to learn about product storytelling from Fadell, along with some related advice from Eric Ries, John Brooks, and Donald Miller.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":84200,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,104,103],"tags":[991],"class_list":["post-100200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-marketing","category-sales","tag-build","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Product Storytelling: Who Wants Your Product, and Why? - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Think you&#039;re ready to start building a product? The most crucial step is product storytelling. 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