Coaching Tools – The Narrative

Love this post from Marty Cagan.

I’d like to discuss my single favorite coaching tool for helping product managers become exceptional: the written narrative.

Oh, you mean a spec?

I am not talking about a spec of any sort. A spec is not intended to be a persuasive piece – it’s just a document describing the details of what you want built.

Ah, ok, so not a spec. So what?

I’m talking about a document that describes the vision of what you’re trying to achieve, why this will be valuable for your customers and for your business, and your strategy for achieving this vision. If this narrative is done well, the reader will be both inspired and convinced.

I love the idea of a written narrative—mere prose, thoughtfully written paragraphs of text—for describing vision, value, and strategy. How and why can this be so effective? Because, as Stephenie Landry explains:

[With written narratives] you can’t hide behind complexity, you actually have to work through it.

You think you know something until you have to explain it—not in the way of specifying minute details for people, but in the way of inspiring, persuading, and including people.

Love this point, as well, by Brad Porter:

When I begin to write, I realize that my ‘thoughts’ are usually a jumble of half-baked, incoherent impulses strung together with gaping logical holes between them.