The Power of Storytelling in Product Management
Think about someone you know who’s an engaging storyteller. What makes their stories so compelling? Why are they good at telling stories? Where and when do you typically hear good stories? Take a moment to reflect on your answers.
In the world of product management, storytelling is a crucial skill that can feel abstract. However, it’s essential for connecting with stakeholders and customers. But how can you tell a good story when the language of the industry boils down to 0s and 1s?
The 5 Ws Framework
Humans have used storytelling to communicate ideas for millennia. One popular framework among product managers is the 5 Ws, which originated in journalism. A well-reported news story should always answer the following questions:
- Who?
- What?
- When?
- Where?
- Why?
To understand the 5 Ws framework better, let’s look at an example. Imagine you’re reporting on a robbery at a jewelry store:
- Who is involved? A 45-year-old with a history of theft
- What occurred? Attempted a robbery at a jewelry store
- When did it happen? Around lunch time on Tuesday (in broad daylight!)
- Where did it happen? Walton’s jewelry store on High Street
- Why did it happen? The perpetrator wanted a special ring to propose to their partner
Adding the “How”
Many practitioners of the 5 Ws method add an H to the equation, which stands for how. This is known as the 5W1H method. Let’s refer back to our jewelry story robbery example:
A 45-year-old thief (who) stormed into the jewelry store (where) at lunch time (when) to commit a robbery (what). Describing the “how” — e.g., how did it happen? — as per the 5W1H method can help you give a more complete account:
A 45-year-old thief (who), holding a banana in their pocket to appear like a gun, stormed into the jewelry store (where) at lunch time (when) to commit a robbery (what). A customer tackled the robber to the ground, which enabled police to arrive on the scene and arrest them (how).
Applying the 5 Ws to Product Management
The 5Ws and 5W1H methods help you communicate in a thorough, concise, fact-based way when talking to stakeholders about your product. You might take this approach to explain how you developed your product roadmap, for example, or why you prioritized certain backlog items over others.
Let’s look at another example scenario:
Imagine you’re managing an e-commerce product that sells toys to children under 12. You’ve looked at your product analytics and determined that it’s time to build a new feature. You can use the 5 Ws framework to describe the problem and walk your development team through the best way to solve it:
“I’ve been reviewing the analytics on our site and I’ve found a problem I think we need to fix.
- Who is affected? Older users — likely grandparents buying gifts
- What is the problem? They’re getting stuck partway through the user journey
- When is it happening? After selecting the option to view all toys
- Where does it occur? From the homepage, which displays “View all toys” as the main call to action
- Why does it occur? My hypothesis is that these users are overwhelmed by the range of choices and hesitant to buy something age-inappropriate
Engaging Your Development Team
Taking it a step further, per the 5W1H method, you might encourage your development team to think about how best to solve the problem. The 5Ws and 5W1H approaches enable you to not only paint a full picture of the problem your users face but also to engage your developers in a collaborative process that puts the user at the center of new feature development.
Storytelling in Action
Storytelling is a powerful way for product managers to build consensus on your product direction. The 5Ws and 5W1H methods can help you lay out the facts while simultaneously engaging your audience. Give it a try and see the difference in the impact you make.