Storytelling for the BA IBADD 2017 Renee Saint-Louis Capstone Publishing

Agenda What’s Marketing got to do with Business Analysis? Why is Storytelling Important Basic Principles of Storytelling How to Structure a Good Story

When Marketing is Done Well… We connect with the story.

When It’s Done Poorly… There’s severe backlash!

To Be A Good Marketer You Must: Understand your customer or target market’s goals Personalize by speaking to their needs or wants – Know the Why Overcome barriers to purchase – by understanding the competition Inspire your target market to take action to fulfill their needs/wants with your product

To Be a Good Business Analyst You Must: Discover your customer’s goals Distinguish between their wants and needs Discover obstacles that stand in the way of achieving goals Know the competition Inspire people to take action to improve or change through great user stories, process improvement, and change management

Why Are Stories so Important? Our brains are wired for stories Stories activate the whole brain, Straight Data activates only the Language centers of the brain It’s easier to remember a story than cold hard facts! http://www.onespot.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/onespotscience4-1.jpg

When Do BA’s Need to Tell Stories?

How Do Marketers Tell Great Stories? They get prepared!

Step 1: Use Data to Find the Story When marketers need to tell a story, they often start by looking in their data to understand how people are using their products You can learn a LOT by piecing together a customer’s journey through their data points. By looking in Salesforce, I found this story on how marketing automation won a sale for Capstone May 5th June 3rd June 13th April 5th April 15th April 25th Kim buys PebbleGo Amanda Signed up for a Trial Jodi Signed up for a Trial Katy Signed up for a Trial Kim, the Assistant principal signs up for a trial Kim calls Paige at Capstone and asks for a quote

Step 2: Know Your Characters (Target Market) As a BA your characters can be: Executive Sponsors Customers Subject Matter Experts Team Members Create a Persona for each of them Decide which characters are your target market for your story

Why Do I Need to Know My Characters? If you want to be heard, you MUST connect with people in their own language

Step 3: Identify Goals & What’s at Stake Create a Character Map that states each person’s goals and what’s at stake Launch a beautifully designed, intuitive mobile app that will increase customer retention Do as little as possible Profitably deliver highly visible project to client. Future projects/consulting spend at stake Design a beautiful app and increase repeat business with client

Step 4: Identify Wants vs Needs Need: High Quality App delivered. Want: Delivered by June (it was April).

Step 5: Identify the Obstacles Road blocks aren’t always obvious Can be things like: Long held beliefs or company myths The competition Time Resources available

Now You’re Ready to Tell the Story

The Most Basic Story Character Obstacle Goal

How My Story Came Together

Don’t Forget the ASK! All good business stories end with an ask. Ask for what you need.

My Advice – Say It With Pictures

A little Fun Pixar and Disney use this technique when creating stories This is the perfect template for a business case

An Example of a Story Spine But One Day… Because of that… Once upon a time… Everyday… Because of that… Because of that… Until Finally… Ever Since Then…

Let’s Give it a Try

Thank you! Contact: Renee Saint-Louis renabor@Hotmail.com Twitter: @reneesaintlouis

Storytelling for the BA IBADD 2017 Renee Saint-Louis Capstone Publishing