The best PMs are storytellers.

Crafting and controlling a story can pave the way for a successful project.

Or: why “my project just isn’t sexy” is bullshit (and your job as a PM is to make it sexy).

I was sitting down with a PM friend the other day, and heard basically this:

“This project just isn’t exciting. Like, it’s boring. You have such a cool project to work on. I want that.”

I want to talk about this mindset that projects are “exciting” or “not exciting” for a second.

Misguided, you are.

I won’t deny some projects seem to be inherently more sexy than others. There are ones that the whole company will celebrate, and there are others that will quietly splash down without anyone really making any noise.

But I want to lay out three truths here:

1. Sexy projects are made, not born.
2. You will be more successful as a PM if you can convince yourself and people around you that your project is sexy.
3. If you can’t make a project seem sexy to yourself or other people, it’s probably not worth doing.

Your J-O-B as a PM is to figure out what about your project is so important, and then convince every person around you.

If your project is worth doing, there’s a problem in there that you can fall in love with. And the most successful PMs find a way to make sure everyone else falls in love with that problem too.

Sexy projects are made, not born.

Take a moment and think about the projects you think are most exciting. The enviable projects.

Why are they so amazing?

For many of us, we covet them because there are compelling stories about them: a reason for existence, a clear vision for the novel and worthwhile future they’ll create. Maybe even an origin story.

Those stories don’t exist by accident and they definitely are not innate to the work.

If you’ve been with the project long enough, you can remember when someone first told you the story. Maybe it was some higher-up-someone-or-rather when they started the project, or it came up at a meeting, or maybe over coffee.

Now, think about the projects that are absolute snoozefests. What’s the story you’re told about those projects? Yawn.

The stories we tell change how we feel about the project.

What’s the best way to see how different stories can change the excitement level around a project? Find one where different people tell different stories about the same project.

Let’s take bug fixing work, for a second. That’s often a classical “Boring AF” project, right? Next time you encounter one of these projects, go ask someone who has front-line access to your customers about how important that work is. Often, the grumbling from the trenches of the development teams is in stark contrast to the excitement and dire need that is volleyed back from the customer-facing camps. It’s unrecognizable.

Why aren’t those projects, which seem to have such important user impact, making anyone excited back in product team land? No one is bothering to tell the story.

I often see the same thing when new projects are born… before there’s a kickoff and everyone’s all heard the same dominant story. Talk to person A, and they’ll tell you why it’s awful and will never work and seems really like a bad idea anyway. Meanwhile, person B is fucking pumped and thinks this project will absolutely be the best thing ever for the company.

What does the kickoff sound like? Will there even be a kickoff? Depends whose story was most compelling.

Nothing is black and white, and certainly things like impact, investment, visibility, and more can change the base level of excitement a project can generate.

Choose your destiny.

Think of storytelling as a modifier. Each project has an innate level of excitement, but the story can positively or negatively multiply that base level.

This is your secret weapon.

You can take an innately less exciting project and make it far more exciting than one that originally started with an advantage.

Look Ma, I’m winning.

Remember the project that made a lot of buzz, and made you mad because your project was totally way more important? I’d venture to guess they told a better story.

What’s in it for me?

Humans find things exciting because of the stories that surround them. The lore, the idealized vision, the end glory we’ll all experience together. So, your best bet to get your team and stakeholders to follow you to that end glory is to find the vision, put a box around it, tie a nice bow on it, and convince everyone around you that what’s in the box is what they want to work on.

If you can successfully tell a story that resonates with your team and your surrounding community, you will:

• Control how others think about the purpose (and relative success or failure) of your project
• Frame conversations and decisions that are made about your project when you aren’t there
• Empower others to think about your project for you, and discover interesting connections or directions you might never have considered
• Help those working on your project understand what they’re trying to achieve and why
• Give worth and value to the effort and time each of those team members is giving
• Make others want to work with you on your vision

Projects that are thought of as exciting and innovative gain returns with compound interest.

First, they have attention. Attention brings, above all, more brains to the table. Your story is examined over and over again. If your story stands up, you’ve got a lot of valuable feedback and validation. If someone is calling bullshit, that’s some very good feedback, indeed.

Those brains, if you’ve won them over, are also going to start drawing connections to other stories they’ve heard. By better understanding the point of what you’re trying to achieve, and by being excited about it, they’ll be more able and willing to find ways to collaborate or contribute.

They’ll also be your advocates when you aren’t around. The same brains that gave you feedback and thought of unlikely connections will also repeat your story in unlikely places. They’ll correct the more interesting interpretations of what you’re trying to achieve (as is inevitable), and pass on the excitement and the story of your goals.

You’ll also gain a more motivated and willing team. I started this whole post with the example of my friend who’s project is “boring”. If your team is full of people like that, good luck hauling them over the finish line with you. But if your team gets it, really gets it, they’ll want to move mountains.

What if there really is nothing sexy about it?

Disclaimer: I know we don’t all have this luxury. But if you do, this is the litmus test of all litmus tests.

I can hear it now. “But you don’t understand. This project is REALLY not exciting. There’s no story”.

Cool. Kill it. Bye Felicia.

If you cannot tell a compelling story about something you’re putting precious time and energy into, then just don’t do it. We spend countless hours debating prioritization methods and how to optimize time and resources. None of that particularly matters if it’s in the context of a project that’s not worth doing.

But… how?

On the surface, many projects seem kind of drab, but they just need a story makeover (assuming they’re worth doing). Here are a few tips to get you started:

• If you can’t fall in love with the problem, no one’s going to believe you. So that’s step one. Take the time to really explore your problem space, learn, talk to users, and find what speaks to you.
• Pay attention to the stories we tell about why the project came about in the first place. Is that a compelling story? Often it’s not. If it’s not, stop repeating it.
• Look at other similar projects that everyone loved. What kinds of stories did they tell? What are the parallels to your own work?
• Tell everyone. Test messaging, see what people take away from your conversations. Tweak and change until you have something compelling. And then keep repeating it.
• Which also means: go visit people. Talk to people that are outside your team or org, and tell them your story. Make advocates in unlikely places.
• Put it down in words. Sometimes documents (especially with lots of pictures) can be a great medium for storytelling.

Above all? Be purposeful. Even if you get it wrong, at least you were in control of that mistake. If you don’t shape the story around your project, someone else will. And they undoubtedly will not think your work is as sexy as it deserves to be.

It’s a skill to hone over time, but I promise you this one’s worth it.