How to design a storytelling strategy using Storyboard Backcasting.

We have that one story that sticks to our memory like glue. For me, it’s the TED talk by the Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie about The Danger of a Single Story. The part that struck was how impressionable and vulnerable we are in the face of a story. Stories are catalysts for action. Storytelling strategy isn’t only a marketing strategy; it’s the foundation on which brand strategies are built. A strategic tool to communicate your brand, use insights, and loyal customers. Storytelling is the key to introducing change to hold the attention of audiences. We want to fill the information gap of customers and move them to act. That TED talk spurred me to action. Stick around, I will tell you how! Businesses can leverage creative and design-thinking techniques to create engaging storytelling strategies. Storyboard Backcasting can be the binding glue to storytelling strategy for businesses. How do you design a storytelling strategy? Here’s how Storyboard Backcasting can be a strategic tool.

Storyboard Backcasting process.

Storyboarding is an integral part of filmmaking and a strategic tool for storytelling. As a business tool, it presents the visual and technical requirements of projects. The process helps businesses identify essential milestones that should reflect your product. In my Design Storytelling Strategy workshops, I work to achieve what is known as the loop.

The loop is the optimal point where the origin story and product resonate with customers.

The Storyboard Backcasting process uses a story-problem approach to systematically walk back the infusion of insights, experiences, and changes in project to achieve the loop.

Storyboard Backcasting in a Startup Environment

The origin story: An origin story helps your business connect to your audience. It builds the credibility of your brand when the customer knows and relates to your origin story. For example, my origin story for pursuing a career as a storytelling strategist stems from the TED talk by Chimamanda Adichie. It is imperative to tell my story. When I work with businesses, especially startups, I find that the early stages of implementation of the Storyboard Backcasting process is key to achieving the loop between the origin story and the product. I implemented this process with one startup Reminded Oy, a Finnish health technology company developing a monitoring device using personal data. We identified milestones in their product development process and evolution. Then, worked it into their development process to make their origin story-product loop. It’s assumed that building a business starts from identifying a problem. Presenting vulnerability in the form of insight builds credibility. The path to building brand loyalty. In 1980, Barry Marshal and Robin Warren from Perth Australia identified Helicobacter pylori, a kind of bacteria linked to ulcers. They identified the cure. was antibiotics. Their findings didn’t go through peer review. Barry Marshal was not even a doctor at the time. To build credibility, he ingested the bacteria and cured himself with antibiotics. They won a Nobel Prize in medicine in 2005. Establishing the link between the origin story and the problem is the first step to designing a storytelling strategy.

Companies like Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, and Disney built cult-like following by connecting customers to their origin stories.

The transformations that took place. Starting the process at the origin story is key to forming the loop with the product. The origin story will aid the process of designing the problem.

The problem: The goal of any business is to fill the gap by providing the best solution. Understanding the problem helps the idea develop. It requires a thorough understanding of the problem. Solving the problem is easier when you know the origin story. A survey can help identify how big the gap is. Insight from surveys form part of the storyboard entry. Analysis should be done in a relatable way the goal is to make every insight stand out. Embrace the vulnerability in the process. For example, a well-documented process of the origin story will make it easier to get it right. In the storyboard Backcasting process, I teach businesses to use a story-problem approach to get the right solution. The problem is designed with the origin story as the base or foundation. When the questions are designed in story structure, the audience connects.

Idea: In my workshops, I often hear a lot ‘I have a business idea..’ When I ask where the idea was discovered? The response is not always linked to an origin story. A project that starts with only a business idea will likely fail. The idea phase is a tally process of the connected origin story and centering the best fit. Businesses often find the idea validation process tasking. The wrong idea is the downward slope of a project. The idea reflects how to act on the problems. The story-problem approach makes the idea solid, and is reflected in the feedback. The struggle for competing ideas is less, saving time and narrowing options of ideas. When developing a business brainstorming is a critical, because the right solutions can help the project succeed. A business will be able to highlight narratives instead of listing ideas. I encounter teams that have started their projects from the idea phase. I use the story-problem approach to walk them back to their origin story. Storyboard Backcasting is strategic in formulating the story-problem survey that represents the right-fit solution. For example, with Reminded the story-problem approach was instrumental in the early stages of their journey and prototyping a new solution.

Solution: You have seen projects fail because in retrospect the business should have pursued a different path. Offering innovative solutions requires understanding existing solutions and transforming them. Any solution should address the pain points of the customer. There are projects where businesses provide the right solutions to the wrong problems. This is a symptom of ignoring the story-problem approach. It is possible to fix errors in the iteration stage but it impacts the cost and timeline of the project. The question a business needs to answer is, why is your business solving the problem? Are we capturing the milestones of the project and documenting the insights? The Storyboard Backcasting process has been instrumental in linking to the why.

Iterations: Nokia was founded in 1865 as a paper mill by Fredrik Idestam. It ended up being a smartphone company. It is not uncommon to see companies vying for another product. Iteration can be an insightful way to fine-tune your product, making it market fit. When developing a storytelling strategy, I encourage businesses to walk back to the origin story. The check that the product achieves the loop. Iterations help your product remain relevant. Embrace the startup mindset, it easy to alter the product or project.

Product: The goal of any business is to build a product that resonates with customers. Apple has a cult-like following among its customers. These customers are the superfans. Hence the long queue before the release of the Apple device. The company still operates like a startup. They hold weekly sessions to incorporate customers’ stories and experiences into product development. Your product should capture the steps in the storyboard Backcasting process to achieve the loop. Focus on aligning your product to build a solid origin story and product loop.

The loop is the optimal point where your product links to the origin story resulting high resonance with your audience.

The link between storytelling strategy and Storyboard Backcasting.

Storytelling is the oldest way of selling, yet few businesses are leveraging its power to engage. The Storyboard Backcasting process is a strategic tool for designing a storytelling strategy. It encompasses. brainstorming ideas, visual arrangements, defining vision, and timeline. The process is reverse-engineering to identify critical milestones in product or service design. Let’s think about the chicken and the egg puzzle. The chicken or the egg which came first? Trying to solve that puzzle is a never-ending process. Rather than figuring out which is first, let’s focus on connecting the chicken to the egg. What are the processes of a chicken laying eggs and the relationship of eggs maturing into a chicken. Similarly, like The Storyboard Backcasting, all great strategies start with a vision of how the future will look. The vision part is easy. The hard sell is turning vision into a strategy that stakeholders understand. Strategy is a bet on the future while examining what happened before. The art of constructing organizational storyboard forms the cornerstone of a storytelling strategy.

Tips to build origin story and product loop.

• Turn data insights into stories
• Understand how to use insights from superfans
• Brainstorm ideas to execute.
• Define what you want to accomplish.
• Identify your origin story.
• Don’t emphasize problems rather emphasize stories.
• Hire a storytelling strategist to guide your path of origin story discovery.