Storyboard Model Your Business
How the simple act of telling your story can power data-driven decision-making (DDDM)… with the right framework.
Once upon a time, in a land overwhelmed by big data, machine learning, and a slew of other equally intangible buzzwords many people and businesses lost their way. They began to believe that analytics was beyond their reach, beyond their understanding, and worse yet — beyond their budget.
The idea of affordable, efficient, and tangible returns from data-driven decision-making felt like a fairy tale. One beyond their grasp and likely without a happy ending. They did what any group of people or businesses might do, they trudged on, dismissive of these nuisance concepts and assured that any hope was beyond them.
I suppose in an ordinary world, this would be the end of our tale. But if you are reading this article, you and your business are likely on a hero’s journey. If so, you have come to the right place. From the authors of Superhero Lessons in Analytics and Comic Book Lessons, comes a framework that is easy to grasp and capable of transforming your business. And it all begins with a story… I suppose it already has…
Your Business Has A Story
You have drawn it on your whiteboard, perhaps even a napkin or two. It is in your pitch deck, if you have one. Or perhaps it even adorns the wall in the break room. Your business has a story. It has a model. Even if you have never mapped it out, you know this to be true.
But businesses, are much like onions and ogres. They have layers. They have multiple stories. You can certainly stop here, many people do, but it is the deeper elements of your story that truly have the power to transform your organization, to empower it, and to provide true analytic success. So lets peel this back, one story at a time.
Your Customer Has A Story
Have you heard this one before? I hope so, but that is not always the case. Some businesses just don’t know their customer story. Some businesses have more than one customer, so this can get complicated rather quickly. Marketing consultants can fill pots of gold helping their clients tell this story. It may well be worth it, though how do you know?
How important is your customer story to the story of your business? If you have a commodity product or the right kind of market, your customer’s story may be little more than some color and character development in the much more important story of your business. Not every character deserves top billing, but to figure that out — we need to peel back further.
Your Product (Or Service) Has A Story
Product consulting teams fill treasure chests of their own. Some are so adept, they make Smaug look like a piker. But your product’s story matters, there is little doubt. If you provide a service, doubly so. If you provide a product as a service, you may need to write a trilogy. But all joking aside, you clearly need to understand your product or service’s storyboard. It is not the same as your businesses’.
For starters, it is a different perspective. All of these stories really are. It is what makes this layered approach so powerful. So far, this approach isn’t that different than many others. Plenty of consultants offer support in developing storyboards for your business, your products, and your customers. Very few, if any, have interest in delving further. They ignore the rest of the story. Let’s peel back the next layer.
Your Process Storyboard
Storyboards create focus, interest, and priority. They identify and delineate the most important aspects and components of a story. They are frames of reference. Some organizations are very adept at providing that discipline to their business processes, many others struggle.
A solid process storyboard focuses your attention on the process, the organization, and the resource allocation of the business. With a little luck, it also clearly labels the key areas within your business where the battle is won or lost. Process models should align with departments and reporting structures, with cost centers and even P&Ls (in larger organizations).
As the level of our model is refined, we begin laying the seed work for important details like KPI, business levers, and accountability. We have left the land of marketing, product, and strategy consultants and entered the kingdom of analytics, decision-making, and data. We begin developing standards, naming conventions, definitions, and real business structure. But there are more layers to peel…
Your Revenue Storyboard
Now we turn our attention to the money. Where is your revenue made? Key performance indicators (KPI) are refined. Levers for profitability and growth are identified. Insights develop, not least is the seeds of “best customer” concepts. You will begin to see the your businesses financial story develop. You will get a sense of who your “best customers” might be and why.
Your Expense Storyboard
The next layer is cost. KPI further develop. Our levers now have trade-offs. Our understanding develops. For all but the most mature businesses, this layer is a sanity check, a place for final insights, and a final audit on your resource strategy. This story can be surprising to those who never looked deeply here before.
Both of these layers should integrate references to systems of record within your organization for audit and sanity. They should also benchmark references outside your organization for comparison and understanding. It is in these deep layers where the real magic begins to happen.
Your Decision-Maker’s Storyboard
The decision-maker’s storyboard is a healthy surrogate for a job description. Done right, none of your executives should ever question job clarity again. They may not have it, but they will at least know why. You may debate the how, but the what will be tremendously clear. Leveraging this model and the layers above, the story of each executive will come to life, in living color and with supporting KPI. You will begin to see the trees through the forest.
The big questions and big decisions should become obvious. It becomes easy to model hypotheses, tailor analytic support, and plan your path forward. This becomes a major step in your learning blueprint. It defines test strategies and experimental design. It is a description for how your company should grow, the feedback you need to collect, and the actions you expect your leadership to take.
When combined these layers define your priority space as well. You have detailed what is important, who is accountable, and why it matters. Value need no longer be debated, spend your time arguing about the potential impact of your projects — a welcome change for many.
Your Data Should Drive This Story
Our final story is the story of your data. Many companies have big data, but unless you complete a process like this — you will never be sure you have comprehensive data. With this multi-layered storyboard model in place, we can inventory, organize, and assess your data infrastructure with ease. Better still we can define the necessary solutions and structures to make your data reflect your business in a way that makes it accessible to ALL of your employees.
With the final story in place, you will now possess and easy, structured, and insightful model of your business. A model that defines roles and processes, revenue streams and major expenses. You will have model for prioritization, for reporting, and for growth. You will have shared definitions and clearly communicated focus and understanding. A model like this is empowering, both in its simplicity and its depth. So what are you waiting for?
Sound good, but still feel beyond your reach? No worries, that is expected. You are the hero of your story, not the storyteller. Leave that to the professionals. Give us a call, we can help:
