Technical storytelling: Session Notes

Book to recommend: a techie’s guide to public speaking, can download the free version from https://gum.co/present-ebook/ghc

The slides for the session can be found at https://femgineer.com/ghc/ghc19.pdf

My story to use during the exercise: make team’s meeting more effective

Share a personal story: (example story: All my friends were doing it.. building an iPhone app) Is relatable; Evokes empathy; Builds connections — What you wish you knew before, A mistake you made, a long shot goal you’re aiming for (I built my app to compete with one that had the longest downloads ever, the odds are not in my favor)

Craft a hypothetical story (use it when confidential info is involved, no personal experience to share. Example story: You are a reviewer for proposals for GHC2020, I want to lead a workshop for GitHub newbies(imagine applying for your first tech intern, recruiter asks for a GitHub account)

• Think of a common problem yourself or your audience faces; ex. effective ways to retire technical debt
• Introduce urgency or necessity; ex. you are meeting with recruiter in an hour; ship releases more predictably
• Identify a worst-case scenario

Uncover the story behind the data: (use it when there is lots of data, or topic is otherwise dry, bring the data to life. Example story: You are head of Finance at your company, I have an idea for a new process to track revenue dips, earlier this year I was asked to look into what was causing a slump in profits, I found we are loosing 1 mil every week, I have a process to find the dips before they become a problem. What do you say if I tell you I can improve your dev productivity by 40%, I have a new meeting strategy that can free more dev time so they can be more productivity and deliver more quality products)

• Think about how your data impacts:(Revenue or expenses; Quality; Productivity)

Start with story (do not start with “about me”, “my agenda”, find a hook to hook the audience. Example story: You are standing in the room, sweating, you are presenting your design, but people are not talking about what’s in the doc, people are asking questions that you can not answer. I have been there and I have the wet tshirt to prove it.)

• A hook is “Past experience”, “Relatable”, “Memorable”, “Succinct” (30 sec max)
• Not only get the audience engaged, but also convince your audience that they should sponsor you

Build credibility with a story (example:Even though I was the lead network security engineer and I had studied all the best practices in grad school. My knowledge was outdated because I’d gone to grad school before mobile phones and and IoT, because of that, I had to get outside support to fend off the attack. Over the pats 10 years of my career, I’ve used three approaches to help companies resist attacks, and bounce back in hours or days)

• Share a problem
• challenges to your expertise
• Impact and outcome

Weave your story throughout your talk (a transition sentence; it was 3am, we had raided the kitchen of all snacks, and that’s when it dawned on us to try this next strategy to stop the flood of incoming requests. Be proactive, at your next all-hands meeting, start a discussion around each of these techniques. And which could help your company)

Summary

• Use storytelling to gain support
• 3 kinds of stories:
• tart with a hook
• Build credibility
• Weave your story