Make Your User Stories Come Alive with Improv

I stumbled upon the book Humor, Seriously, written by Jennifer Aaker and Naomi Bagdonas, which unexpectedly became a catalyst for my personal growth. This enlightening read explored the power of humor and levity in both business and life. My main goal was to become more quick-witted. While I never intended to perform on stage, I found myself enjoying improv and learning something new each week. This week, I found that lessons in character development could be applied to creating compelling user stories.

This week, our instructor Derek introduced us to the notion of a person’s “power center” — the area of our body from which we draw our energy. To better grasp this concept, we engaged in an exercise that required us to envision someone whose power center rested on their shoulders and tried to channel their presence. Interacting with others while mimicking this person’s demeanor proved to be challenging and somewhat awkward.

Intrigued by this acting exercise, I asked our instructor, “Are the techniques behind improv the same as acting?” Without hesitation, Derek replied, “Absolutely! I am teaching you to become actors so you can be on the stage performing with me one day”. And so began Derek’s deep dive into “character development”, where we learned the essence of breathing life into our characters.

Image source: improvdr.com

The CROWE Method of Improvisation

In improv, the CROWE method serves as a mnemonic device to help improvisers remember the five key elements crucial to craft their characters to create compelling performances.

• Character: Who is this figure on stage?
• Relationship: What relationships do other characters have with the central figure?
• Objective: What’s each character’s motivation for a given scene?
• Where / When: Where does the scene take place? What time period (past, future, or present)?
• Emotion: A character’s emotion shapes the story.

Character

To develop a character, you make choices about how you present yourself — the way to stand, walk, and speak. You can also add depth to your scene partner’s character by offering vivid descriptions or observations, e.g. “What a pretty blouse you have on this lovely spring day!” You’ve now established that 1) the scene is set in the spring, and 2) the partner has a lovely outfit on.

Relationship

Relationships define the connections between two entities. It can be a connection between two people, such as a teacher and a student, or two friends. Or it can be between a person and the setting. For example, have you ever walked into the Library of Congress and been stunned by its grandeur when you look up at the ceiling? The beauty of the architecture and the vastness of the space can create a sense of awe and reverence. That’s the power of relationships — they can connect us to others and to places in ways that can be profound and transformative.

By exploring the connections and answering questions like “Why these people?” and “Why right now?”, improvisers can create more meaningful and engaging interactions.

Image credit: Carol M. Highsmith; Wikipedia

Objective

In every scene, each character requires a motivation that drives their action. What does your character try to achieve? As you are establishing the scene, make sure your objective is unexpected, specific, challenging, and believable. Consider the following example of an objective for an improv scene:

You are a group of people who are stuck in an elevator together, and you have to find a way to get along until the rescue team arrives.

• It’s unexpected because it’s an uncommon scenario, likely to spark interest and curiosity among the audience.
• It’s specific because the objective is clear and easy to follow — find a way to get along until the rescue team comes.
• It’s challenging because random people with different backgrounds and personalities in a confined space naturally create tension.
• It’s believable because many of us can relate to being stuck in an elevator. This establishes a sense of realism and connection for both performers and the audience.

Where / When

Everything happens somewhere. Where is this scene? When is this scene taking place? Establishing the scene’s location and time period adds context and richness to the storytelling.

Emotion

When performers are onstage with clear emotions, such as joy, fear, or anger, it helps shape the characters’ relationships with one another and evolve the story.

Applying the CROWE Method to User Stories

I realized that the CROWE framework holds immense value in crafting user stories as a product manager. By infusing user stories with more color, background, emotions, and context, product managers can create features that are truly user-centered and effective.

Image source: https://meetedgar.com/blog/instagram-stories-content-plan/

Consider this example. Let’s say that the product manager in charge of Instagram Stories wants to introduce the ability to create polls in Stories. The user story may look something like this:

As a user of Instagram, I want to be able to create polls in my Stories, so that I can get feedback from my followers on different topics.

Let’s use the CROWE method to think deeper about the user story:

• Character: The main character in the story is the user who creates the poll. In order to design a compelling feature, a product manager must deeply understand the user’s needs, desires, and goals.
• Relationship: The focus of the relationship is between the poll creator and their followers. To ensure a positive user experience, we must consider how this feature may affect the user’s relationship with the product. Does it enrich the product’s offerings but potentially complicate usability?
• Objective: The objective of a poll is to get feedback from followers or build rapport. More generally, we must maintain a clear objective throughout the design process to ensure the feature’s success.
• Where/When: The poll is to be built in the ephemeral context of Stories, which means they disappear after 24 hours. This enables the user to create more spontaneous content and try something novel with their followers. When designing this feature, it’s important to keep this premise in mind.
• Emotion: The poll can be serious (e.g. I just launched a new website so please give me feedback), playful (e.g. what board game unboxing would you like to see next?), or anything in between. As product managers, we strive to delight users and improve customer satisfaction. Therefore, it’s important to anticipate and consider the emotional impact that a feature will have on users.

Incorporating the improv’s method of character development can be a powerful tool for product managers who want to create compelling and user-centered features. By considering the character, relationship, objective, where, and emotions of a feature, product managers can create features that resonate with and delight their users.