Writing a compelling narrative

The narrative outlines a thesis on how to make people’s lives better. A clear narrative helps with prioritizing features, communicate about the product effectively and hone in on the most important niche. Every field in the narrative is testable from day one.

For ___[target audience], it’s a constant challenge to ___[general problem]. Every ___[time period], these people ___[perform a key activity] in order to ___[achieve a primary goal]. This is especially true if you’re a [niche].

The main problem they face is ___[primary functional problem relating to activity] which leads to ___[bad/worst case outcomes]. Today, their best option is ___[substitutes], but of course, they ___[the most common complaints of each substitute]. With ___[key trend], the problem will only get worse over time.

If only there was a easier/better/cheaper way to ___[perform a key activity], then customers could ___[quantifiable impact on their primary goal] which would lead to ___[positive outcomes / emotions]. With ___[number of potential customers], there is a clear opportunity to meaningfully impact a huge number of people.

How you can fill in the blanks for the narrative?:

• Target audience: B2C: Who are your target customers? B2B: Who actually uses your product?
• General problem: What’s a problem that every target customer can agree with (e.g., not enough time or money)?
• Key activity: What are customers doing (actions) while they use your product (e.g., booking flights or collecting receipts)?
• Primary goal: What’s the end-goal of performing this activity (e.g., travel abroad, or prepare a VAT return)?
• Niche: Which sub-group of potential customers is most likely to be an early-adopter?
• Primary functional problem: What’s the hardest part about doing the activity today?
• Bad/worst case outcomes: What’s the worst case scenario if the activity goes wrong? What is the negative business impact?
• Substitutes: What’s the next-best-option or workaround?
• Most common complaints: Why do customers hate these substitutes?
• Key trend: What will make this problem worse in the future?
• Quantifiable impact: How can you measure the impact of solving the problem?
• Positive outcomes and emotions: What good things happen as a result? What is the positive business impact?
• Number of potential customers: How many people can you target?