Numbers, on their own, represent quantity, and do not guarantee quality. 100 can be a perfect score on a test, an average IQ, or a bad round of golf. What guarantees quality is the story that provides context for the data. Data and stories are co-constituted. One cannot, does not, exist [...]
You know how the astronomers said not to look at the eclipse with our naked eyes, or we’d go blind? That’s the way I feel a lot of times about how managers look at data. They stare at it so hard they go blind. If the eclipse itself is all that’s in your frame of reference, your [...]
There’s a lot of recent buzz about storytelling in business. As a company in the storytelling business, we see it everywhere. Tweets galore. LinkedIn links aplenty. This is a caution to anyone investing in storytelling for your organization or community: Don’t limit yourself to linear story [...]
Our friend Paul Pedrazzi (@ppedrazzi) called our attention to this list by Jeff Jordan, Anu Hariharan, Frank Chen and Preethi Kasireddy of Andreeson Horowitz. It is comprised of “16 startup metrics.” The authors write that “good” metrics are “about running the [...]
As a professional storyteller, you are familiar with what it takes to tell an effective story. You have a good grasp of the fundamentals of character, plot, emotional stakes, theme, conflict. Of narrative tension and dynamics. You can rattle off the stages of the Hero’s Journey like a [...]
Google makes a compelling case for what they call the “Micro Moments” that influence clicks and transactions. The idea, as Brian Solis and other social conversationalists point out, is to engage customers in as many of these micro moments as possible. Solis writes in Forbes: [...]