Better Storytelling: A Key Tool In The Consultancy Arsenal
Storytelling is a key skill in the consultancy toolkit. Whether you're persuading a client or speaking on stage, you should be able to tell compelling stories.
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A dull presentation begins with something like this:
Hi everyone, I’m Mike. I’m a UX Researcher from UX1000 - we’re a niche UX firm which works with large retail companies to help them optimise their website. We’ve helped brands like Walmart, Tescos, Carrefour, and others to optimise their experience by giving them great UX research.
I’m going to share today some UX tips which you can use to get better UX research and optimise the e-commerce experience. Specifically, I’m going to share why the details matter and how changing just a few things can have a big impact.
But let’s begin with a question. Why does optimising the e-commerce experience matter?
This study by Gartner notes that 72% of customers will decide whether or not to buy from you based on your e-commerce experience. Another study by TopRetail shows that e-commerce brands are leaving $843m in sales on the table by not properly optimising their eCommerce experience.
If you’re like me, you know nothing is more annoying than unnecessary friction in the e-commerce process.
This is the kind of talk most people give. It’s not terrible, but it’s hardly memorable either. Most people who rate themselves as great storytellers are giving talks like this.
It’s a ‘talk by numbers’. All the elements are in there and the speaker is trying to get through it without looking like a fool. At some point, you just know Mike is going to ask the audience to raise their hand (or worse, get everyone to stand up).
This is the kind of talk Mike should be giving.
It’s April 2023 and I’m on one of the most nerve-wracking Zoom calls of my life.
Our very first user research participant is about to encounter our new website for the first time. I know where I want him to click. But I can’t tell him. I can’t even hint or suggest it. I have to be neutral or I’ll ruin the entire experiment. My questions and tone of voice have to remain calm without indicating any preference.
If the studies are to be believed, millions of dollars hang on the outcome. If we’ve failed to get every detail right, he’s going to get stuck or, perform the worst of all e-commerce sins of all, he’s going to abandon his trolly! He’s going to add to the $800m+ in sales eCommerce companies are losing at the checkout stage.
Every single detail matters. If we’ve used the wrong colour, wrong font, wrong language, or poorly positioned the ‘buy’ button, the checkout rate will be a few percentage points lower. And when you’re working with the wafer-thin margins of supermarket brands, that’s the difference between staff bonuses of layoffs.
I can see I’m not alone. Eight other nervous faces are staring back at me on the Zoom call. My boss, colleagues, and our client are all watching the same screen as I am. Together we’re collectively praying he makes the ‘quick click’ we’re looking for.
He’s registered successfully, he’s selected the items to complete the task I’ve given him. Now it’s time to give him his third and final task.
I unmute myself and say with the most measured tone of voice possible, “When you’re ready, complete the process to buy the items”. I use the word ‘complete’ instead of buy so as not to bias the outcome. But I couldn’t be more biased.
I quickly mute myself again. The moment of truth has arrived. After a brief pause, I can see his mouse cursor move, hover over a button, and then he clicks.
Hopefully, you find the second introduction more compelling than the first. This is what happens when you have the key elements of storytelling at play.
Most people think they’re great at storytelling. But having sat through hundreds of presentations - most of which I can’t recall a single detail about - that’s clearly not the case.
Like anything, storytelling is a skill. There are levels to this. The more you deliberately practice telling compelling stories, the better you will become.
Once you have an idea about what you’re going to talk about, the next step is to really think about how you’re going to make your story as exciting, memorable, and engaging as possible.
Here are some things that make the second story better than the first.
Cut out all the stuff the audience doesn’t need to know. You don’t need to begin a presentation with who you are, what you do, or what you’re going to talk about. Often that information is on the intro screen as you walk on stage. And even if it isn’t, no one cares. Even if they did, they wouldn’t remember it. Cut out every component of the story which isn’t absolutely critical for the audience to know. Only include the critical steps. Imagine you’re writing a movie. Characters don’t introduce themselves by talking to the camera, they reveal who they are by what they do. It’s clear in the second story what Mike does without him having to say it directly.
Be clear about your message. Whatever talk you’re giving, make sure there is a one-sentence summary. If people remember nothing else about your talk, they should remember that sentence. Ideally, this sentence should reflect a universal truth we intuitively knew was true all along. In the second story, the message is tiny details have a big impact.
Tell compelling stories to support the main message. Try to avoid the stories everyone has heard already. If your story includes the words ‘steve’ and ‘jobs’, find a lesser-known story. Personal stories are by far the best.
One of my favourite talks is Seth Godin’s - How To Get Your Ideas To Spread. His message is simple. Ideas that spread win. Seth’s talk here is a mix of quick, compelling, stories.
Jump straight into the exciting bit. If you’re going to give a talk, drop people right into the middle of the most exciting part of your story. Sprinkle in the background details later. This works for writing too. Try to skip out the boring pre-amble and drop people straight into the most exciting part of your story. The second story did precisely that.
Tell your story in real time. Tell your story in the first person and in real time. Don’t say “I was walking down the street when…” go with “I’m walking down the street and…”. Stories in the past don’t have the same impact as telling it as it’s happening. Matthew Dicks is fantastic at both jumping into the middle of the story and telling a story in real time.
Set the stakes. If the outcome doesn’t matter, the story doesn’t matter. What’s the conflict in your story? What’s at stake in your story? The higher the stakes, the greater the interest. If nothing is at stake, who cares?
Build the suspense. Take the audience on the journey you went on. Don’t give away the ending. Build up the suspense by giving away small clues. Build things up to the pivotal moment.
Use mnemonic devices. Try to find something in your story that people can visualise. Pick one unique thing in your story which lets people visualise something - the visualisation is critical if you want people to recall your story. No, a ‘bright sunny day’ or ‘the dark client’s office’ is not a mnemonic device. It’s irrelevant information. But ‘the Ferrari in the lobby’ or the ‘grandfather clock against the wall’ is something people remember. In your stories, try to find the visually surprising bit.
If you’re feeling bold, you can literally use props to make your point as Hans Rosling does brilliantly here:
Have a punch line. The reveal should be sudden. It should be described in as few words as possible. Even better, have a single word you use to give the reveal. Comedians do this. They structure their jokes so they end with a specific word (like a button they push). You can do this several times. Notice in the talk by Matthew Dicks above how he introduces the names of the children first and then in the second line gives their ages as the very last word in the sentence. That’s the surprising reveal.
Add an unexpected twist. If people can guess how the story is going to end, it becomes a chore to get through it. You have to keep the ending mysterious and only reveal it at the end. If the outcome is how amazing you are, that’s not ideal. In our opening story, people are expecting him to click the right button. But what if he doesn’t? What the story here is because of a tiny detail he clicked on another button instead. And that would have cost the brand millions of dollars if it hadn’t been picked up? But your UX research did pick that up.
Engage the audience - in novel ways. I recently gave the talk below about solving community mysteries. Just before the event began, I noticed they had an app where people could send messages in real-time. So during my talk, I encouraged people to guess the answer to each mystery using the app and it would show up alongside the presentation. It made it interactive and fun (albeit I probably would have planned it a little better with more time).
Another thing to notice is that the data you’ve collected or research you’ve done are simply props to support the story. In the second story, we mention the same study but use it as a prop to set the stakes. Do you think anyone is going to remember the precise dollar amount? But they are powerful when they’re used to add credibility to a story.
Practice Persuasive Storytelling
My suggestion is to practice telling persuasive stories. Don’t try to remember one thing. Just begin with one thing at a time. Practice cutting out irrelevant information and telling the story in real-time first. Then you might later practice building suspense and setting the stakes.
You don’t need to do this in every meeting. Sometimes clients just want the facts and that’s fine. But any time you need to persuade instead of convince someone, you should reach for powerful stories to make your point.
As an aside, keep a list of stories before you forget them. Whenever you encounter something which would make for an interesting story, quickly write it down. You don’t know if and when it will be useful. But it’s useful to have a deep arsenal of stories you can call upon to support a point you want to make.