Writing your Usermyth

Earlier this month I presented on SDG’s behalf at Product Camp Twin Cities, a local conference sponsored by the Twin Cities (Minnesota) chapter of PDMA. My topic was how product managers can use the mindsets and tools of editors (in journalism, film, and books) to deliver stronger products.

An idea I explored briefly was that product management is a narrative discipline, as much as it as a technical or business discipline. Indeed, we already use narrative language in our tech product jargon: consider terms like user stories, storyboarding, and customer journey maps. So savvy product managers and strategists will read their products as they would a story to a child. And even savvier ones will write them.

A model you might use when reading or shaping your product’s narrative is the hero’s journey, or the monomyth. It’s a common shape of stories, from the Homeric epics to the Wizard of Oz to Lord of the Rings. In it, a hero starts in an ordinary world; they’re called to adventure; they may meet a mentor or companions; they are faced with tests; they overcome them; they are rewarded; and they return to their world, transformed.

This hero’s journey resonates with people across cultures and times. It was identified by the well-known mythologist Joseph Campbell, in The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949). Here’s a diagram of it from a website called StoryFlint. (There are countless variants of this diagram.)

I know what you’re asking: “Cool model, bro, but why is this in a product management publication?”

Well, if you work on digital products, you can use your understanding of this archetypical shape to make your products more successful. Just position your user in the role of the hero, and then shape their experience through your product to lead them to reward and return. Let’s call it your Usermyth.

Here’s how elements of this Usermyth might map to product and UX work.

People have been organizing their thinking and experiences in stories since the cave folk gathered around campfires. We can use this truth in our product work. So don’t just plan, manage, design, code, and deliver your product. Write your product. Your users will thank you. After all, who doesn’t like being the hero?

On to the Garden,

Around the Garden

Patton’s story mapping, explained

Check it out: What’s agile story mapping? Key principles and benefits, by the Tempo Team, and The Ultimate Guide to Agile User Story Mapping, by Marjan Venema, Nimble

Product managers and customer experience designers are likely familiar with the technique of story mapping. Basically, on a large physical surface like a big whiteboard or even a wall, a product team visually lays out a product’s stories. Each element is expressed on a small card or Post-It Note. The major stages of a user’s journey progress horizontally; the vertical axis probes deeper into the individual tasks that make up that stage. Once you’ve mapped the stories, you can then demarcate slices that you want to prioritize for development. I love when a boundary gets drawn around a segment of a story map and converted into a priority. It feels like narrative has been codified.

These summaries, from Tempo and Nimble, two project management SaaS tools, explain the technique well. The Tempo post gets into a bit more depth; the Nimble article includes some helpful photographs of story maps.

Also, no one should write about story mapping without crediting Jeff Patton, the agile development guru whose User Story Mapping book (O’Reilly) popularized the technique. He’s one of the Pollinator’s favorite practitioners of and writers about good product work.

An animator becomes a product manager

Check it out: The Art of Product Storytelling: A Product Manager’s Perspective, by Ryan Flynn

Here a product manager named Ryan Flynn describes how his background and training in animation has shaped his experience as a product manager. He points out that “Animation, at its core, is about breathing life into stories visually. It taught me to see beyond the surface, to unearth the narrative heartbeat of every project.”

That image of an “unearthed” narrative heartbeat is a powerful description of a product manager’s duty. I only wish Flynn had said of every “product,” not project.

Remember what a roadmap is for

Check it out: Your roadmap is a prototype for your strategy, by Janna Bastow, ProdPad

This article from Janna Bastow of ProdPad argues that many product managers are misusing their roadmaps by treating them as promises of features by a date. Her recommended alternative? Consider a roadmap a prototype for your product strategy.

She makes a compelling argument. I’d put it this way: a company’s or team’s product roadmap is the team’s current hypothesis for how they will generate value by solving user problems over time. As a prototype, it’s not actually the fully functional manifestation of that hypothesis. But it is something you can test, and from which you can learn, and which you can use to guide the actual delivery of the product.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot, and I have to say: I like it.

Der Komissar and AI

Check it out: How to survive the weight of an entire industry trying to convince you that you're inadequate, by Mike Monteiro

Designer and writer Mike Monteiro considers Artificial Intelligence and Product Design by tackling an interesting question: “How do I make art without feeling stupid and/or inadequate?” Monteiro’s response inverts the question altogether. To Monteiro, feeling “stupid and inadequate” is the point of creative work. In fact, it’s our most potent way to generate authentic, human work. He then riffs on Falco’s 1980s new wave hit “Der Kommisar” and uses that to explore how creative work is at its best when there’s some stupidity in it.

My favorite part of the essay is when Monteiro confronts buttons in a cloud-based word processor that offer to help the user write, using AI. As Monteiro describes it, “I’m hit in the face by this giant ass-button telling me that I’m probably not good enough to do what I’m trying to do.” This, he counsels us, is the challenge of writing (or other creative and communicative acts) in an AI-driven landscape.

I know it’s not exactly a product and UX article of the sort you expect from the Pollinator, but it’s a pretty compelling exploration of the challenges to creating anything—including a great product. Plus it’s a delightful read.

Outside the Box

Have you run into an interesting technical situation and thought, “Someone probably has built some software that can help here. I just need to find it”? I know I sure have. That’s where Tool Finder can help. It’s a source for scads of online tools and utilities that help with productivity, organization, workflows, calculations, writing, and myriad other tasks. There’s a newsletter, too.

Check it out at toolfinder.co.

About the Pollinator

• The Pollinator is a free publication from the Product practice at Solution Design Group (SDG). Each issue features an opening reflection and a curated digest of noteworthy content and articles from across the internet’s vast product community.

• Solution Design Group (SDG) is an employee-owned digital product innovation and custom software development consultancy. Our team of over 200 consultants and other technology and business professionals includes experienced software engineers, technical architects, user experience designers, and product and innovation strategists. We serve companies across industries to discover promising business opportunities, build high-quality technology solutions, and improve the effectiveness of digital product teams.

• The Pollinator's editor is Jason Scherschligt, SDG's Head of Product. Please direct complaints, suggestions, and especially praise to Jason at [email protected].

• Why The Pollinator? Jason often says that as he works with leaders and teams across companies and industries, he feels like a honeybee in a garden, spending time on one flower, moving to another, collecting experiences and insights, and distributing them like pollen, so an entire garden blooms. How lovely.