Narrative & Data IDC 261011

1. Telling Great Stories & Learning to Listen
Some Thoughts on Narrative & Data, IDC Oct 2011

2. People love stories

3. They love all kinds of stories simply told
They can take 90 minutes to play

4. Years to write & months to read

5. Minutes to sing

6. They can seem simple, but still be complex

7. We’re just suckers for good narratives
with great returns

8. Great storytellers need to be great listeners

9. They know their audience cold

10. They have walked in their shoes

11. Lived in their homes

12. Slept in their beds

13. In fact, sometimes,
they know their audience
better than the audience
know themselves

14. Making them capable of magic

15. You should be able to tell your
story to a class of 7 year olds

16. Pick a field big enough for a
never ending story

17. But remember, stories
are not just about
communications

18. Stories live in your
product
They live in how you run
and analyze your business

19. Good communications
just make sure that
things look good and
sound their best

20. So make your products simple to use

21. Shoot for no cognitive barriers

22. Make the value crystal clear

23. Sell benefits and a big big vision

24. Something you can grow into with age

25. Oh, one more thing…. make it look sexy

26. These days the benchmark is real-time

27. So your product should respond instantly

28. Speed and reliability are at a premium

29. Table stakes are easy, quick and free

30. You should use data to be relevant

31. To be personal

32. To be social

33. To tell stories beautifully

34. And in tune with the medium

35. Be simple
Be quick
Be relevant

36. You need to win a place in the box
inside people’s head

37. Then let them share your stories

42. Short morality tale
about insight

48. 407,326
113,032
Over 100 stores

49. Short morality tale
about data

50. Who are
you telling
the story
to?

54. Investors
who write
$200m
cheques

55. 2% of TV
households
by region

56. 18% in Bay
Area

58. 15 mins of
streaming
per month

59. 61% of
subscribers

62. Customers
who write
$8 cheques

68. Talk less

69. Listen more

70. So how do you find a signal in the noise?

71. “If you can’t measure it you can’t manage it”

74. Where do you tell the story?
Media
Customers
Team
Investors
Home
School
Event

76. What do you measure?
Sales
Marketing
Support
Operations
Finance

78. What drives actions?
NPS
Funnels
Unit Economics
Cohorts
Singletics

80. When do you measure?
Real-Time Daily
Weekly
Monthly
Quarterly
Annually

82. What tools & tech?
Hadoop
BI
Analytics
Multivariant
Personalization