Continuous Discovery Habits: Discover Products that Create Customer Value and Business Value

by Teresa Torres

Even so, you may still have to dig to uncover the full story. You can use common storytelling tactics to help you do so. A good story has a protagonist who encounters experiences on a timeline. Temporal prompts are one of the most effective ways to guide the participant through their own story. You can ask, “Start at the beginning. What happened first?” You can use the experience map you created in Chapter 4 to help guide your participant. Prompt for the beginning of the story. If your participant isn’t sure where to start, you can further prompt, “Where were you? Set the scene for me.” As the participant tells their story, you can encourage them to keep going by asking them, “What happened next?” Sometimes they might skip a few steps, and you may need to ask, “What happened before that?” Thinking about their story as having a beginning, a middle, and an end can help you guide the participant. Use your customer-experience map to help you track their story. Listen for specific nodes. Ask about nodes that were left out of the story. Stories also take place in specific locations; protagonists encounter challenges, and they receive help from supporting characters. Other characters might present obstacles or interfere with the protagonist’s progress. Keep these elements in mind as they’ll help you tease out what the participant forgets. You might ask, “Who was with you?” “What challenges did you encounter?” “How did you overcome that challenge?” “Did anyone help you?” You’ll no...

How to excavate a story