Kwan's Product Storytelling Framework for B2B vs B2C
Kwan's Product Storytelling Framework for B2B vs B2C
Product storytelling is complex. A product manager that starts with a simple product and a simple story is quickly surprised at how complex the product story can get as time goes on. Use Kwan's Product Storytelling Framework for B2B vs B2C to manage your product as it evolves.
Product storytelling is complex. A product manager that starts with a simple product and a simple story is quickly surprised at how complex the product story can get as time goes on. Use Kwan's Product Storytelling Framework for B2B vs B2C to manage your product as it evolves.
For most new companies, the product story becomes hard to manage within 6-12 months. The more successful you are, the harder it is to tell a succinct compelling story. Your webpage, once so crisp and clean, quickly turns into a hodgepodge of messaging that fails to connect with customers.
Why does product storytelling become more complex over time?
Your product stories grow like a fractal. Each time you add new product versions, distribution channels, or new buyer personas your stories will grow.
Let’s say you run a company called BooBikes, making sustainable bicycle frames out of bamboo.Your product story is simple. Your bikes help eco-conscious customers make their daily commute greener in a unique and stylish way.
At this stage, you have one story about your product. To tell this simple story, your webpage has one product photo and one price.
BooBikes catch on, and you decide to add retail distribution through bicycle shops. To attract new retailers, you need to tell a new story.
Bicycle shops care about increasing sales, so you tell them how carrying BooBikes will help them access a growing market with a unique product that will bring new customers to shop at their store. On your website, you add another page listing all the bike shops across the country that carry your bamboo bikes.
You now have two stories about your product.
After some research and development, you’re ready to add an electric version of the bike. To launch, you need a customer story and a bicycle shop story for the new bike.
Now you’re at 4 stories.
Guess what? Teens love your bike too. Customizing BooBikes is now a viral trend on TikTok. In order to appeal to a new demographic, you create new stories for both standard and electric versions of your bamboo bikes.
Now you have 8 stories.
Each time you add new product versions, distribution channels, or new buyer personas your stories will double. Add that to the versioning of older stories, you’ll find that your stories start growing like a fractal.
With more features and product versions come a pretty complex table of offerings and a tangle of user journeys to match.
How to manage complex product storytelling
The first step to managing complex storytelling is to count the types of stories you need based on your audiences (buyers and users) and your business model. (B2C, B2B, B2B2C, Marketplaces).
Before we dig into each one. Let’s define our audiences:
The buyer decides on the purchase and pays.
The user is the person who uses the product.
Now, let’s tally.
Identify B2C Product Stories
B2C has the simplest storytelling need. Since the buyer is often also the user of your product, you typically have one story per product.
B2C Tally = 1 story per product
Identify B2B Product Stories
B2B can be a much more complex buying scenario.
Large organizations use committee-based decision-making for purchases, requiring you to have a story for each member and their individual needs.
A committee may include 3-8 members who must agree on the purchase in order to go ahead, including
User - the everyday user
Manager - an occasional user who wants to see reporting
Budget holder - CFO or equivalent
Security gatekeeper - CISO or equivalent
IT gatekeeper - CIO or equivalent
Training gatekeeper - if the product requires training
No wonder enterprise sales can take 6 months to complete.
B2B Tally = 1 story (per product) x (per buyer in the purchasing committee)
B2B Tally = 1 story (per product) x (per unique channel) x (per buyer in the purchasing committee for that channel)
Identify Marketplace Stories
What about Marketplaces? Aren’t they the most complex model of all?
Maybe.
With Marketplaces, you combine two models into one. For example:
AirBnB has B2B on one side, B2C on the other side.
Atlassian Marketplace has B2B on both sides.
Taskrabbit has B2C on both sides.
This means you have to tell a story on one side, and a different but related one on the other side, but the story itself may not be that complex. In the case of AirBnB, the story is quite simple. Either you are a guest (B2C) and want to rent a room. Or you’re a host (B2B) providing that room to earn income.
Marketplace Tally = story count on one side + story count on the other side
Now that you have tallied the stories you will need, what’s next?
Assemble the Product Story Fractal
Remember the fractal analogy I used earlier?
Think of your core product story as the first step. The smooth, clearly visible shape. As your product evolves, each story that you layer on becomes a fractal generation, and each new generation needs to fit within your overarching story.
As you grow, getting your stories to hang together will be the hardest part.
Let’s revisit the BooBikes example.
You decide to expand your offering and launch a BooBike for kids. When selling to kids, you need two stories: one for the user, a child who wants a bike that looks cool, and one for the buyer, a parent who cares about safety and durability, you have to align them to close the sale.
An ad campaign of thrill-seekers hitting the mountains on a BooBike might entice one segment of kids, but it might alienate a parent.
Besides, it doesn’t fit within BooBikes core story of a unique and stylish greener bike.
Instead, illustrating how thinking sustainably is cool makes BooBikes as relevant to kids as saving the turtles.
Your story can appeal to both user and buyer, and be designed to fit within your core identity. Building your story fractal so the pieces hang together opens new opportunities and avoids a personality split for your product.
Let’s summarize what we learned.
1. Your product stories grow like a fractal. Each time you add new product versions, distribution channels, or new buyer personas your stories will double. And don’t forget older versions of your stories.
2. You need to make the various versions of your story hang together. To do this you need to Plan your Story Fractal.
List out your buyers and stakeholders
List out what each buyer cares about
Identify points of potential conflict in their care-abouts
Resolve the points of conflict in your story
Create stories that satisfy each buyer
Test your stories by running them by each buyer
By planning your story fractal, you will build a much stronger connection with your customers.
It is important that you are aware and prepared to tell not only one product story but that you have a vision for multiple product stories, your organized story fractal.
As a mother and an entrepreneur, my mind fills with worry. This is a story about a structured story technique I use to manage worry.
It didn’t used to worry like this.
I remember that in my 20s I was much more carefree.
How do you build Habits that Stick?
Aristotle once said, “We are the sum of our actions, and therefore our habits make all the difference.”
I want to build habits that stick.
I want to meditate more, exercise more and eat better.
So I downloaded a meditation app, joined a gym and cleared my fridge.
Influence without authority is the skill that turns a good product manager into a great product manager. Learning this skill is necessary to set you apart.
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