Analytic Design Group

Lately stories and storytelling have become a bit of a theme around ADGi. It started a couple of months ago with me noting that a company we were doing some business with referred Very Often to their “story” as in “we have a great story to tell about our SharePoint implementation services” or “I met with those guys and didn’t like their story.”

Interestingly when I talked to these guys about brand, they didn’t have a lot to say, just a lot of ‘stories’. I don’t mean in a superficial or shallow way. Stories and telling them were a part of the culture for that company and I suspect it has, to some extent, contributed to their success.

Then I happened to watch Isabelle Allende’s talk on TED.com about about writing, women, passion, and feminism. In it she quotes a Jewish proverb: What is truer than truth? Answer: The Story. Apart from the important issues she raises, feminism, poverty, living with passion, it also got me thinking once again about the power of a good story. In her talk, Allende, a masterful storyteller, makes a case for feminism through the compelling use of stories. This is important because I am what I’ve begun to think of as a lapsed feminist. I have considered feminism a dead cause. Allende convinced me of its currency.

Now taking a leap to user experience, we already use the power of story telling when we write scenarios for personas, can we apply the power of stories to other aspects of what we do? Perhaps the Story Company I mentioned at the start is on to something...