Tips for Narrative Design Strategies

Without the right framing, your message vanishes. 🫠 Research shows the human brain forgets 70% of new information within 24 hours. The Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve isn't just theory. It's why your brilliant ideas get lost. Master storytellers know a secret: Structure creates cognitive tension that fights natural memory decay. 6 storytelling tactics to make your point unforgettable: 1️⃣ 𝗝𝘂𝘅𝘁𝗮𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 - Create stark contrasts that simplify complexity - Makes change feel tangible - Example: "Last year we chased customers. This year, customers chase us." 2️⃣ 𝗣𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗿𝘂𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 - Set a rhythm, then intentionally break it - Our brains are wired to notice the unexpected - When patterns shatter, attention spikes - Example: "The best way to sell... is not to sell." 3️⃣ 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗲 𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆 - Start with the results, then explain the journey - Hooks curiosity from the first moment - Example: “Today, 92% of users complete onboarding in under 10 minutes. Three months ago? Less than 50%. Here's how we got there…" 4️⃣ 𝗢𝗻𝗲-𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗱 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗺𝗲 - Build your entire narrative around a single term - Weave it through every point and example - Creates unity that makes your message stick - Example: "Everything great happens on the 𝘦𝘥𝘨𝘦 — 𝘦𝘥𝘨𝘦 of comfort zone, consumer demand, and innovation. We must sharpen the 𝘦𝘥𝘨𝘦 together as a firm." 5️⃣ 𝗔𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀 - Start simple, then layer sophistication - Makes complex concepts instantly graspable - Each analogy builds on the previous one - Example: "Leadership is like conducting an orchestra. Each musician has a unique instrument (skills). The conductor sets the rhythm (direction). And orchestration is the key (teamwork)." 6️⃣ 𝗦𝗶𝗹𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗕𝗲𝗮𝘁 - Drop a bombshell, then... pause - Let tension hang in the air - Gives weight to your most important points - Allows emotional processing of difficult truths - Example: "50% of our revenue will vanish if we don't act." (pause for 3 seconds) Which technique will you try in your next presentation? ♻️ Find this valuable? Repost to help others. Follow me for posts on leadership, learning, and excellence. 📌 Want free PDFs of this and my top cheat sheets? You can find them here: https://lnkd.in/g2t-cU8P Hi 👋 I'm Vince, CEO of Sparkwise. I help orgs scale excellence at a fraction of the cost by automating live group learning, practice, and application. Check out our topic library: https://lnkd.in/gKbXp_Av

You’ve heard the advice, “Use stories in your presentations because people respond to stories!” Great advice. BUT… Your story won’t grab your audience’s attention and communicate your message unless it has these 6 elements. In fact, it could even have the opposite effect! Every story you use as the foundation of your high-stakes presentations needs to have: 1. A logical structure. A story needs a beginning, middle, and end with clear turning points between each section. Don't just jump between ideas randomly. Map your presentation flow on paper first so you can physically move sections around. The most persuasive structure builds toward your most important point. 2. An Emotional structure. In the middle of your story, create a rise of conflict where tension builds. This might be when your audience realizes their current approach isn't working or market conditions are changing rapidly. Plan moments where this tension rises before providing a cathartic resolve. Your audience will stay engaged through this emotional journey from tension to resolution. 3. A clear goal. The protagonist in your story must have something they're seeking–an objective that drives the narrative forward. In your presentation, position your audience as the hero pursuing something important. Whether it's reconciliation of different viewpoints or finding the solution to a pressing problem, make sure this goal is crystal clear. 4. Meaningful conflict. Every story needs the hero to face obstacles. This conflict might be with themselves, with others, with technology, or even with nature.  When preparing your presentation, identify what's standing in the way of progress. Is it internal resistance? Market challenges? Technical limitations? Acknowledging these conflicts shows you understand the real situation. 5. A resolution. Every narrative needs to resolve the conflict, though resolution doesn't always mean a happy ending. It could end positively (comedy), negatively (tragedy), or be inconclusive, requiring your audience to take action to determine the outcome. For business presentations, this inconclusive ending can be particularly effective as it prompts decision and action. 6. A lesson worth learning. While rarely stated explicitly (except in fairy tales), every story teaches something. Your presentation should leave your audience with a clear takeaway about what approaches to emulate or avoid. The quality of your story often determines the quality of your high-stakes presentations. Take time to really think through the stories you’re using. Hand-selecting the best ones will help you leave a lasting impact on your audience. #Presentation #StorytellingInBusiness #PresentationSkills

I'm going to ruin one of the great myths of narrative for you now. The best narrative is carefully planned out. Yes, there is absolutely a place for wild inspiration to strike and discoveries to be made during the process of creating said narrative. Yes, even the most tightly plotted narrative offers massive room for creative freedom in the execution and composition of its content. However, the myth that narrative just comes from a sudden bolt from the blue does everyone involved a disservice. Expecting someone to have that flash of inspiration on cue and on schedule and by the end of the sprint is foolish. And while those magical AHA! moments absolutely happen, they are by and large a first step, a declaration of intent that still require extensive followup to get the details nailed down correctly. Very few eureka moments come with a side of detailed deliverable breakdowns. Because even the cleanest, slickest narrative concept comes with a whole lot of work and a whole lot of questions. Everything you come up with will need to be communicated in some form or fashion to the player, so that the player can then use it in creating their play experience, and you can't just keep that stuff in your head. My personal approach since about 2010 or so has been to create a detailed spreadsheet listing out every narrative question in the game that needs to be answered for the player. There are columns for where the answer is given, who it is given by, what is the method by which it is given, what the consequences of that are, and so on. Doing this would seem to be antithetical to a certain sort of creativity, but it is anything but. What it allows me to do is check to make sure nothing from the narrative is slipping through the cracks. It forces me to look at the gestalt of the information being passed on, to make sure that everything gets out there in a timely and coherent and clean fashion. It calls out what I've missed so far, and it lets me gut check how the narrative is being conveyed to make sure I'm taking advantage of all the tools at my disposal instead of relying on one too heavily. It is, in short, a cheat sheet, a very large cheat sheet, and if you keep it up to date it can be absolutely invaluable. And it's not just for you as a narrative designer or writer, to keep track of your work. This is also something you can share and present to other departments (and by other departments, I mean folks in team leadership who have Very Serious Questions that it's in everyone's best interest that you answer) to show them how the material is being conveyed. It's not sexy. It's not exciting, even if you go crazy with coloring in various cells. But it is reliable and useful and accessible, and there will absolutely be times during development when you need that to avert crises or talk someone off the ledge. Sometimes, the best tools are the simplest ones.

Telling a compelling story with UX research has nothing to do with flair and everything to do with function, empathy, and influence. One of the most critical yet underappreciated lessons in UX and product work - beautifully articulated in It’s Our Research by Tomer Sharon - is that research doesn’t succeed just because it’s rigorous or well-designed. It succeeds when its insights are heard, understood, remembered, and acted upon. We need to stop treating communication as an afterthought. The way we present research is just as important as the research itself. Storytelling in UX is not decoration - it’s a core deliverable. If your goal is to shape decisions rather than just share findings, the first step is to design your communication with the same care you give your methods. That means understanding the mindset of your stakeholders: what they care about, how they process information, and what pressures they’re facing. Storytelling in this context isn’t about performance - it’s about empathy. The insight must also be portable. It needs to survive the room and be retold accurately across meetings, conversations, and documents. If your findings require lengthy explanations or rely too heavily on charts without clear conclusions, the message will fade. Use strong framing, clear takeaways, and repeatable phrases. Make it memorable. Avoid leading with your process. Stakeholders care far less about your methods than they do about the problems they’re trying to solve. Lead with the tension - what’s broken, what’s at risk, what’s creating friction. Only then show what you learned and what opportunities emerged. Research becomes powerful when it forecasts outcomes, not just reports behaviors. What will it cost the business to ignore this behavior? What might change if we take action? When we can answer these questions, research earns its place at the strategy table. Treat your report like a prototype. Will it be used? Will it help others make decisions? Does it resonate emotionally and strategically? If not, iterate. Use narrative elements, embed user moments, bring in supporting visuals, and structure it in a way that guides action. Finally, stop thinking of the share-out as a one-way street. Facilitate instead of presenting. Invite stakeholders to interpret, ask questions, and explore implications with you. When they co-create meaning, they take ownership-and that leads to real action. Research only creates value when it moves people. Insights are not enough on their own. What matters is the clarity and conviction with which they are communicated.

Everyone loves a good story. You should be using your data to tell one every chance you get. The importance of narrative in scientific communication cannot be understated. And that includes communication in traditionally technical environments! One thing that gets beaten into you in graduate school is that a scientific presentation is a technical affair. Communicating science is fact based, it's black and white, here's the data, this is the conclusion, do you have any questions? Actually, I do. Did you think about what story your data could tell before you put your slides together? I know this is a somewhat provocative question because a lot of scientists overlook the importance of telling a story when they present results. But if you want to keep your audience engaged and interested in what you have to say, you should think about your narrative! This is true for a presentation at 'The Mountain Lake Lodge Meeting on Post-Initiation Activities of RNA Polymerases,' the 'ACMG Annual Clinical Genetics Meeting,' or to a class of 16 year old AP Biology Students. The narrative doesn't need to be the same for all of those audiences, BUT IT SHOULD EXIST! There is nothing more frustrating to me than seeing someone give a presentation filled with killer data only to watch them blow it by putting the entire audience to sleep with an arcane technical overview of the scientific method. Please. Tell. A. Story. With. Your. Data. Here's how: 1. Plot - the series of events that drive the story forward to its resolution. What sets the scene, the hypothesis or initial observation? How can the data be arranged to create a beginning, middle, and end? 2. Theme - Good vs Evil, Human vs Virus, Day in the life of a microbe? Have fun with this (even just as a thought experiment) because it makes a big difference. 3. Character development - the team, the protein, gene, or model system 4. Conflict - What were the blockers and obstacles? Needed a new technique? Refuting a previous finding? 5. Climax - the height of the struggle. Use your data to build to a climax. How did one question lead to another and how were any problems overcome? 6. Resolution - What's the final overall conclusion and how was the conflict that was setup in the beginning resolved by what you found? By taking the time to work through what story you can tell, you can engage your entire audience and they'll actually remember what you had to say!