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Articulating stories that influence product adoption (new article in Simplifying Complexity series)

by Tom Johnson on Jul 31, 2018
categories: simplifying-complexity • podcasts

I added a new article in my ongoing series about simplifying complexity. The article is called Articulating the invisible stories that influence product adoption or rejection and explores why adoption of our products among users doesn't often live up to our expectations. I argue that we need to articulate the story we're telling about the product as well as the story users tell, and identify whether the two are in alignment. Note that you can both read and listen to this article, since I created an audio recording for it.

Listen here:

Here’s a summary:

In any documentation scenario, there are usually at least two competing stories: the company’s story about their product, and the user’s story. The two stories don’t always align. For a product or feature to be successful, the overall story about that product needs to align with the user’s story. These stories aren’t always apparent, and learning to see them constitutes a complex task, since you have to reduce a sea of action and noise down to its essence. The misalignment of these stories often explains why products fail.

Continue reading: Articulating the invisible stories that influence product adoption or rejection

About Tom Johnson

Tom Johnson

I'm an API technical writer based in the Seattle area. On this blog, I write about topics related to technical writing and communication — such as software documentation, API documentation, AI, information architecture, content strategy, writing processes, plain language, tech comm careers, and more. Check out my API documentation course if you're looking for more info about documenting APIs. Or see my posts on AI and AI course section for more on the latest in AI and tech comm.

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