“People buy stories, not products” is the line that is ruling the product market in the recent past. Every major organization in the product industry and all the SMEs in Product Management thus have aligned their lenses and are focusing on ‘Business Storytelling’ now, more than ever before.

Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle approach has been the go-to guide for marketers in attracting customers and carrying out excellent consumer sales, with the backdrop of Business Storytelling. Starting with the ‘why’ questions probing the insights on intensions of the customer, to moving on to the ‘how’ aspect of product USPs. And, then ending with the ‘what’ component to gain an upper hand against your competitors, the Golden Circle approach does all it needs to win the customer over with your stories alone.

The art of ‘Business Storytelling’ and its focus in the product industry, is no more limited to the consumer market alone. We are witnessing an expansion of its effectiveness from external points of focus to internal teams as well in the recent past. Today, a Product Manager’s job does not end at getting the right products to the market and communicating to their customers why they need these products in their lives. It extends to building a robust team and gaining a brand status internally in the organization.

A synthesis of job roles and responsibilities at a few leading corporations of the world helps us list out the role of a successful Product Manager, whose competencies involve powerful storytelling skills. A typical day of a competent Product Manager involves responsibilities like:

• Create data reports and track digital analytics to measure the effectiveness of the team’s digital initiatives and interpret their results
• Create a narrative of the features and processes being developed. Articulate and present the pain points and future benefits through the narrative
• Grow an engaged audience while cultivating relationships with other internal influencers
• Proactively escalate issues, observations, opportunities, and insights to the leaders with a problem-solving attitude

‘Business Storytelling’, thus has become an integral part of a Product Manager’s role, in establishing an empathetic and lasting bond with the customers, encouraging the employees, and gaining the required support from the higher management.