When was the last time you told a STORY?
I mean—a good old story that we, humans, are so good at?
Why am I asking this? I truly believe that storytelling is one of the most critical skills for any business analyst. Yet it's often overlooked and not taken seriously…
Stories serve an important and strategic purpose. They help to make connections between us, humans, and ensure that we stay emotionally attached to the subject of the conversation. This way, what you are saying makes much more sense and carries a greater impact.
Consider an example.
You are at a backlog refinement meeting with your delivery team, and you are presenting a user story to them.
One way to go about it is to say:
❌ Here is a banner. It should have one button, one headline, another subheadline, a background image, and a static secondary description.
If you go like this, your development team will take the task literally; however, there will be no connection to why they need to build this, who this banner is intended to serve, and what benefits the organization will get.
Instead, try framing your message like this:
✅ During the user research, we identified that the target audience of the website is potential patients looking to find treatment in their geographical area. They are most likely to make a decision based on testimonials or reviews from other patients of this hospital. Therefore, we are considering adding a hero banner to the top of the homepage that will tell a story from other patients' perspectives. We want this hero banner to invite users to take a specific action—for example, learning more about specific care and navigating them to the specialty webpage. This will be delivered with a prominent headline message, a secondary headline, and a clear call to action inviting the potential patient—the visitor of the website—to follow through to the next step.
This way, you are introducing the target audience: the humans you're building the website for, their desires and pain points, and connecting these in a meaningful way.
When your development team sees the user story in Jira and the user interface wireframe, they won’t think in terms of buttons, images, and text labels—they’ll think about the meaningful functionality they need to deliver and its impact on the target audience. This way, they will also be more connected and invested in the result of their work, which, in turn, will translate into a higher-quality product that truly resonates with the end-user and customer needs.
💡 Next time you make a presentation, large or small—like presenting user stories in a refinement session—try to frame it as a story, and you'll be able to make a much greater impact with the words you say.
Learn More
Interested in learning more? Download the Discovery Checklist – your all-in-one, practical blueprint for successful requirements elicitation, packed with actionable steps to guide you through every stage of the discovery process.
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