The power of strategic narrative | Andy Raskin

... the way I learned how to pitch in business school, and I think the way most people did is, is what I call the arrogant doctor. So, you have a problem, a pain, I have a solution, you know, a treatment, and I'm gonna tell you why it's better than all the other treatments. And the structure that I read about in th- these movies was different. Every movie starts with some kind of shift in the world, and I call this shift the shift from old game to new game. And the archetypal example of this, I think, in the business world is what Benioff did with Salesforce. So he comes in and he says, "Hey, software is over. And there's this new world called the cloud, a, a new game, new rules, uh, you know, that's the new way to win, and we're gonna help you if you're, you're in there." Th- This s- structure really is about defining a movement, and that's very different from, "Hey, I'm gonna solve your problem."

(instrumental music) Welcome to Lenny's podcast where I interview world-class product leaders and growth experts, learn from their hard-won experiences building and growing today's most successful products. Today my guest is Andy Raskin. Andy helps CEOs and company leaders align their teams around something he calls a strategic narrative, which, as you'll learn all about in this episode, is essentially a simple story that helps people understand why they need your product, and with that helps you align your sales, marketing, and product teams, along with your fundraising and even your hiring efforts. Andy has worked closely with some of the most successful founders and companies out there, including companies like Gong, Dropbox, Uber Salesforce, Square, IBM, and many others. In our conversation, Andy explains why most people are pitching their product completely wrong, why focusing on the problem you're solving for people is no longer an effective pitch, and how the strategic narrative helps you frame your solution in a much more effective way. Andy also shares a ton of examples of the framework in action, why focusing on categories and category creation is so limiting, signs your narrative needs work, and so much more. Enjoy this episode with Andy Raskin after a short word from our sponsors. This episode is brought to you by Coda. You've heard me talk about how Coda is the doc that brings it all together, and how it can help your team run smoother and be more efficient. I know this firsthand, because Coda does that for me. I use Coda every day to wrangle my newsletter content calendar, my interview notes for podcasts, and to coordinate my sponsors. More recently, I actually wrote a whole post on how Coda's product team operates, and within that post, they shared a dozen templates that they use internally to run their product team, including managing the roadmap, their OKR process, getting internal feedback, and essentially their whole product development process is done within Coda. If your team's work is spread out across different documents and spreadsheets and a stack of workflow tools, that's why you need Coda. Coda puts data in one centralized location, regardless of format, eliminating roadblocks that can slow your team down. Coda allows your team to operate on the same information and collaborate in one place. Take advantage of this special limited time offer just for startups. Sign up today at coda.io/lenny and get $1,000 starter credit on your first statement. That's C-O-D-A dot I-O slash Lenny to sign up, and get a startup credit of $1,000. Coda.io/lenny. Are you hiring? Or, on the flip side, are you looking for a new opportunity? Well, either way, check out lennysjobs.com/talent. If you're a hiring manager, you can sign up and get access to hundreds of hand-curated people who are open to new opportunities. Thousands of people apply to join this collective, and I personally review and accept just about 10% of them. You won't find a better place to hire product managers and growth leaders. Join almost 100 other companies who are actively hiring through this collective. And if you're looking around for a new opportunity, actively or passively, join the collective. It's free, you can be anonymous, and you can even hide yourself from specific companies. You can also leave any time, and you'll only hear from companies that you want to hear from. Check out lennysjobs.com/talent. Andy, welcome to the podcast.