The Play Bigger Guide to Point of View Discovery and Expression
by Parker · 31 things on Twos
- Step One: Who?
- The same person who does the work of category discovery and expression
- Step Two: Fact Finding
- Use the same research from the category discovery and expression, but dive into strategic and cultural questions
- How is the company and product different?
- The POV needs to be different, not better
- Which differences strike a chord with which audiences?
- How this company will create the product or service that solves the category's problem
- How will you get there?
- What's the roadmap for achieving the vision?
- What's the roadmap for getting to different?
- The envisioned ultimate outcome
- If the company is successful, what will the world look like?
- How will it be changed?
- The nature of the company
- What is your company's culture?
- What kinds of people lead it?
- What image does it want with the public and in the media?
- The POV needs to be as much emotional as it is factual
- Step Three: Agree on the Problem
- Figure out your category's problem, and find a way to say it in a way that touches people's emotions
- Step Four: Craft a Story, Rinse, Repeat
- In a limited number of powerful words, the POV should lay out the problem and its ramifications, describe a vision for the category, sketch a blueprint for how to build the category, and paint a picture of potential outcomes
- Set up the problem with a dramatic flourish, then describe the solution
- The bigger, more urgent, and more strategic the perceived problem is, the more time, attention, and money people will spend to solve it
- At the end of the POV, simply describe your company’s particular solution in a broad, visionary way. At no point should a POV get into product features
- Keep it simple. Use human words, not business or technology words. Keep sentences and phrases short. Be provocative. Think movie trailer!
- Make it emotional. Make people feel they must have this. Make them fear not having it
- Paint a vision for the future. This vision will give the audience a sense of where you are going and why they should ride along with you. The vision will also guide the company, its strategy, and its culture. The vision will create a shared sense of mission for employees, customers, partners, investors, and everyone else in the ecosystem
- Inject the POV with the company's personality
- Step Five: Distribute, Evangelize, Mobilize