The power of strategic narrative | Andy Raskin
This episode features Andy Raskin, an expert who helps CEOs align teams with a strategic narrative. He explains why traditional product pitching is ineffective and how a simple story about a world shift can unify efforts across sales, marketing, and product.
Deep Dive Analysis
20 Topic Outline
Andy Raskin's Journey to Strategic Narrative Consulting
Defining Strategic Narrative and Its Core Structure
Salesforce Example: Old Pitch vs. Strategic Narrative
Strategic Narrative in Action: Zuora and Gong Examples
The Impact of Writing 'The Greatest Sales Deck I’ve Ever Seen'
The Power and Paths of Online Writing
Strategic Narrative Framework: Naming the Old Game
Strategic Narrative Framework: Naming the Stakes
Strategic Narrative Framework: Naming the New Game's Objective
Strategic Narrative Framework: Naming the Obstacles
Strategic Narrative's Parallel to the Hero's Journey
360Learning Example: Applying the 5-Step Framework
Impact of Shifting to a Strategic Narrative Approach
Companies Nailing Their Strategic Narrative: Drift Example
Strategic Narrative vs. Category Creation: Focusing on Movement
Ideal Companies for the Strategic Narrative Framework
Signs Your Strategic Narrative Needs Work
Steps to Get Started on Your Own Strategic Narrative
The 'Low Point' in the Strategic Narrative Development Process
The CEO's Critical Role in Strategic Narrative Adoption
8 Key Concepts
Arrogant Doctor Pitch
This is a traditional pitching structure where a company identifies a problem or pain point, then presents its solution as a treatment, explaining why it's superior to other options. This approach often leads to bragging about features without a broader context.
Strategic Narrative
A single, simple story that a CEO uses as a North Star to drive success across marketing, sales, product, fundraising, and recruiting. It frames a company's offering within a larger movement or paradigm shift, rather than just solving a problem.
Old Game to New Game Shift
The foundational element of a strategic narrative, which describes a fundamental change in the world or industry. It contrasts how things 'used to be' (the old game) with a new reality and new rules for success (the new game), positioning the company as a guide in this transition.
Naming the Stakes
The second step in a strategic narrative, which involves demonstrating the critical importance of embracing the new game. This is often done by highlighting winners who have adopted the new approach and showing the negative, even 'life-and-death,' consequences for those who don't adapt.
Object of the New Game
The third step, which defines the clear, aspirational goal or rallying cry for those playing the new game. It's a concise statement of what success looks like in the new paradigm, often framed as an asymptotically unachievable but motivating mission.
Obstacles to the New Game
The fourth step, where challenges preventing the audience from achieving the object of the new game are identified. These are not merely 'problems' but rather difficulties that take on emotional significance because they stand in the way of a crucial, positive future.
Movement Creation
Andy Raskin's preferred term over 'category creation,' emphasizing the focus on defining a broader shift in how an industry operates or how customers behave. This approach prioritizes the overarching story and ideology rather than just coining a new category name.
Shitty First Draft
A concept from Anne Lamott, applied to the strategic narrative process, where the initial version of the narrative is expected to be imperfect and incomplete. This 'bad' first draft is crucial for gathering feedback and providing a concrete starting point for iterative refinement, rather than striving for perfection from the outset.
7 Questions Answered
A strategic narrative is a single story used by a CEO to align all company functions, framing the product within a global shift (old game to new game). Unlike the 'arrogant doctor' pitch that focuses on problem-solution and product superiority, it defines a movement and invites the audience to join.
The framework involves naming the old game, naming the stakes (showing winners/losers), naming the object of the new game (the rallying cry), naming the obstacles to achieving that object, and finally, explaining how to overcome those obstacles.
It helps companies pitch a movement rather than just features, making marketing less salesy and providing unlimited content fodder. It also serves as a strategic North Star for product roadmap decisions, filtering feature requests and ensuring alignment across teams.
It is most impactful for B2B enterprise technology companies, especially those with complex products and group buyers, where a longer, more contextual story is beneficial. It is generally less suited for consumer products where purchasing decisions are often based on direct feature comparison.
CEOs often seek this work when their company is maturing beyond founder-led 'brute force' sales, when an existing story isn't big enough for new products or acquisitions, or during a market-driven pivot where the old narrative no longer fits.
Companies should try to lay out the framework's structure and test it in sales calls to see if it resonates, ideally by asking prospects if they are also seeing the described shift. The process often involves creating a 'shitty first draft' and iterating based on feedback.
The second session, where the first draft of the narrative is presented, is often painful because it requires discarding many initial ideas from the team to create a concise, powerful story. This process can lead to discouragement before the narrative is refined through iterative feedback.
16 Actionable Insights
1. Define Movement, Not Solutions
Frame your product pitch around a “shift from the old game to the new game” to define a movement, rather than just solving a problem. This approach helps align sales, marketing, product, fundraising, and hiring efforts.
2. Strategic Narrative as North Star
Develop a single “strategic narrative” that acts as a North Star for your company. This story should guide your product roadmap, fundraising, recruiting, marketing, and sales efforts.
3. Concise Naming for World Shift
When defining the “old game to new game” shift, use concise and impactful names for both the old and new states (e.g., “transactions to subscriptions”). This compact naming is crucial for clarity and impact, even if it sacrifices some completeness.
4. Name the Stakes for Urgency
“Name the stakes” by showing winners who are already playing the new game and making the future outcome feel “life and death” for the prospect. This creates emotional urgency, splitting the future into very negative and potentially very positive outcomes.
5. Define New Game’s Object
Define the “object of the new game” as a concise rallying cry or mission statement (e.g., “turn customers into subscribers”). This serves as the company’s mission and a clear, simple goal for the new movement.
6. Frame Object as a Question
Frame the “object of the new game” as a question (e.g., “What would it take to turn every customer into a subscriber?”) to engage the audience. This brings them along as co-adventurers in crafting the story, making the narrative more interactive.
7. Clearly Articulate Obstacles
After defining the new game’s object, clearly articulate the obstacles that prevent achieving it. This highlights the challenge and provides crucial context for why your solution is necessary.
8. Present Product as “Magic Gifts”
Present your product’s features and success stories as “magic gifts” that help overcome the previously defined obstacles. This positions your solution within the larger narrative of winning the new game.
9. CEO Must Lead Narrative
Ensure the CEO actively leads and drives the strategic narrative process, not just in name, by being deeply involved in drafting and refining it. This ensures company-wide alignment and provides essential “air cover” for all departments.
10. Test Narrative in Sales Calls
Test your strategic narrative early and often by introducing it into sales calls and observing if prospects resonate with it. Train salespeople to ask questions like “Am I crazy or are you seeing this?” to gauge its impact and gather qualitative feedback.
11. Narrative Guides Product Roadmap
Use the strategic narrative as a “strategic North Star” for product development, serving as a clear bar to prioritize feature requests and guide the product roadmap. This helps filter out features that do not align with the core movement.
12. Avoid “Arrogant Doctor” Pitch
Do not use the “Arrogant Doctor” pitch, which focuses on your solution being better than others, as it is no longer effective and sets you up for bragging. Instead, focus on a larger market shift.
13. Prioritize Story Over Category
Avoid solely focusing on creating a “category name” as a magical solution for differentiation. Instead, prioritize developing a compelling “old game, new game” story, as the narrative itself is more impactful than just a category label.
14. Embrace “Shitty First Draft”
Embrace the concept of a “shitty first draft” when developing your strategic narrative, as getting an initial, imperfect version out is more valuable for refinement than having many unformed ideas. Be prepared for this to be a painful but necessary step.
15. Recognize Narrative Need for Work
Recognize signs your strategic narrative needs work, such as when company growth outpaces founders’ “brute force” involvement, when expanding through acquisitions or new product units requires a larger story, or when a market pivot necessitates a new direction.
16. Slide Titles as Takeaways
For presentations, ensure each slide title is the main takeaway, not just a label (e.g., “Our Team are Industry Veterans” instead of “The Team”). This allows the audience to immediately grasp the slide’s core message without extra effort.
5 Key Quotes
This structure really is about defining a movement and, and that's very different from, Hey, I'm going to solve your problem.
Andy Raskin
What is Star Wars a pitch for? It's a pitch for, you know, be good, like care about people, trust the force, you know, in their terms.
Andy Raskin
The prospect doesn't see the future as sort of okay. They see it as split between a very negative outcome and a potentially very positive outcome.
Andy Raskin
Having a shit draft is like a million times more valuable than having all these great ideas.
Andy Raskin
It didn't matter. It was really the story that, that was sort of mattered. I don't, I think he was exaggerating a little bit, but, and I think the category people would actually agree with this. I think they would agree with like, Hey, you're the, these three words are, it's sort of a, a shorthand for this movement for, of, of old game, new game narrative. But I guess that I, I guess I feel like, uh, still by calling it category and category name, like we're just focusing on those three words so much.
Andy Raskin
1 Protocols
5-Step Strategic Narrative Framework
Andy Raskin- Name the old game: Concisely define the outdated paradigm or approach.
- Name the stakes: Show the critical importance of the shift by highlighting winners and losers, making the future outcome emotional.
- Name the object of the new game: Define the clear, aspirational goal or rallying cry for success in the new paradigm, often as a question.
- Name the obstacles: Identify the challenges preventing the audience from achieving the object of the new game.
- Overcome the obstacles: Explain how the company's solution helps overcome these identified obstacles.