A proper narrative

In this age of big data, its all too easy to rely on numbers. Don't get me wrong there is a place for evidence, and I use it everyday. The thing is that through the history of human society we have rarely communicated using just numbers.

Think about your everyday life, the conversation you have with a colleague about your weekend. This conversation is more likely to take the format of:

I had a great weekend, We went to that new burger restaurant and had this amazing burger, - great service! followed by watching the rugby with a few ales at my favourite pub - it was a bit a scrappy game but the company was good!

It is unlikely that anyone except a machine would say:

We went to grid ref SX 95670 93611 where I ate 837 Calories in burger in 35 minutes the burger was delivered in 10 minutes. From there we walked 500 metres to the public house where I consumed 3 pints of otter ale whilst watching a game of rugby for 80 minutes.

Ok, so I might be forcing the issue slightly. My point is that customers don't think or communicate in metrics, they remember and savour the experience of the qualitative highlights in the experience.

So when building a new piece of software, a brand, or a project be wary of relying on pure figures, they will often only tell you known.

Get out there, talk to your customers and learn the story that they are telling each other about your brands experience, and use it to create a narrated experience that customers can remember and really shout about.