The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller. The storyteller sets the vision, values, and agenda of an entire generation that is to come.
Steve Jobs
When I was a kid, one of my favorite books was The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. The book itself felt like a magical artifact, something special. For starters, it was longer. It was a grander story than the other books I was reading then, with bigger words, made-up languages, poetry, and songs. Reading it made me feel older in a way that made me proud, but it was still approachable enough to be exciting and digestible as a kid. I remember reading it back then and thinking, “Someday, I’m going to read this to my kids.” Which was a thought I didn’t have about nearly anything else at that age.
Well, about three decades and four kids later (baby Luka was born this past August!), I’m doing it; I’m reading The Hobbit to my kids. And to my delight, they love it. Almost every night as we wrap up family dinner, my daughter Rafi (our oldest) will say, “I can’t wait to read The Hobbit tonight!” I usually sit and read them about half a chapter per night, and then Rafi grabs the book and reads ahead (but she’s fine with me re-reading the same parts the next night for her brothers’ benefit). It’s family time together, and they’re also fully invested in the epic story of Bilbo Baggins and his adventures in Middle Earth.
Story is such a huge part of the human experience. Much like a beautiful building is the output of good architecture, a useful product is the output of good industrial design, and a compelling advertisement is the output of good graphic design: stories are the primary output of good business design.
The Power of Storytelling
Whether you’re a kid or an adult, stories are woven into almost every aspect of our lives — appearing in diverse forms and contexts. Perhaps the most prominent examples are the books, movies, shows, and video games we watch, listen to, and play — each with a structured story designed to captivate us. Over fifty-five million people watched the second season of The Rings of Power, a new show diving into Tolkien’s Middle Earth history, complete with elves, wizards, and yes, hobbits — and with themes like good versus evil (of course), hope and unity against darkness, identity and heritage, sacrifice and leadership, and more.
Journalism is stories. The word “news” is short for “new stories.” The media frequently uses storytelling to report on events, creating a narrative around facts to make information more relatable and easier to understand. As TV news entered the fray and had to compete with shows like The Rings of Power for viewership, news became increasingly more narratively compelling.
Then there’s social media — not only are we telling our own stories through our posts, but there’s a format called “Stories,” video snapshots of our lives in narrative form. Ads are stories. Political campaigns are stories about the candidates and the future they hope to create. Most religions are built on narratives — stories from sacred texts, myths, and parables that convey moral lessons, cultural values, and spiritual guidance. Music is stories — often, songs are structured narratively; think: Bob Dylan and Taylor Swift. And if the song isn’t a story, there’s always a story behind the music.
A story is a structured collection of information that conveys events, emotions, characters, and lessons, ultimately providing meaning. In The Science of Storytelling, author Will Storr shares research that suggests language evolved principally to connect with each other and share social information, also known as gossip, amongst Stone Age tribes. “We’d tell tales about the moral rights and wrongs of other people, punish the bad behavior, reward the good, and thereby keep everyone cooperating and the tribe in check.” In the book, he refers to the psychologist Professor Roy Baumeister’s writing: ‘Life is change that yearns for stability.’ Storr says, “Story is a form of play that allows us to feel we’ve lost control without actually placing us in danger.”
Similarly, in Wired for Story, author Lisa Cron explores how stories engage our brains at a biological level. She argues that the brain is “wired” to pay attention to stories because they help us understand how to survive and thrive in the world. Cron posits that stories evolved to help us practice for real life. They provide a mental simulation that helps us understand others, navigate social situations, and make decisions.
I love The Hobbit because Bilbo isn’t some sort of superhero; in fact, he’s the opposite, and often complains and thinks about how much he’d rather be at home eating in front of the fireplace than be on an adventure — he complains, but he sticks with it — he’s a hobbit, but he’s us, he’s human. I could simply tell my kids to be brave when they’re scared. Or I can read them The Hobbit and they can think about Bilbo Baggins and reflect on how they’d react if a colony of giant spiders had 12 of their friends tied up in webs, and it was up to them to save them. By reading my kids The Hobbit, I’m helping them understand courage, the power of friendship and collaboration, resilience in the face of adversity, and the importance of staying true to yourself.
Story Structure
Cron writes, “We think in story, which means we instinctively look for meaning in everything that happens to us.” At its core, a story has several essential elements that make it compelling and meaningful: a character (or characters), often with a specific desire or goal, encounters a conflict or obstacle and undergoes a journey that leads to a resolution or transformation. The journey is the narrative arc that keeps the audience engaged — through a build-up and release — and generates emotional responses, insights, and empathy.
The Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy once said, “All great literature is one of two stories; a man goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town.” If you think about it, it is one type of story: when a person leaves home on a journey, they become a stranger somewhere else. And when a stranger comes to town, by definition, they’ve left home and traveled to the new town. Over time, natural story archetypes like Tolstoy’s evolved and became particularly powerful at driving meaning, and you can use them all in business design to great effect.
In The Hero’s Journey story archetype, a character (the hero) sets out on a journey to achieve a specific goal; they face trials and challenges, receive help, and undergo a transformation, returning home changed. Think Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, Neo in The Matrix, and Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games.
Author Donald Miller pulls out an intriguing element of The Hero’s Journey as it relates to business in his book Building a StoryBrand. He writes, “Your customer should be the hero of the story, not your brand.” He goes on to illuminate how many of our favorite stories feature a guide and — once you realize this — you see it in everything. Luke has Obi-Wan Kenobi, Neo has Morpheus, Katniss has Shamus, Harry has Hagrid, Dorthy has Glinda, Frodo has Gandalf, and on and on and on. Miller urges business leaders to make their brand “the guide” for the customer in their own story, helping them reach their personal goals.
Similarly, there’s The Quest story archetype, which focuses on collective objectives rather than one hero’s personal growth or transformation. In this archetype, the companions go on a journey to acquire something of great value, encountering many obstacles along the way. Examples of The Quest are plentiful, including The Lord of the Rings, Indiana Jones, and The Wizard of Oz.
More archetypes: Rags-to-Riches is a classic — and useful in business because it often has a character rising from humble beginnings, overcoming adversity, and achieving success, wealth, or greatness (Cinderella, Harry Potter, Pretty Woman). Tragedy: the protagonist’s actions lead to negative outcomes, often because of a fatal flaw — these stories make great cautionary tales, think Macbeth or Requiem for a Dream. Conversely, the Comedy archetype centered around misunderstandings, mistaken identities, or social mishaps — think The Hangover, Bridge Jones’s Diary, etc.
Another classic is The Underdog archetype: the main character, who is weaker or disadvantaged, faces a powerful adversary or systemic challenge; despite the odds, they triumph due to resilience, cleverness, or sheer determination. There are so many to choose from: Rocky, Rudy, Karate Kid. There’s the Forbidden Love type — the characters fall in love, but external forces forbid their relationship, and the pair struggle against the constraints keeping them apart: Romeo and Juliet, Titanic, The Notebook.
There’s the Coming-of-Age Story: Stand by Me, Boyhood, and Lady Bird. Let’s not forget Mysteries, where the protagonist tries to solve a puzzle, uncover a secret, or discover the truth — the story follows them as they piece together clues, dodge red herrings, and solve the case.
Lastly (of the ones I’ll mention here — there are more), my absolute favorite: The Heist. A group of diverse individuals come together to execute a daring plan, often involving stealing something (but not always). Each member of the group typically brings a unique skill, and there are twists, setbacks, and betrayals along the way. Examples: Ocean’s Eleven, The Italian Job, and Inception.
These archetypes provide structures that storytellers adapt and innovate to create countless unique narratives across different genres and mediums. Each typology captures a different facet of human experience and, therefore, can be leveraged very effectively in business design: by understanding and framing the output of our work as stories, we can communicate effectively, drive change, and inspire both employees and customers.
Six Key Business Stories
Business designers create strategies, processes, services, and more, but at the heart of it all, every project, initiative, or transformation within a business starts as a story. In business design, stories come in various forms, each serving a different purpose. Some are about setting a direction, aligning people with a common vision, or defining how a company operates. Others are about challenges — identifying obstacles that need to be overcome, showing how solutions are reached, and highlighting the impact of those solutions on people’s lives.
Six key business stories, three Alignment Stories, and three Journey Stories cut across internal and external engagement and connect and shape.
First, Alignment Stories help individuals within an organization understand and rally around a shared purpose and objectives. They inspire and clarify the organization’s direction and operations and show how people can grow and succeed together.
1. Vision/Strategy Stories are narratives about the future state of the company, a product, or service that the company is working towards. They help people understand why a particular course of action is important and where they fit in it and inspire them to contribute toward that shared vision. A good example: when Satya Nadella took over as CEO of Microsoft, he didn’t just share new sales targets; he shared a new vision for the company that focused on cloud computing and digital transformation. By telling a story of transformation — in this case, he used The Quest story archetype — he emphasized innovation, customer-centricity, and a growth mindset to help rally the entire company around this new strategic direction.
2. Coaching Stories are narratives used to mentor, advise, and inspire team members or stakeholders. They often involve examples of personal growth, lessons learned, and overcoming challenges. I’ll share an example from my career as a people leader: recently, a colleague and I identified that they weren’t bringing their expert opinions into strategic conversations. They were holding back and going along with what the rest of the team said. I could have told them, “Insert yourself more.” Instead, I told a Coming-of-Age story; it went something like this:
When I was in design school, I had a professor, Stan — he’d go desk to desk as we were working on our design projects. When he got to my desk, I showed him what I was working on, and he’d nod and say, Sam, this is great, but you should do x,y,z (paraphrasing here) to improve it. That day and night, I’d do everything he said — to the letter — excited to show him my progress. The next day, he’d look at what I’d done and say, no, no, do this, this, and this, which I’d then do. This repeated a few times over the course of the week until finally, I somewhat angrily said, “I’ve done everything you’ve said to do, and you never like it! Here’s what I think: it should be like this! I then shared the direction I believe best solved the problem. Stan stepped back and smiled, and walked away, achieving his goal. The moral of the story: it’s our job to have a point of view and the courage to share it.
3. Culture Stories reinforce the shared values, traditions, and behaviors that define an organization’s culture — and they help set expectations for how people interact and approach work within the collective group. One of my absolute favorites comes from my employer, Edward Jones. Ted Jones, the son of company founder Edward Jones Sr., is lauded at the company for urging (some stories say ‘forcing’) his father to transform the wealth management firm from a family business to a partnership owned by the employees, where those who “share the work, share the profits.” Transforming the firm into a partnership meant Ted was leaving the chance behind of becoming a multi-billionaire if he had simply sold it to the highest bidder. As the story goes:
When Ted, then retired, was asked by a reporter why he never sold out and became as rich as say, his friend Sam Walton, Ted replied: “I am the richest man in America. I have a wife who loves me in spite of my faults. I have four dogs. Two love only me. One loves everybody. One loves no one but is still very loyal. I enjoy my business. I love my farm and my home. I have a few close friends, and money has never been my god.”
That quote is emblazoned on plaques, in documents, and in the minds of everyone who works at Edward Jones. Here you have a Rags-to-Riches story of a family starting a company working “to bring wealth management from Wall Street to Main Street” as a partnership — Ted’s reply goes further in communicating a rags-to-humble riches story that sets the tone for everyone at the firm — reinforcing how we all keep a sense of humility and gratitude for what we have, as we work together to grow prosperity for all.
Journey Stories focus on defining challenges, navigating the path and process to find solutions, and showcasing the impact of those solutions. These stories communicate the effort, iteration, and creativity involved in addressing problems or activating opportunities. Done well, they create connections and credibility inside and outside your business.
4. Challenge Stories focus on a specific problem that needs solving — helping everyone understand the core issue and why it’s important — these stories set the stage for action. Challenge stories are useful and nearly ubiquitous in the design process as we seek to identify and solve for user needs. A business challenge (stated in a very non-story way) might be something like this: Not enough people are using our healthcare app. As designers, we dig in, do user research, and discover that users are frustrated with the appointment scheduling feature — we can frame the challenge as a design challenge, perhaps for a statement of work: Our users (our main characters in this case) tell us they struggle to schedule appointments easily, leading to missed care opportunities and frustration. We must redesign the appointment flow to make it simple, intuitive, and efficient. The challenge is to reduce the number of steps and ensure users have a smooth, reliable experience booking appointments and ultimately meet their healthcare needs. In a similar fashion, we can frame this as a typical UX design user story, a story from the user’s point of view that can drive our design work: Simplify Appointment Scheduling: As a healthcare app user, I want to easily schedule a medical appointment without confusion, so that I can get the care I need without stress or missed bookings.
This is an excellent example of The Hero’s Journey because, as Donald Miller shares in Becoming a Storybrand, our users/customers are the heroes. Challenge Stories are the calls to adventure that inspire the hero’s journey and lead to our next business story type.
5. Journey to Solution Stories take the audience through the process of how a problem was addressed, showing the iterations, teamwork, and resilience involved. These stories are about walking the path, overcoming the challenges, and learning lessons along the way. Journey to Solution stories are great for design projects — I frame pretty much every project I lead as a quest that includes my core team and the broader team of subject matter experts — we all work together to travel from The Shire to The Lonely Mountain, I mean… from the challenge to the solution.
These stories are perfect for founding/origin tales — in fact, I wrote one; my book Adventures in Disruption was written as a Journey to Solution story about starting a new kind of design museum. I wrote the story as sort of a Heist, with various characters and our different skill sets: me with project management and business strategy, Derek with design and sales, Steve with tech and web development, Jenna with marketing and event production, and more. We came together to activate the opportunity and achieve our objective.
6. Solution and Impact Stories describe the solution and its tangible impact on customers and stakeholders. Here, you often see customer testimonials and real-world examples — sometimes even with data! — of the benefits experienced by interacting with your business, products, or services. Solution and Impact Stories are great for sales because you show what you’ve done, build credibility, and reinforce your value. Here’s a real example from productivity app Notion:
Toyota uses Notion to drive more efficient workflows with collaboration that comes standard. *Toyota’s Frontier Research Center is at the forefront of the future for the largest brand in one of the world’s largest industries. Their team is responsible for not only conducting a wide range of research but also sharing findings with the world. Since switching to Notion to consolidate and centrally manage all of this work, they’re more efficient and productive than ever before.
For the researchers at Toyota, sharing findings with the public is just as important as conducting the research itself. To do this, the research center promotes their work on social media for the world to engage with. But doing so requires a rigorous approval process to ensure accuracy and maintain the integrity of the Toyota brand. Before switching to Notion, this process was a tedious back-and-forth exchange of messages between various teams that was painfully inefficient.
With Notion, every post gets drafted and sent for approval in an easy-to-follow workflow that ends with a single click of the “approve” button that reduced approval timelines by 3x. Instead of the back and forth messages, the team can quickly check statuses and receive automated notifications of changes and updates.
“Not only do our streamlined workflows in Notion save us time, they also make it easier to stay up to date on task details and progress. This means our social media posts are more accurate, and we can publish them faster than before.” — Taku Wakasugi, Toyota Frontier Research Center
Here, we have a sort of Rags to Riches story. The protagonists are the researchers at Toyota. The “rags” are those pesky inefficient workflows, and the “riches” are their new streamlined processes—all possible because of the significant value provided by Notion.
Three Alignment and three Journey stories. These six types of business stories serve different but complementary purposes — use them together and build off each type. A Rags to Riches Journey to Solution story might bolster your culture. A Vision/Strategy Quest Story is a great way to tee up your ultimate triumph, your epic Solution, and your Impact Story.
How to Craft Business Stories
The organizational psychologist and author Adam Grant recently wrote: “The hallmark of expertise is no longer how much you know. It’s how well you synthesize.” As we explored above, the ultimate synthesis is storytelling. Writing compelling stories requires structure, emotional resonance, and relevance to your audience. To tell good stories, we start there:
- Understand your audience and purpose: In The Science of Storytelling, Will Storr emphasizes that the best stories are all about change. Conflict drives change through tension and obstacles that help us reflect on the challenges we face ourselves. Determine what you want to achieve with your story, whether to inspire, educate, influence, or align — ask yourself what you want to change — then tailor your story to your audience’s interests, challenges, and needs.
- Focus on specific characters and details: Every story needs a main character. The character could be a customer, employee, or the leadership team — choose someone relatable. In some instances, like Vision/Strategy stories, the whole company may collectively be the main character.
- Incorporate emotional resonance: Connect on an emotional level by conveying how characters feel at key points in the story. And always connect to a deeper purpose. For example, a story about solving a customer problem should also convey why that solution was meaningful for the people involved and the audience listening.
- Keep it simple and authentic: Avoid overly technical jargon or unnecessary complexity. Simple language makes it easier for your audience to understand and connect. As in all things, authenticity in your stories fosters trust and credibility.
- Connect to broader themes: Tie your story back to your company’s core values or vision to help reinforce strategic priorities and make the story more impactful. Above all else, make sure your audience leaves knowing the main point.
Business Design Example
Good business design transforms noise into knowledge and, ultimately, to story. Here’s an example: Let’s say we’re a business designer for a large, national real estate firm focused on empowering agents to support home buyers and sellers, and our executive leaders are concerned. Our sales are plateauing, even down in some areas of the country. There is a flood of new opportunities and constraints acting on our business — where should we focus our efforts? What should we invest in? How should we better support our agents to make an impact and ultimately grow our business?
We begin by understanding the unstructured landscape — the Noise — and gradually shape it into a cohesive Story that aligns everyone toward the future of our real estate, all by design.
- Learn: Making Sense of the Noise We start by gathering from the Noise to find Data: researching market signals and interviewing agents and clients. Agents have expressed challenges with digital engagement, increased competition from tech-driven competitors, and shifting client expectations. We categorize these insights to identify recurring themes. As we learn and identify patterns, we transform Data into Information; for example, we see a growing demand for digital tools and personalized customer interactions. A great way to synthesize user data is by creating personas, representations of our user groups — in the context of our story, personas are our characters (agents, clients, and colleagues). Let’s create a persona named Tracy — a realtor on our team with 15 years of experience.
- Define: Turning Information into Clear Focus Areas We then synthesize this information further by analyzing what the patterns mean. Agents like Tracy need support to become more tech-savvy, and clients expect a seamless, tech-driven experience. We clearly define our core user problem (an excellent start to our story): Our agents need to be empowered with modern tools, skills, and a client-centric approach to regain market share and improve sales performance. This step turns the information into Knowledge by giving it context and clarity — helping us pinpoint areas where we need to act. The focus areas or need statements might be something like:
- Investing in technology to enhance client experiences.
- Upskilling agents in digital tools and personalized services.
- Building community and support systems for agents to adapt to future challenges.
- Ideate, Prototype, & Test with Story As needed, we can share drafts of our story for feedback and refinement. At this point, with our new knowledge and defined focus areas, we can concurrently ideate/prototype/test solutions and begin developing our story. Let’s say we ideate, prototype, and test a few initiatives — each idea represents an element of the broader narrative we’re building:
- Pilot Programs for Digital Tools: We roll out virtual tour technology to a small group of agents to see how effectively it enhances client interactions.
- Training Curriculum: Develop a foundational training program on digital engagement tools and test it with a subset of agents to refine the content and delivery.
- Agent Community Forum: Create a virtual space for agents to share challenges and successes, fostering collaboration.
4. Refining the Final Story From the prototypes and testing, we learned that agents feel more confident and empowered when they have access to the right technology and training. Based on this feedback, we refine our story to ensure that it aligns with agents’ needs and customers’ expectations. We’re ready to write and deliver our story.
The Story: Tracy’s Evolution — Tracy is a realtor with over 15 years of experience. She’s seen the market change — sometimes dramatically. From the rollercoaster of the housing crisis to the surge in demand during the pandemic, Tracy helped families find their homes, navigating unpredictable shifts in the market. But now, as technology evolves and client expectations change, she knows that the future of the real estate industry will look very different from the past.
Recently, Tracy noticed that more of her clients expected an almost digital-first approach — asking for virtual tours, wanting deep data insights, and using online platforms to streamline their buying process. She started to see potential clients choosing tech-enabled competitors over traditional agents. Tracy understood that she needed to adapt to what the next 15 years might bring: smart technology integration, personalized client service through data insights, and deepened relationships in a hybrid digital world.
Tracy embarked on a journey to transform her approach to real estate. She began with professional development — taking courses on digital marketing, virtual property tours, and data analytics in real estate. She adopted new technology that allowed her to create virtual home tours, leveraging 3D scanning to give buyers an immersive experience without ever stepping foot in the property. She utilized new data-driven platforms to provide her clients with neighborhood analytics that offered insights into future growth potential, school ratings, and even sustainability features that mattered to a new generation of buyers.
Tracy also focused on personal branding, creating engaging online content that spoke directly to her clients’ needs. She shared videos about trends in home sustainability, insider tips for new buyers, and behind-the-scenes glimpses of her day-to-day work as a realtor adapting to a tech-driven world. She built trust with her audience and a pipeline of new clients by showing her willingness to evolve.
This journey helped Tracy grow her business and future-proof her career. She began attracting a tech-savvy clientele that valued her experience and new capabilities. Her clients appreciated the seamlessness of their buying experience, from virtual walkthroughs to data-backed decisions. Tracy also found that integrating technology allowed her to spend more quality time building relationships rather than managing manual processes, elevating her service to a new level.
Tracy’s story is one of evolution. She leverages technology not as a replacement for the human element but as an enhancer that allows her to do what she does best: helping people find a place to call home.
We are building the real estate firm of the future — one that combines the expertise of seasoned agents like Tracy with cutting-edge technology to deliver unmatched service. Tracy has seen the industry evolve dramatically. She knows that to thrive in the next decade, she must embrace change and adopt new tools to engage clients digitally and provide personalized, data-driven experiences. We are committed to empowering agents with the tools, training, and support they need to adapt and succeed. Together, we will create a seamless, personalized real estate experience that makes finding and selling a home as efficient and rewarding as possible.
How’d we do?
Our audience: executive leaders who need a strategic vision for what to do and where to invest. Check.
Specific characters and details: Tracy is a traditional realtor with 15 years of experience, but looking to evolve for the next decade and beyond. Check.
Emotional resonance: “the rollercoaster of the housing crisis,” “unpredictable shifts,” Tracy is worried about the future, which is a very human thing to be worried about; we can relate.
Keep it simple: we paint a simple picture of how and why Tracy needs to evolve and how we can support her — with three initiative ideas prototyped and tested.
Connect to broader themes: the main strategic theme: invest in our evolution as a company to support agents like Tracy. Check.
Stories Make Sense
Stories are central to how we make sense of the world, relate to one another, and inspire action. When used effectively, storytelling can align teams around a shared vision, build resilience through coaching, reinforce culture, and guide customers through challenges to solutions. For business designers, mastering storytelling allows us to synthesize meaningful narratives that resonate across teams and stakeholders. It helps us frame challenges, celebrate successes, and ensure that the human element always remains at the core of what we do.
I mentioned reading The Hobbit to my kids — well, now we’re taking the next step; my daughter Rafi and I are writing our own story: Rafi and the Lost Kingdom. Rafi, like most (all?) kids, is working hard to understand, feel, and react to her emotions — so in this story, Rafi finds a magic wand that works sort of like a mood ring; it senses her feelings, and various emotions give her certain powers — but if her emotions get the best of her, the wand can shut down, leaving her in tough situations. By writing this story, she’s learning to name her emotions, she’s understanding that her emotions are valid, and she’s seeing self-regulation in action — all through the power of story.
Think about the story you want to tell. Will it be a vision story that sets a direction for the future? A journey story that chronicles how challenges were overcome? Or perhaps a culture narrative that embodies the values you stand for? Whatever story you craft, remember: the power of a well-told story lies in its ability to drive understanding, alignment, and meaningful change.
Sam Aquillano is an entrepreneur, design leader, writer, and founder of Design Museum Everywhere. This post was originally published in Sam’s twice-monthly newsletter for the creative-business-curious, Business Design School. Check out Sam’s book, Adventures in Disruption: How to Start, Survive, and Succeed as a Creative Entrepreneur.
Header image: Maxime Lebrun on Unsplash; article images & graphics courtesy of the author.