Successful Storytelling is Product Management

Susan Lindner, founder and CEO of Emerging Media, discusses the impact storytelling can have on business growth, product development, and market opportunities.

“Make sure that you tell a story and make it memorable, so people can share it and your amazing product and your amazing innovation doesn't die on the vine.”

Those are wise words from Susan Lindner, founder and CEO of Emerging Media, a PR branding, marketing, and social media agency that works with companies to craft stories that disrupt markets and accelerate innovation.

Susan got her start in public health, first working as a public health educator in Thailand and then as an epidemiologist for the CDC. She left the public health sector during the dot com boom after taking an interest in emerging technologies, and began a career in public relations advising companies on the new ways to communicate.

Emerging Media works with organizations of all types, from startups to large corporations, to help them use storytelling to create memorable brand messaging and grow their products and businesses in an oversaturated innovation space.

“We believe that storytelling is that bridge between strategy and culture that moves innovation forward. We help Fortune 500 innovators tell better stories around innovation in order to get the resources they need to be successful,” Susan says.

Susan outlined three steps for companies looking to create an impactful brand story: First, create an authentic picture of what the future can look like for a customer who uses your product. Second, include your customers and make them the hero of the story. And third, package the story in a way that makes it easy to evangelize.

In this episode, you’ll learn a lot about storytelling, communication strategies, and innovation.

Here are the highlights: 

• How to use storytelling to communicate a vision (7:15)
• Why you need to put your customers at the center of the story (11:13)
• When to know if it’s time to re-evaluate a product’s story or messaging (14:07)
• One of Susan’s favorite examples of a company that’s nailed their innovation story (17:49)
• Strategies for creating more innovative and forward-thinking internal cultures (22:38)