Let’s Tell a Story

Fundamentally, I am a storyteller. When I’m not extolling the virtues of modern insurance software, I write music. And when I’m at work, I help our customers to build business cases.

Business cases? That’s right, business cases. My team at Guidewire is responsible for helping our customers to communicate the business value they expect to achieve through core system replacement. The business case instantiates this vision and underpins the entire transformation effort. People intuitively understand this – witness the common chorus of, “We need a business case!” – yet most folks inevitably fall into the “trap of a number” once they attempt to conceive said case.

See, a business case, at its core, is not a number, any more than a song is a collection of words. It’s not a spreadsheet or a presentation or laundry list of future strategic benefits, any more than a song is an arrangement of black dots and lines on a page. A business case – like a song – is a story.

Think more strategically; what does a good transformational business case story look like? It’s a story of possibility. It’s a story of imagination. It’s a story of your future success. And yes, it is instantiated in various document formats and punctuated by the aforementioned numbers and lists. But at the end of the day, it’s just another example of the most basic and ancient units of human communication. Tell a good story, and the effects can be profound, persistent, and far-reaching; tell a bad one, and your message – no matter how urgent or soundly reasoned – can be lost, ignored, or dismissed altogether.

My business cards read “Director, Value Consulting”. Our sales reps like to refer to me as “the business case guy”. I casually call myself a songwriter. But in reality, I am just a storyteller. And I’d like to help you tell your story in the most compelling way possible. Come along, and let’s write one together.