The Art of Storytelling

About the Guest

Joanna leads Strategy at Intuit’s Brand Storytelling and Experiences team where she scales customer insights and activation of strategy across the ecosystem. She’s built expertise as a researcher, designer, and leader, and these days she’s focused on transforming customer insights and business strategy into amazing stories and immersive experiences

Connect with Joanna Sim

Key Takeaways 

• To win over hearts and minds, we must start with intent 
• Leave people with a deeper understanding of the vision you’re trying to create by asking the “why” before asking the “what”
• Once you have your intent and narrative, only then can you bring the experience to life

Quote

 “Without intent, you are running blind” – Joanna 

Highlights from the Episode 

What is storytelling so important? What makes it so crucial for brands?

Part of brand storytelling is bringing to life a story both internally and externally to win over hearts and minds. To do that, a brand needs to tell a story that connects with people in a meaningful way to understand the company’s mission, customer, and product. 

Why is intent so important when you’re talking about storytelling? How do you identify it?

With intent, you can lay out what experience you’re trying to create, what impact it will have, and measure success. People often ask for the “what” before they know their “why.” An intent, or strategic objective, is always rooted in insight and data. It could be an emotional intent or intellectual intent; whichever it is, good intent is always single-minded and clear in what you want this experience to accomplish. 

What is the kind of experience you would look to trigger?

Before creating an experience, we first have to create a story. Write an abstract that captures what you think the audience’s journey should be. What do you want them to think and feel? Once you have the narrative down with the intent, then you can build an experience.  

Any resource recommendations for our listeners?

Book: The Power of Moments by Chip and Dan Heath 

Shout-Outs 

• Lionel Mohri – Intuit’s first Chief Storytelling and Experiences Officer