I learned how to write narratives when I was at AWS.
Here’s how I got introduced to it:
This was in 2011 when I had recently joined AWS, and there was a major outage in EBS.
It was an all-hands-on-deck moment for the company, which was still pretty young, and doing this right or wrong could make or break us.
I was pulled into this meeting with a handful of others, including Raju Gulabani (my boss) Charlie Bell (the Head of Engineering for AWS at the time) and David Richardson (the new GM of EBS).
David came in, he handed us a document and some pens, and everyone started reading.
I had no idea what was going on. No one was talking – they were just quietly reading and making little notes.
Then after 15 minutes, they all started asking clarifying questions from David and discussing opinions.
That was my 1st exposure to Amazon’s narrative process.
Pretty much any big decision in the organization goes through the narrative process – be it building a new service, deciding on a name and price, or promoting someone.
Over my 8 years at AWS, I probably wrote about 300-400 narratives.
Here are some tips on how to write good narratives:
A narrative is like a murder mystery – it has a crime and some clues. You have to reach a conclusion using those clues.
It’s not a presentation – you don’t tell people what to do. You simply put the facts on the table in a neutral tone.
The purpose is to start the conversation and discuss ideas, not simply provide communication.
Even if you don't operate inside a narrative culture, you can apply the same story arc format to a PowerPoint, an email, or even verbal communication.
- Start with the problem.
- Describe the situation in detail.
- Mention different possibilities of tackling.
- Ask people to give their recommendations.