I spend a lot of time on strategy. And honestly, I think strategy can be overrated.
This article on Liquid Death’s marketing approach reminded me why. Strategy can get slow and overly intellectualized. It can, at its worst, stifle creativity. And in our B2B corner of the world, it can diminish something powerful and not often talked about: intuition.
Most companies already have the raw ingredients for intuition. They have successful products and happy customers. They have years of lived experience making these things. This is the raw material for intuition and lots of us have it, but instead of using it, we bury it under decks and frameworks. And this is coming from a guy who built a business on frameworks!
I think there are two root causes here.
The first is a work culture that doesn’t trust intuition. Many organizations only trust what can be quantified, and data becomes a security blanket. But data doesn’t replace judgement, and it doesn’t automatically create strategy.
The second is human nature and fear. Even the most talented people are afraid of being wrong. Intuition feels risky because it puts your own point of view on the line.
We solve for this by using a narrative framework that straddles strategy and creative, and by doing so forces intuition into the mix. Stories, with their beginning, middle, and end, force humanity into your work. Even if you use a data-driven insight, you have to present it in a way that resonates with your customers.
That humanity makes the work more relatable, more interesting, and yes, more intuitive.
(And sure—if you genuinely don’t know your customer, do the strategy work. But most teams know a lot more than they think. They just need permission to trust it.)
#strategy #narrative #productmarketing #intuitionisbetterthandata