Andy Raskin Strategic Narrative

Based on Andy Raskin's public method. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Andy Raskin.

When to use

Use this skill when a company needs a coherent story about why buyers must change, what winning now means, and how its offering helps them get there. Typical requests include a sales deck, investor narrative, homepage story, keynote, launch story, or review of an existing pitch. The output is a compact narrative storyboard with evidence and unresolved assumptions, ready to adapt into the requested format.

The buyer is the protagonist. Start with a change in the buyer's world, establish the stakes, define a desirable buyer mission, and introduce capabilities as help with obstacles to that mission. This is also a strategic alignment exercise: the story should influence what the company builds, rather than merely decorate existing differentiators. [S1][S9]

For a narrow copy edit, apply only the relevant checks. Preserve the user's requested deliverable and constraints. A five-part storyboard is this package's drafting aid, not a mandatory slide count prescribed by Raskin. Read the detailed method when constructing or substantially reviewing a narrative; use the examples when the difference between product improvement and a buyer mindset shift is unclear.

Procedure

1. Define the assignment. Identify the audience, buying context, desired action, format, and available inputs. Separate a customer story from its investor adaptation. Capture these fields in templates/output-template.md before drafting; request missing information only when it materially affects the story.

2. Gather buyer language and evidence. Read the discovery guidance in references/method.md. Ask what changed that made action urgent, what winning used to mean, and what buyers must achieve now. Distinguish supplied facts, supported inferences, and hypotheses. Mark absent support as [needs source]; never invent customer quotes, statistics, winners, or outcomes.

3. Identify the change. Use the shift rules in references/method.md. Name the old and new winning mindsets compactly. Check that the change is happening, independent of the seller, and consequential. Reject a product before/after dressed up as a market shift. [S1][S4]