git:20261002.1fcdb26 to git:20261002.d5668a9

23 added, 96 removed. Audit A to A.

---

name: andy-raskin-strategic-narrative

- description: Use when writing or reviewing a strategic narrative for a company or product, such as a sales, pitch or investor deck story, homepage positioning, a keynote or launch story, a "why now" opener, or a 5-slide narrative for a startup. Builds the story around a named old game to new game shift in the buyer's world, stakes, a disputable buyer mission, obstacles, gifts and evidence, instead of problem, solution, features.

+ description: "Build or review a buyer-centered strategic narrative using Andy Raskin's public method. Use for sales or investor deck stories, homepage positioning, keynotes, launch narratives, and why-now messaging."

---

# Andy Raskin Strategic Narrative

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

- Raskin's core claim: "The company story is the company strategy" [23]. A strategic narrative "transforms the act of buying into the act of joining a movement" [22]. It is not storytelling used to dress up claims of superiority [8].

- ## Common failure modes (check these first)

- - Opens with "AI is changing everything" or "the world is changing" plus two bullet lists. Raskin: "We now live in an AI world" is "already an old, non-differentiated story" [19]; a long used-to-be/now-it-is list is a known failure [5].

- - Uses "old way vs new way", which is a product before/after. Raskin wants old game vs new game, a shift in the buyer's head [6].

- - Writes a promised land that is a feature or "having our platform". It must be what life is like thanks to the product [1][2].

- - Names no losers, or names competitors as the enemy. The enemy is an old mindset; competitors are shown as rooted in it [7][8].

- - Leads with product, logos, investors, traction [1][3][13].

- ## Method

- 1. **Find the shift in the buyer's world, from buyers.** Ask customers what changed in their world that made the product urgent; customers sometimes hand you the words [6][5]. Start with the buyer, not your differentiators; the story then decides what you build [15].

- 2. **Name the old game and the new game in a few words each.** "Software to cloud", "transactions to subscriptions", "opinions to reality" [5]. Concise naming is key even though compactness costs completeness; overstating is acceptable [5]. Frame it as a mindset ("old winning mindset / new winning mindset"), not a workflow your product streamlines [6]. A shift that your product brought about is old way/new way; you want a shift that creates demand for the product [6]. Borrowing an existing shift name with traction is fine; coining one can waste months [3].

- 3. **Pass the undeniability test.** The change must be (a) undeniably happening, (b) happening independently of you, whether you exist or not, and (c) give rise to stakes; all three must be true [2]. Do not open with "the problem": asserting a prospect has a problem puts them on the defensive; a shift gets them to open up [1][3]. Structure the opening as news: "there's a journalist inside every buyer" looking for a simple story of a changing world [12].

- 4. **Name the stakes: winners and losers.** Best version: show winners already playing the new game [5]. "Emotional" has a definition: the buyer no longer sees the future as "sort of okay" but split between a very negative and a very positive outcome [5]. Show both that adapting yields a highly positive future and not adapting an unacceptably negative one, to beat loss aversion [1].

- 5. **Name the enemy as the old mindset, never the competitor list.** Naming the shift already names the enemy; then show competitors perpetuate the old mindset instead of calling them "worse" [7]. Position yourself as the first and only one devoted to helping buyers play the new named game, not as "better" or "different in some capability" [8]. Optionally include yourself among those once seduced by the old way ("we", not "you") [2].

- 6. **Write the buyer mission statement (object of the new game).** Raskin renamed the "promised land" to "naming the object of the new game" / "buyer mission statement": a goal state for buyers that works as the movement's rallying cry and ideally the company mission [5][9][10]. Examples he cites: "Turn customers into subscribers" (Zuora), "Unlock reality" (Gong), "Upskill from within" (360Learning), "Scale at speed" (Tech Mahindra) [9][10][16]. Rules:

- - It differentiates via goal state, not claims: "Don't want to belong? Book a hotel." [10]

- - Cinderella tradeoff: choose between "attend the ball" (concrete), "marry royalty", "live happily ever after" (vague). Pick the highest-level thing that still defines and differentiates the movement; he lands nearer "attend the ball" than most teams like [10].

- - Make it a disputable purpose: narrow enough that reasonable people can disagree (Gong's "Goodbye opinions, hello reality" in 2018; Turing's "Train super-intelligence"). That makes it a decision filter for product, hiring and operations [20].

- - It can be asymptotically unachievable, like "Live there" [5].

- - Pose it as a question: "What would it take to turn every customer into a subscriber?" [5][3].

- - It must be desirable and hard to reach without outside help, or why do you exist [1].

- 7. **Name the obstacles.** Repackage the "problems you solve" as obstacles to the goal state already framed as life and death; often new challenges that did not exist in the old game [5]. The obstacle slide must explain why reaching the goal is hard without you [3].

- 8. **Introduce capabilities as magic gifts, one per obstacle.** Narrative does not replace features; it gives context for why features matter, and only works if the demo maps features to obstacles to the buyer mission [12]. Product is "a prop for making the story come true" [5].

+ ## When to use

- 9. **Present evidence.** Best: stories of similar customers who reached the goal state, in their own voices; next: demos; if very early, dogfooding results [1][2]. Logos and investor names, if kept, go here, not at the start [3]. ****

+ 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.

- 10. **Tailor by audience without forking the story.** The change is the glue; add an "it's playing out across segments" slide, then a persona-specific goal state and obstacles [4]. For investors the goal state is profiting in the new world; obstacles are market size, business model and team [4]. If an AI lab ships a competing offering, do not argue "better"; show buyers a different game and a different promised land [18].

+ 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]

- 11. **Draft compact, in slides, then test live.** Slides force the "agonizing sacrifice of completeness in favor of compactness"; prose is "too forgiving" [17]. No template: slide count varies, sometimes the shift is one slide, sometimes none [5]. Test in a few real sales calls; ask "Am I crazy or are you seeing this?" and watch whether buyers say how the shift plays out for them [5]. Do not A/B test the top-level message; the CEO picks one and repeats it everywhere [11]. Expect the first full draft to land badly; throwing out most of the team's ideas is the point [5]. Drop a piece that does not feel true to the team [21].

+ 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.

- ## Self-review checklist

+ ## Procedure

- - [ ] Slide 1 says nothing about us: no product, logos, investors, traction [1][13].

- - [ ] Old game and new game each fit in about 1 to 4 words, named as buyer mindsets [5][6].

- - [ ] Shift passes all three: undeniable, independent of us, creates stakes [2].

- - [ ] Shift is not generic "AI changes everything" [19]; a skeptic could not say "that's just our product's pitch" [6].

- - [ ] Winners already playing the new game are named, and the loser path is concrete and unacceptable [1][5].

- - [ ] Enemy is the old mindset; competitors appear only as perpetuating it [7].

- - [ ] Buyer mission is a goal state, not "having" the product [1]; someone reasonable could disagree with it [20]; it could serve as company mission and roadmap filter [10][20].

- - [ ] Every gift maps to a named obstacle; no orphan features [3][12].

- - [ ] Evidence shows a similar customer reaching the goal state [1].

- - [ ] Each slide is compact enough to repeat from memory [17].

+ 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](templates/output-template.md) before drafting; request missing information only when it materially affects the story.

- ## Failure modes

+ 2. **Gather buyer language and evidence.** Read the discovery guidance in [references/method.md](references/method.md#discovery-and-evidence). 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.

- - **Arrogant Doctor / brag:** problem, my solution, why mine is best [5][9]; "we are the world's best" conveys no urgency to non-early adopters [14]. Fix: restart from the shift.

- - **Logo swap of the Zuora deck** [5]. Fix: find your buyers' own shift via interviews [6].

- - **Used to be / now is bullet lists** instead of one named shift [5].

- - **Old way/new way product diagram** (messy lines vs clean diagram) [6].

- - **Competitors as villain** ("their alerts are dumb") [7].

- - **Happily-ever-after mission** ("Grow your revenue") that defines no movement, or a too-low one ("Know when a deal is in jeopardy") [10].

- - **Category name hunting** without a story; Raskin prefers movement creation and quotes Gong's CEO that it "could have called it strawberry intelligence" [5].

- - **Prose manifesto** cramming in nuance; "too many ideas and too much nuance are the death of alignment" [17].

- - **Hedged mission to avoid offending prospects**; a disputable purpose is the goal [20].

+ 3. **Identify the change.** Use the shift rules in [references/method.md](references/method.md#the-shift). 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]

- ## Worked examples (illustrative, written for this skill, not Raskin's)

+ 4. **Make the stakes concrete.** Follow [references/method.md](references/method.md#stakes-and-enemy). Describe how adapting creates a positive future and how continuing the old mindset creates a material negative outcome. Use relevant, sourced examples where available; label proposed examples as research gaps. Avoid declaring every slow adopter doomed. [S2]

- **A. Invoice-automation startup (illustrative).**

- Weak (a default AI draft): "AI is transforming finance. Manual AP is slow and error-prone. Our AI platform automates invoices 10x faster."

- Raskin-shaped: Old game "close the books" (finance wins by reporting accurately after the month ends) to new game "run on live cash" (finance wins by steering spend while it happens). Undeniable and independent: the buyer's own CFO peers already get daily cash questions from the board (to be sourced from customer interviews, not invented). Winners: named customers who answer cash questions same day; losers: teams discovering overspend at month end. Enemy: the month-end mindset, not rival AP tools. Buyer mission as question: "What would it take to know where every dollar is going today?" Disputable: some CFOs will say monthly is enough. Obstacles: invoices arrive in 40 formats; approvals live in email; ERP syncs nightly. Gifts: one per obstacle. Evidence: one customer quote on a same-day board answer.

+ 5. **Locate the enemy.** Apply the later clarification in [references/method.md](references/method.md#stakes-and-enemy): the antagonist is the old mindset. Naming the shift can already name the enemy. Discuss alternatives through their assumptions and suitability, with support for factual comparisons. [S5]

- **B. Investor version, same company (illustrative).** Keep slide 1 identical [4]. Goal state becomes "own the live-cash layer for mid-market finance"; obstacles become market size, model, team [4].

+ 6. **Choose the buyer mission.** Use [references/method.md](references/method.md#buyer-mission) to state the future buyers want, without naming ownership of the product as success. Choose the highest useful level that still defines a distinct movement. State who might reasonably reject the mission and what strategic choices it implies. [S7][S12]

- ## Output format: 5-slide narrative

+ 7. **Map obstacles to help.** Follow [references/method.md](references/method.md#obstacles-and-gifts) and the mapping fields in [templates/output-template.md](templates/output-template.md). Explain why the mission is difficult, then connect each selected capability to an obstacle. Remove orphan features and promises the offering cannot deliver. [S1][S2]

- Raskin rejects fixed templates [5]; this 5-slide shape is a compression for quick drafts. For each slide give **Slide title**, **On-slide text** (max ~12 words), **Speaker note** (2 to 4 sentences, with the source of any claim).

+ 8. **Select proof.** Use [references/method.md](references/method.md#proof). Prefer a relevant customer outcome in the customer's voice; otherwise use a demonstration or clearly labeled internal results. Keep proof boundaries visible. Place logos and investor credentials after the story has established relevance. [S1][S2]

- 1. **The shift.** Title = "[Old game] to [New game]". On-slide: the two names only, plus one proof point that it is happening without you. Note: why it is undeniable; the discovery question "Am I crazy or are you seeing this?" [5].

- 2. **Winners and losers.** On-slide: 2 to 3 named winners already playing the new game, 1 concrete loser outcome. Note: the split future, very negative vs very positive [5]. Enemy = old mindset [7].

- 3. **The buyer mission.** On-slide: the mission as a question ("What would it take to ...?") [5]. Note: why it is a goal state, who might disagree with it [20].

- 4. **Obstacles and gifts.** On-slide: 3 rows "obstacle -> gift". Note: why each obstacle is new in the new game and hard without you [3][5].

- 5. **Evidence.** On-slide: one customer outcome stated as reaching the goal state, in their words. Note: demo or dogfooding if no customers yet [2].

+ 9. **Draft the storyboard.** Fill [templates/output-template.md](templates/output-template.md) with compact titles, on-slide text, speaker notes, evidence, and gaps. Compare the transformations in [examples/worked-examples.md](examples/worked-examples.md). Establish the concise narrative before expanding it into prose. [S10]

- Rules for the user's inputs: use only facts from the provided website, quotes or research. Where a winner, stat or quote is missing, write "[needs source]" rather than inventing one.

+ 10. **Tailor and challenge.** Apply [references/method.md](references/method.md#audience-adaptation-and-edge-cases). Keep the shared change while adapting missions, obstacles, and proof by audience. Test comprehension in conversations, record objections, and revise unsupported or untrue pieces. Surface top-message choices for leadership rather than claiming an agent can settle company strategy. [S3][S8][S13]

- ## Sources

+ 11. **Review and deliver.** Run [checklists/review-checklist.md](checklists/review-checklist.md). Resolve failures or explicitly label remaining gaps and their impact. Deliver the requested artifact plus essential evidence notes. Verify method citations against [references/sources.md](references/sources.md); those sources support the framework, not claims about the user's market.

- Fetched 2026-10-01. LinkedIn posts were read via logged-out public pages.

+ ## Files in this skill

- 1. Raskin, "The Greatest Sales Deck I've Ever Seen", Medium, 2016-09-15. https://medium.com/the-mission/the-greatest-sales-deck-ive-ever-seen-4f4ef3391ba0

- 2. Raskin, "The Greatest Sales Pitch I've Seen All Year" (Drift), LinkedIn article, 2017-10-24. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/best-sales-pitch-ive-seen-all-year-andy-raskin

- 3. Raskin, "The Making of a Great Strategic Narrative" (Uberflip), LinkedIn article, 2017-06-26. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/making-great-sales-narrative-andy-raskin

- 4. Raskin, "Tailoring Your Pitch for Multiple Audiences", LinkedIn article, 2018-07-26. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/tailoring-your-pitch-multiple-audiences-andy-raskin

- 5. Lenny's Podcast, "The power of strategic narrative | Andy Raskin", 2023-05-28. Episode page https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-power-of-strategic-narrative ; transcript read via third-party mirror https://www.latios.ai/lennys/episodes/andy-raskin

- 6. Raskin, LinkedIn post, old game/new game vs old way/new way (Foxglove), 2023-11-17. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andyraskin_sometimes-people-boil-down-my-strategic-narrative-activity-7131327379045576704-YwbE

- 7. Raskin, LinkedIn post, "Name the Enemy" is an old mindset, 2023-11-03. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andyraskin_one-part-of-my-strategic-narrative-framework-activity-7126247639502782464-LtXQ

- 8. Raskin, LinkedIn post, narrative is not storytelling for claims, 2023-03-23. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andyraskin_strategic-narrative-is-not-about-using-storytelling-activity-7044706892291469313-gYt6

- 9. Raskin, LinkedIn post, calculative vs narrative rationality, buyer mission examples, 2023-05-18. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andyraskin_how-you-structure-your-sales-pitch-depends-activity-7065004929920217088-i65_

- 10. Raskin, LinkedIn post, Buyer Mission Statement and the Cinderella tradeoff, 2023-06-27. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andyraskin_a-critical-piece-of-a-great-strategic-narrative-activity-7079503905637707776-PKLz

- 11. Raskin, LinkedIn post, choosing the top message, no A/B test, 2022-09-22. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andyraskin_today-is-going-to-be-interesting-a-ceo-and-activity-6978748121086337026-hKcJ

- 12. Raskin, LinkedIn post, Steve Nash "health span" pitch, 2023-05-22. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andyraskin_caught-a-stellar-strategic-narrative-last-activity-7066477610851078144-pIgs

- 13. Raskin, LinkedIn post, Series C CEO conference test, 2023-05-19. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andyraskin_a-series-c-company-ceo-im-working-with-activity-7065422564663201792-vYaJ

- 14. Raskin, LinkedIn post, Redox: from a claim to a buyer mindset, 2023-05-12. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andyraskin_one-definition-of-strategic-narrative-the-activity-7062816730804350976--NK6

- 15. Raskin, LinkedIn post, traditional messaging mindset vs strategic narrative mindset, 2023-07-25. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andyraskin_strategic-narrative-is-a-fundamental-shift-activity-7089644822415773696-EBiT

- 16. Raskin, LinkedIn post, Tech Mahindra "Scale at Speed", 2025-01-16. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andyraskin_a-while-back-i-shared-about-a-public-company-activity-7285771475423244291-Hd_A

- 17. Raskin, LinkedIn post, why slides over prose, 2025-03-14. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andyraskin_yesterday-when-i-told-the-ceo-of-a-hot-ai-activity-7306349038801494016-5gKk

- 18. Raskin, LinkedIn post, competing with AI labs needs a different game, 2026-03-16. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andyraskin_if-one-of-the-big-ai-labs-announces-an-offering-activity-7439367929420292097-31MZ

- 19. Raskin, LinkedIn post, beyond "We now live in an AI world", 2026-01-08. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andyraskin_strategic-narrative-framework-behind-salesforce-activity-7415096663356411904-LJ8T

- 20. Raskin, LinkedIn post, "disputable purpose" (after Priya Parker), 2026-03-03. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andyraskin_a-ceo-i-worked-with-recently-was-excited-activity-7434673243116146689-6HaD

- 21. Raskin, LinkedIn post, team rejects a narrative piece that did not feel true, 2025-02-12. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andyraskin_this-morning-the-ceo-of-a-pe-backed-company-activity-7295552792398639105-sH9r

- 22. Raskin, LinkedIn post, buying as joining a movement, 2023-08-18. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andyraskin_a-strategic-narrative-is-a-story-that-transforms-activity-7098325917336293376-lFl6

- 23. Raskin, andyraskin.com homepage, undated. https://andyraskin.com

+ - [references/method.md](references/method.md): Detailed principles, decision rules, explicit warnings, and edge cases.

+ - [references/sources.md](references/sources.md): Fetched public sources and the contribution of each.

+ - [examples/worked-examples.md](examples/worked-examples.md): Two invented illustrations with weak drafts, improved storyboards, and rule explanations.

+ - [templates/output-template.md](templates/output-template.md): Fill-in storyboard with field guidance and evidence handling.

+ - [checklists/review-checklist.md](checklists/review-checklist.md): Pass/fail review criteria, failure modes, and fixes.