I have a roadmap. They had no idea what we were building. I have led the complex, high-stake product products to many teams, companies, and industries. I know how to run cross-functional initiatives. I know what the alignment looks like. I know how wrong to be misunderstood.
And yet.
I'm there. At another meeting. Watching people quote the initiative I spent several weeks identify, defense, and documenting.
“Wait. Is this the thing we did for the OEM last year?”
“Did we build it from the beginning?”
“I thought it was just an experiment?”
The sound you hear today, I am inwardly flowing at a table. It is me my eyes. It was my blowing a gasket.
I failed. Still, if I were honest. And that's right. Because approach without translation is wasted effort.
When I finally stopped the pillow, I began to be the leader of the product
I breathe. Put in the product hat. Step back to do it.
This is not the documentation. This is not the roadmap.
It is the lack of Responsibility Around the story.
The message stopped to me. And no one else felt responsible for carrying it.
What did I see? Previous experience. I worked in places where this didn't happen. Where the directors and em took the strategic “why” and made it real for their teams. Where translation automatically.
It's not that.
And I even realized: I was waiting for people to cheat.
But I didn't build a process to help them do it.
What should I do: kickoff the story, not the work
Not a roadmap review.
Not a Timeline Sync.
An actual kickoff in which people hear “why” and training it says in their own words.
I call it a Strategic narrative kickoff.
And no, it's not just a PM-Em-designer huddle. If you are doing anything far significantly significant, this room needs to be included:
And if your initiative is large, the 90-minute template will I show you below? Stretch it. The goal is not bound in time. Tied to understanding.
The strategic format of narrative of the narrative
This is what I run when I want to align the team beyond the doc.
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WHO: All responsible for developing or translating work
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When: After planning, prior to implementation
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How long is it: 60-90 minutes
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What do you need: No slides. Real cases of use. A whiteboard. Silence when it is important.
The agenda
1. Set the tone (5 min)
Say it, strong:
“You don't have to repeat the deck. You are here to translate the story. Your team should hear 'Why' from you in a language they understand.”
2. Walk in the story (15 min)
Cover these five points. Strong. Slowly -dahan. With real examples.
- Who are we helping
- What is broken
- Why now
- What we bet
- What does success look like
This part is not for performance. This is for the care of people.
3. I -pause the room. Make them write. (10 min)
You said:
“Everyone wrote a version of it in your own words. No slides. No buzzwords. A paragraph. What do we build? Why is it important now?”
Then, as they write:
“It's not a writing test. This is how we force the test strategy. If we can't say it aloud, we can't measure it. If it's surprising, that's the task.”
Set a timer. Let it be quiet.
4. Translate, test, and break it (30–45 min)
Everyone reads their version aloud. Then the room does three things:
This is not a vibe check. This is a stress test. The gaps are the goal.
5. Promise to message (10 min)
Each lead ends with their version. They make it repeat this in their next Sprint Kickoff or SYNC. The story left the room and entered the team.
How is it compared to the usual kickoffs
I know you can have questions related to why even do it! So, I put it on the table below where you can clearly understand why I'm pushing it! Now, your usual kickoff may look different but I focus on the most common type I can find and TBH, the kind of ones I led as well. 🫠
If you are a PM leader, it cannot be once trick
Run it as a ritual. Normalize it. Ask for retellings a story in Retros. Determine it as onboarding for new initiatives. Most PMs are not trained to translate the approach. You are.
And if your culture is top-down, your junior PMS cannot lead to alone.
Build them a path. Give them a cover. Let them try.
But find out that Baling is not a solo sport.
Scales of alignment when your people bring the story
It doesn't matter if your team is 3 or 300.
If they can't explain what they are building and why – it doesn't matter how well your plan is.
The alignment does not come from repeating.
It comes from translation.
And the translation begins with the owner.
You do not size the alignment by writing multiple documents
You measure it by developing people who carry the story when you are not in the room. And it starts with kickoff.
