---
id: ins_miller-one-liner-formula
operator: Donald Miller
operator_role: Founder StoryBrand and Business Made Simple; author Building a StoryBrand
source_url: https://storybrand.com/
source_type: book
source_title: "Building a StoryBrand — The One-Liner"
source_date: 2017-10-10
captured_date: 2026-05-05
domain: [pmm, marketing, sales-cs]
lifecycle: [messaging-narrative, copy-and-content, sales-enablement]
maturity: applied
artifact_class: framework
score: { originality: 3, specificity: 5, evidence: 3, transferability: 5, source: 5 }
tier: B
related: [ins_storybrand-customer-is-hero, ins_miller-three-level-problem]
raw_ref: raw/expert-content/experts/donald-miller.md
---

# Problem → Solution → Result, the one-liner answers "what do you do?" in narrative shape

## Claim
The One-Liner is a single-sentence formula for answering "What do you do?" in three structured beats: the **Problem** the customer faces, the **Solution** you provide, and the **Result** they experience. The narrative shape, tension → resolution → transformation, makes the value proposition memorable in a way that feature-list or category-tag answers do not.

## Mechanism
A category answer ("we sell HR software") is forgettable because it does not engage narrative cognition. A feature answer ("we automate onboarding") is forgettable for the same reason. The Problem-Solution-Result structure mirrors how humans remember stories: a hero in trouble (problem), a turning point (solution), and a new state (result). The listener stores the answer not as three facts but as a small story, which is dramatically more retrievable. This compounds across the buyer's journey, the One-Liner becomes the answer they repeat to colleagues when asked about the product.

## Conditions
Holds when:
- The product solves a clearly-bounded problem with a visualisable result.
- The audience asks "what do you do?" in elevator-pitch contexts (events, intros, sales discovery openers).
- The problem and result can be stated without category-jargon.

Fails when:
- The product solves multiple unrelated problems, the formula collapses into a non-specific summary.
- The result is not easily visualised (most strategic / advisory work, where outcomes are diffuse).
- The audience is technical and prefers fact-density over narrative shape.

## Evidence
> "The One-Liner is a single-sentence formula for answering \"What do you do?\" that follows the structure: Problem, Solution, Result."

· see `raw/expert-content/experts/donald-miller.md` line 18.

## Signals
- The team can state the One-Liner identically across employees, high agreement is the signal of clarity.
- Sales reps lead with the One-Liner in discovery openers and report higher early-stage engagement.
- Customer-facing copy threads (homepage hero, ad creative, email subject lines) are derived from the One-Liner rather than written independently.

## Counter-evidence
For complex platforms with multiple use cases, forcing a single One-Liner can over-narrow the positioning. Multi-product companies often need multiple One-Liners, one per audience segment, which adds operational complexity. Anthony Pierri's Five-Second Trinity is more robust for category-positioned B2B SaaS where the "alternative" matters as much as the result.

## Cross-references
- `ins_storybrand-customer-is-hero`, `ins_miller-three-level-problem`, the One-Liner is the compressed version of the StoryBrand seven-part framework.
- `ins_homepage-five-second-trinity`, Pierri's homepage equivalent (use case, alternative, result).