---
id: ins_narrative-design-old-way-new-way
operator: Marcus Andrews
operator_role: ex-PMM Group Lead HubSpot; ex-Sr Director PMM Pendo
source_url: https://hubspot.com/
source_type: essay
source_title: "Marcus Andrews — Narrative Design for Business"
source_date: 2026-03-03
captured_date: 2026-05-02
domain: [pmm, marketing, strategy]
lifecycle: [positioning, messaging-narrative, launch]
maturity: applied
artifact_class: framework
score: { originality: 4, specificity: 4, evidence: 3, transferability: 4, source: 3 }
tier: B
related: []
raw_ref: raw/expert-content/experts/marcus-andrews.md
---

# Lead with a narrative (Big Shift → Old Way vs. New Way → Promised Land), not features

## Claim
Positioning tells customers where your product fits. Narrative tells them why the world is changing and why that change demands a new approach, making your product *inevitable*. Four-part workflow: (1) identify the Big Shift (macro structural change creating urgency, not a product trend), (2) articulate Old Way vs. New Way (creates tension demanding resolution), (3) define the Promised Land (specific tangible outcome in customer terms), (4) connect product as bridge, but only after the narrative establishes urgency and vision.

## Mechanism
Lead with product = pitching features. Lead with narrative = creating demand. HubSpot's Flywheel narrative repositioned an entire CRM category around "funnels are broken", the narrative didn't describe HubSpot's features; it described a worldview shift that made HubSpot's features inevitable. In mature categories where products are functionally similar, narrative, not feature set, is the primary differentiator.

## Conditions
Holds when:
- The category has a real macro shift the brand can credibly champion.
- Leadership accepts a multi-quarter horizon for narrative-led demand creation.

Fails when:
- New categories where the macro shift hasn't yet materialized in customer language.
- Pure-utility B2B where buyers want functional clarity and discount narrative framing.

## Evidence
> "Positioning tells customers where your product fits; a narrative tells them why the world is changing and why that change demands a new approach."

> "If you lead with the product, you are pitching features; if you lead with the narrative, you are creating demand."

· Marcus Andrews (synthesized from operator's published work)

## Signals
- Marketing materials open with the Big Shift, not the product.
- Sales decks have an "old way / new way" slide before the product slide.
- The Promised Land statement uses customer outcome language, not product capabilities.

## Counter-evidence
Anthony Pierri's value-prop-first school argues for early-stage B2B that narrative is a luxury, buyers want functional clarity. Some category-creation plays (Snowflake, Datadog) won on technical merits with minimal narrative scaffolding.

## Cross-references
- (none in current corpus)