Telling a Chaos Engineering Story People Will Listen To

Chaos Engineering can be a hard sell and even tougher to read about after the fact. Telling a great story is one way to cut through the content noise of today. Our ultimate goal is to build trust with an audience, and here are some hints on how to structure your write ups to do so.

Transcript

1. TIPS FOR CHAOS STORIES Writing stories people want to listen to. Matt Broberg @mbbroberg
2. HEY! I’m Matt. I love telling stories about technology and the communities that build it. @mbbroberg
3. Readers in October 1,950,000 Your daily source of open source Opensource.com Authors this year alone 273 Articles per month 82 new @mbbroberg
4. — from here “Clear writing is clear thinking.” @mbbroberg
5. CORE TAKEAWAYS HOOK THEM Have one or offer a TL;DR to make it worth their while. PERSPECTIVE Decide on a point of view, then enrich it with emotion. NARRATIVE Use tools to immerse the reader in a story. @mbbroberg
6. HOOK THEM @mbbroberg
7. Readers have a lot of options. They’re wondering: • Is this link worth clicking? • Why should I care? • What’s in it for me? And our goal is to have answers for them. @mbbroberg
8. We have options: • Is this link worth clicking? • Why should I care? • What’s in it for me? And our goal is to have answers for them. ANSWERS THE QUESTION @mbbroberg
9. CATCHES MY ATTENTION @mbbroberg
10. 4,498,300,010 Or use big numbers to catch your audience’s attention @mbbroberg
11. MAKE ME A PROMISE @mbbroberg
12. — analysis from Opensource.com “The listicle headline promises understandable segments or actionable insights. When that headline delivers, trust is built between us and our readers.” @mbbroberg
13. PERSPECTIVE And point of view @mbbroberg
14. WHO & HOW @mbbroberg
15. PERSPECTIVE (how) FIRST PERSON Use “I,” “me,” and “we” in your writing. EXCITED The protagonist is curious and playful about what’s happening SURPRISED Starting with the question “How in the world did this happen? SECOND PERSON Writing to “you.” Less common but can be powerful. THIRD PERSON “They,” “them” (“her,” “him”). Common, like the cold. Avoid: Disappointed (“should have”), superior (“obviously”), reductionist (hindsight bias) POV (who) @mbbroberg
16. New: First person perspective are our top performing articles. @mbbroberg
17. NARRATIVE by example @mbbroberg
18. “There are fires, and there are tire fires, and then there was this.” “DNS hates me, and I know it’s personal.” “We thought the SQL query would be another drop in the bucket of our DBaaS, but it was more like a firehorse of JOIN statements.” “It sent a jolt down my spine.” “My palms started sweating at the discovery of a default password.” “I could taste the mischief.” “Using the cuddly kubectl, I dove into the pod state.” Themes - Simile and metaphor - Personification - Evoke the five senses - Hyperbole to draw attention - Vivid imagery - Colloquial or playful NARRATIVE @mbbroberg
19. NARRATIVE THEMES @mbbroberg From: https://www.gremlin.com/community/tutorials/planning-your -own-chaos-day/
20. NARRATIVE THEMES https://brainfall.com/quizzes/which-care-bear-are-you/
21. STORIES @mbbroberg
22. CORE TAKEAWAYS HOOK THEM Have one or offer a TL;DR to make it worth their while. PERSPECTIVE Decide on a point of view, then enrich it with emotion. NARRATIVE Use tools to immerse the reader in a story. Then add - data - images - outcomes - call to action @mbbroberg
23. TRUST @mbbroberg
24. — from here “Clear writing is clear thinking.” @mbbroberg
25. TIME PENDING...
26. HEADLINE STORY ARC HERO DATA CORROBORATION PAYOFF CALL TO ACTION CHALLENGE
27. HEADLINE CHALLENGE HERO DATA CORROBORATION PAYOFF CALL TO ACTION What you’re saying STORY ARC
28. HEADLINE RELEVANCE URGENCY HERO DATA CORROBORATION PAYOFF CALL TO ACTION What you’re saying RESOLUTION CONFIDENCE AGREEMENT STORY ARC CHALLENGE
29. HEADLINE RELEVANCE URGENCY HERO DATA CORROBORATION PAYOFF CALL TO ACTION What you’re saying RESOLUTION CONFIDENCE AGREEMENT STORY ARC CHALLENGE What you want people to be feeling
30. HEADLINE RELEVANCE URGENCY HERO DATA CORROBORATION PAYOFF CALL TO ACTION RESOLUTION CONFIDENCE AGREEMENT STORY ARC CHALLENGE
31. CREDITS This presentation template was created by Slidesgo, including icons by Flaticon, and infographics & images by Freepik open@opensource.com or mbroberg@redhat.com or @mbbroberg on Practice your storytelling on OPENSOURCE.COM