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
   

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2. HEY!
   I’m Matt. I love telling stories about technology
   and the communities that build it.
   @mbbroberg
   

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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
   

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4. — from here
   “Clear writing is
   clear thinking.”
   @mbbroberg
   

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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
   

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6. HOOK THEM
   @mbbroberg
   

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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
   

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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
   

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9. CATCHES
   MY
   ATTENTION
   @mbbroberg
   

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10. 4,498,300,010
    Or use big numbers to catch
    your audience’s attention
    @mbbroberg
    

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11. MAKE
    ME A
    PROMISE
    @mbbroberg
    

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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
    

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13. PERSPECTIVE
    And point of view
    @mbbroberg
    

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14. WHO
    &
    HOW
    @mbbroberg
    

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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
    

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16. New: First person
    perspective
    are our top
    performing articles.
    @mbbroberg
    

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17. NARRATIVE by example
    @mbbroberg
    

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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
    

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19. NARRATIVE
    THEMES
    @mbbroberg
    From:
    https://www.gremlin.com/community/tutorials/planning-your
    -own-chaos-day/
    

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20. NARRATIVE
    THEMES
    https://brainfall.com/quizzes/which-care-bear-are-you/
    

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21. STORIES
    @mbbroberg
    

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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
    

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23. TRUST
    @mbbroberg
    

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24. — from here
    “Clear writing is
    clear thinking.”
    @mbbroberg
    

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25. TIME PENDING...
    

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26. HEADLINE
    STORY ARC
    HERO
    DATA
    CORROBORATION
    PAYOFF
    CALL TO ACTION
    CHALLENGE
    

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27. HEADLINE
    CHALLENGE
    HERO
    DATA
    CORROBORATION
    PAYOFF
    CALL TO ACTION
    What you’re saying
    STORY ARC
    

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28. HEADLINE
    RELEVANCE
    URGENCY
    HERO
    DATA
    CORROBORATION
    PAYOFF
    CALL TO ACTION
    What you’re saying
    RESOLUTION
    CONFIDENCE
    AGREEMENT
    STORY ARC
    CHALLENGE
    

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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
    

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30. HEADLINE
    RELEVANCE
    URGENCY
    HERO
    DATA
    CORROBORATION
    PAYOFF
    CALL TO ACTION
    RESOLUTION
    CONFIDENCE
    AGREEMENT
    STORY ARC
    CHALLENGE
    

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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
    

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