The art & science of Storytelling Jeevan Patil Head of Product Marketing Cisco Meraki

2 Agenda 1. Something about me 2. Why Storytelling 3. The story of a form-factor 4. A complex software feature 5. Bring more customers into your webinar

3 Who am I ?

4 I ask myself that everyday…... But on a more professional level

5 I am... ● An engineer with Masters in Computers ● Several years of Coding ● Few patents on USPTO ● An MBA in Marketing ● Over a decade in Product Management ● Experienced managing $1 bn portfolio

6 There was also an unfulfilled creative side of me ...that found its way out at work

Storytellers have always inspired me Richard Feynman: The Genius of Simplicity

8 Why Storytelling ?

From cave paintings to product demos, storytelling has changed but the desire to tell and hear stories has not.

10 Does anyone here know who made this commercial ?

No content

12 But before telling a story, every PMM must ask, is it a story worth telling ?

13 Every good story needs a good understanding of three key characters Customer Product Competition (Hero) (Villain) (Victim)

14 Once you know your characters, you need to construct a plot around ● The Benefit/s ● To whom ● Differentiator

15 How does this actually look in action ? All of this sounds lame great, but

16 A Story about a form factor

17 We were about to launch... New Access Points The fastest and best With a changed form-factor..

Access points from our competition

19 How do we stand out from the sea of squares ?

20 What do we want to convey?

21 Wi-Fi 6 Access Points Function Fast (speed/performance) Form Best (premium/expensive)

22 What do people think of when they normally hear the words fastest and best ?

23 Internal ideation sketches can get out of control sometimes

24 MR45 MR55 Based on this, we introduced…...

25 Make others tell your story

26 cs.co/MerakiMcLaren The Wi-Fi 6 speeds have been incredible. It’s allowed people to change how they think about mobility. Edward Green, Principal Digital Architect, Mclaren Technology Group Meraki Wi-Fi 6 at McLaren

27 Think of benefits not features To tell stories

Here is an Engineering Slide FEATURE: Target Wake Time (TWT) ● Initially introduced in 802.11ah-2016 to help conserve power for IoT applications. ● OFDMA consumes more power and hence we need power saving mechanisms with 802.11ax ● Clients can request a specific wake-up time thereby conserving battery life. ● AP can better manage wake-up time for connected clients, thereby reducing contention and increasing airtime efficiency ● With legacy standards, all devices have to wake up at the same time (DTIM) ● Also supported in 2.4 GHz. ● Up to 67% lower power consumption! Access Point Client 2 Client 1 Client 1 Wait Time BEACON Sleep Sleep Sleep TRIGGER BEACON TRIGGER FRAME FRAME FRAME

29 What do we want to convey ? What is our plot ? ● The Benefits ● To whom ● Differentiator

30 Let’s look at the Engineering slide again FEATURE: Target Wake Time (TWT) ● Initially introduced in 802.11ah-2016 to help conserve power for IoT applications. ● OFDMA consumes more power and hence we need power saving mechanisms with 802.11ax ● Clients can request a specific wake-up time thereby conserving battery life. ● AP can better manage wake-up time for connected clients, thereby reducing contention and increasing airtime efficiency ● With legacy standards, all devices have to wake up at the same time (DTIM) ● Also supported in 2.4 GHz. ● Up to 67% lower power consumption!

31 As a story with my illustrations ... Is it time to wake up yet ? NO NO NO NO NO NO YES NO For one device For multiple devices

32 It can be better While this is good

33 Save up to 67% battery-life of your smartphones using Target Wake Time So you don't have to charge the phones twice a day! The story we told customers

34 Using stories to bring more customers to your webinars BONUS

35 Most webinars are boring Lets face it

36 CONFIGURE A PORT SETUP A VLAN We decided to make webinars more interactive …...similar to the Bandersnatch episode on Netflix

37 Thank You