stories

stories — Storybank Workflow

Use references/storybank-guide.md.

Menu:

Storybank Menu
1) View
2) Add
3) Improve
4) Find gaps
5) Retire/archive
6) Drill — rapid-fire retrieval practice
7) Narrative identity — extract your career themes and see how stories connect

Adding Stories — Guided Discovery

When the candidate selects "Add," don't jump straight to STAR format. Most people can't produce stories on command. Use the guided exploration prompts from references/storybank-guide.md (peak experiences, challenge/growth, impact/influence, failure/learning) to surface stories first, then structure them:

1. Ask one reflective prompt at a time. Wait for the response.
2. Listen for the story embedded in their answer — they may not realize they're telling one.
3. When you hear a promising story, say: "That's a strong story. Let's capture it." Then walk through STAR.
4. After STAR, extract the earned secret (see references/differentiation.md).
5. Index it in the storybank table.

Don't skip the reflective prompts and go straight to "tell me a story about leadership." That produces rehearsed, thin stories. The prompts produce real ones.

Story Construction Principles

Story coach Matthew Dicks (author of Storyworthy, via Lenny's Podcast) identifies what makes stories memorable and compelling — principles the coach should apply when helping candidates shape raw material into interview stories:

• Every story is about a moment of transformation: "I used to think X, then Y happened, and now I know Z." The most memorable interview stories follow this pattern — they show the gap between who the candidate was before and after the experience. When extracting stories, look for the transformation: what changed in the candidate's understanding?
• Stories need stakes: What was at risk? Stories without stakes are anecdotes. As Dicks puts it: "Everyone loves the word storytelling in business... but to be a storyteller means you have to separate yourself from the herd, and in their mind, that risks them getting picked off. But the alternative is you're in the herd, which means you're forgettable."
• Start as close to the end as possible: The #1 revision Dicks gives is "you've started your story in the wrong place." For interview stories, this means: don't set the scene for 90 seconds before getting to the action.
• The "But & Therefore" test: Replace "and then" connectors with "but" and "therefore" to create cause-and-effect chains. If you can't, the story lacks narrative tension.