The Tech Ecosystem Needs More Storytellers(4)

If you spend time in tech spaces, you’ll hear people say things like, “We’re solving problems” or “We’re building the future.” But ask them to tell you a story about what they’re building — and suddenly silence or scratching of heads.

That’s because while tech is full of interesting ideas, most people haven’t learned how to spot the stories hiding inside them.

The good news? Storytelling is a skill — and like any skill, you can learn it. In this post, we’ll walk you through how to train your eyes and ears to see the world like a tech storyteller. By the end, you’ll have tools to find great stories all around you — even if you’re just getting started.

Why Storytelling Matters in Tech

Before we dive into the “how,” let’s talk about the “why.”

Storytelling is what turns a tool into a movement. It’s what helps people understand why something matters, not just what it does. In a world filled with data, dashboards, and AI algorithms, storytelling makes technology:

• Understandable
• Relatable
• Memorable
• Shareable

Whether you’re writing a blogpost, making a video, or pitching a product, knowing how to tell a story makes you 10x more effective. It helps you stand out, build trust, and connect emotionally with your audience.

What Makes Something a ‘Story’?

You don’t need a dramatic plot twist or cinematic explosion. At the core, a good story has:

• A character – someone real or imagined who experiences something
• A problem or question – something that causes tension, curiosity, or change
• A journey – the steps taken, lessons learned, or discovery made
• A transformation or outcome – what’s different at the end?

In tech, stories show up in all kinds of ways:

• A founder building a solution to a personal problem
• A developer who learns something new by failing first
• A community using a product in a surprising way
• A user who finally solves a frustrating issue using a tool

You just have to learn how to see them.

How to Spot Great Stories in Tech

At Techies Node, we get inundated with requests upon requests of startups who want their stories told so our strategies for identifying stories worth telling are:

1. Follow the Curiosity Trail

Start by asking questions — not technical ones, but human ones.

• “Why did they build this?”
• “Who is this for?”
• “What problem were they trying to solve?”
• “What happened before this existed?”
• “What changed after people started using it?”

You’re not just looking for specs. You’re looking for intentions, obstacles, and aha moments.

Example:
A startup founder says, “We built a financial app for small business owners.”
You ask: “What inspired that?”
They say: “My mom sold fabrics for 20 years and never had access to proper savings.”
That’s your story.

2. Look for the Human Element

Tech stories become powerful when they’re grounded in people’s real experiences. Ask yourself:

• “Who is being helped by this?”
• “What does this solution feel like to the user?”
• “What were they doing before this existed?”
• “Is there joy, frustration, hope, or risk involved?”

Great stories are emotional. Even if the product is technical, the story is human.

Example:
Don’t just say, “This AI tool transcribes meetings.”
Say, “Before using this tool, Janet had to replay 3-hour meetings just to get minutes out. Now, she gets clean transcripts in minutes and gets her evenings back.”

3. Explore “Firsts,” “Fails,” and “Fixes”

These are storytelling gold mines.

• Firsts: What was the first time this person realized something needed to change?
• Fails: What went wrong before it went right?
• Fixes: How did they figure it out? What was the moment it started working?

Tech people often gloss over these moments. Your job is to pause and go deeper.

Example:
A developer tells you their app crashed during testing. Ask: “What did you learn from that?” That lesson might be more valuable than the launch itself.

4. Zoom Into the Journey

Most people talk about results. But stories live in the process.

Instead of:
“We raised $500,000 in funding.”

Go with:
“We pitched 23 investors, got rejected by 18, and finally convinced one by showing a single user’s story.”

The journey builds tension, growth, and emotion — all the ingredients of a good story.

5. Go Local, Go Personal

One of the primary reasons for Techies Node’s existence is that we hope to tell stories of people building in underserved communities. We focus on those stories because that is where the stories of grit and resilience are. The big startups raising millions in funding already have the big platforms servicing them. At any rate, they can afford to pay the popular influencers to craft their stories and may not have a budget for newbies like you. As a newbie with a passion for storytelling, the best stories are often in your immediate community.

Talk to:

• That product designer working quietly in your city
• The dev trying to build an app for farmers in your hometown
• A friend teaching kids how to code
• That startup you keep seeing on Twitter/X but no one’s written about

Start where you are. The more personal and local, the more powerful.

Practical Exercises to Sharpen Your Story Spotting Skills

Try these this week:

Story Swipe File

Create a digital or physical folder where you collect interesting headlines, tweets, blog snippets, or podcast quotes that caught your attention. Ask: “Why did this feel like a good story?”

Interview a Friend

Talk to someone you know in tech. Ask about how they got started, what they’re working on, and what challenges they’ve faced. Turn it into a short blog or video.

Break Down a Product Launch

Pick a recent tech product launch. Go beyond the press release. What’s the story behind the build? The team? The user problem it solves?

Practice the “So what?” technique

Take a headline like “New fintech app launches in Lagos.” Ask “So what?” until you get to the human core: “It helps market women save money daily without going to the bank.”

Bonus: Story Formats You Can Experiment With

Not all stories have to be long. Try different formats:

• A short blogpost (“What I Learned from My First Pitch Deck”)
• A Twitter/X thread (“5 Lessons From Failing My First App”)
• A mini-profile (“How This Student Turned a Side Hustle Into a Startup”)
• A visual story (Before vs. After using a tech tool)
• A video explainer with a narrative angle

Final Thought: The Stories Are All Around You

You don’t need to be a novelist or filmmaker to tell great stories. You just need to be present, curious, and attentive. Every app, every founder, every community member has a story waiting to be told.

Your job isn’t to make things up. It’s to uncover what’s already there and share it with clarity, care, and heart.

Start asking better questions. Pay attention to small details. Trust your instincts when something feels interesting.

Soon, you won’t just be reading stories in tech.

You’ll be writing them.

Join the Tech Storytellers Network on Whatsapp, our new community for tech storytellers. It is for people who are interested in building a niche for themselves in tech storytelling especially in underrepresented communities and cities.