The Story Pro
Problem reframing and sector messaging conventions.
"The brief is never the problem. The brief is the client's best guess at what the problem might be."
The Core Insight
The Story exists because most strategic work struggles with the first step: accepting the brief as given. Clients describe symptoms, not causes. They request solutions before diagnosing problems. This tool forces a reframe.
Why Problem Reframing Matters
Most briefs contain three hidden assumptions: the problem is what the client says, the category works the way it always has, and the solution space is already defined. A well-framed problem opens new solution spaces the brief would never have reached.
Theoretical Grounding
| Concept | Application |
|---|---|
| Rumelt's Kernel | Every strategy needs a diagnosis before a guiding policy. The Story forces diagnosis before direction. |
| Jobs To Be Done | The brief describes the hiring; the reframe identifies the progress. |
| Dru's Disruption | Strategy begins by naming the convention. The Story surfaces what the category assumes. |
| Double Diamond | Diverge before converging. The Story expands the problem space before the cascade narrows it. |
Cascade Mode vs Free Roam
The Story operates in two modes:
Cascade Mode
Start a pitch from the hub when beginning a new pitch or client project. Your inputs cascade automatically to The Audience, Message, Plan, and Frame. Client details, problem definition, and strategic context carry forward.
How to use Cascade Mode:
- Start from the hub by clicking "New Pitch"
- Complete your work and click "Lock & Continue" to save and advance
- Your Pitch Confidence score appears after generation and stays with you through the cascade
Navigation in Cascade Mode: The top navigation bar is disabled. Use the breadcrumb bar (Story → Audience → Message → Plan → Frame) to move between tools. Click "Lock & Continue" to move forward. Click on previous tool names in the breadcrumb to go back.
Editing upstream: You can return to earlier tools using breadcrumbs and make changes. You must click "Lock & Continue" again to save those changes, which resets all downstream outputs. Editing The Story will clear outputs from Audience, Message, Plan, and Frame.
Free Roam
Use The Story independently without cascade. Good for exploration, learning, or working on standalone problem definition.
How to access Free Roam:
- From the hub, click any tool name in the top navigation bar
- If already in Cascade Mode, exit first by clicking "Exit Pitch" or the Threader logo (top left)
- In Free Roam, the top navigation stays active
Key differences: Free Roam saves your work to your library with a "Save" button. Data does not cascade to other tools. No Pitch Confidence score appears. Each tool works independently.
Starting a pitch? Use Cascade Mode for coherence across all five tools. Testing an idea? Use Free Roam to explore without commitment. See our Files & Formats guide for upload requirements.
How It Works
Step 0: New Pitch Setup
Name your pitch, add client and brand names, select industry/category (with autocomplete), and choose your region. All fields are required.
Step 0: Client Uploads (Optional)
Upload client briefs, research documents, or competitive analysis. The Story extracts relevant insights to pre-fill your project. Accepted formats: PDF, Word (.docx), Excel (.xlsx), PowerPoint (.pptx), and plain text. Max 10MB per file, 50MB total.
Validated Insights: After upload, The Story extracts up to 3 key insights from your documents and displays them as cards with green "VALIDATED INSIGHT" badges. These insights are grounded in your research and help pre-validate your strategic direction before generation. Each card shows which document the insight came from.
Most useful: Client briefs with objectives, brand/product background, budget and timeline constraints, market context and competitive landscape.
Pro tip: If your brief contains all sections, re-upload it here so Threader focuses on the relevant parts for problem definition.
Validation & Auto-Fill
After uploading documents, click the "VALIDATE PROJECT" button to trigger deep extraction. This reads your documents more thoroughly and auto-fills the Client section (Step 1) with data pulled from your brief, including target audience, marketing objective, focus, and stated brief. This saves manual entry time and ensures consistency between your documents and the tool inputs.
Step 1: The Client
Review auto-populated client details: pitch name, client name, brand name, industry/category, and region. Edit if needed. The "Stated Brief" field shows what the client thinks they want-this is the starting point before reframing.
Step 2: The Objective
Select your marketing goal (Awareness or Loyalty) and focus (Brand or Product). These selections influence how The Story frames the problem and what recommendations it makes.
Success Metrics (Optional): Define what winning looks like. These feed into The Plan later when synthesising your pitch brief.
Step 3: The Reality (Optional)
Key constraints are auto-populated from uploaded documents: timeline, budget, limitations, competitive context. This grounds the reframe in what's actually possible, not just what's ideal.
Step 4: The Reframe
Click "GENERATE REFRAME" to produce three strategic outputs based on your inputs:
- What the Client Believes: The surface-level assumption or current approach
- The Real Problem: The underlying challenge the brief is actually asking you to solve
- The Sector Messaging Convention: The unwritten rules and assumptions all brands in this category follow, plus the invisible assumption this work will challenge
Each output can be regenerated individually using its own "Refine" button (regenerates just that section), or you can click the main "Refine" button at the bottom to regenerate all three outputs at once with fresh angles.
Strategic Confidence: Every output shows a confidence score (e.g., "83% HIGH") based on AI knowledge, client input quality, and completeness. Hover over the score to see the breakdown. See Quality Indicators for details.
In Cascade Mode: You'll see a golden "LOCK & CONTINUE" button. This saves your work AND advances to The Audience. In Free Roam: You'll see "SAVE" instead. This saves to your library without cascading data forward.
Refine & Override: Click "Refine" to regenerate all outputs with new angles. Use "Override" buttons to write your own version of any section. You control the final output.
Output
Each output is marked with an "AI Generated" badge and includes source attribution when extracted from documents. Export as Word or PDF using the selective export modal. Choose which sections to include: workspace logo (if uploaded), problem reframe, sector messaging convention, client brief, and project constraints.
The Sector Messaging Convention
Every category has invisible rules. The convention statement follows a consistent structure:
"Most brands in [category] assume [assumption]. They all [behaviour]. None of them [gap]."
Example: Most brands in challenger banking assume customers want simplicity and control. They all lead with app features and fee transparency. None of them acknowledge the anxiety that comes with managing money alone.
How It Fits The Cascade
The Story is the entry point. Everything downstream depends on it:
- Audience uses the problem to identify who feels it most
- Message uses the convention to find white space
- Plan synthesises the problem into the brief
- Frame builds territories that address the real tension
Get the problem wrong, and everything downstream is wasted effort.
Best Practices
- Upload client briefs and research before starting-the extraction quality directly impacts output confidence scores
- Use Cascade Mode for client work to ensure coherence across all five tools
- Review the Strategic Confidence breakdown-if completeness is low, add more context
- Write the Real Problem so it's testable. If you can't disagree with it, it's too vague
- Use Override when the AI misses nuance, but read the generated version first-it often surfaces angles you hadn't considered
- Export early and often-you can always regenerate, but having versions to compare helps refine thinking
Common Mistakes
- Skipping document uploads-manual input alone produces lower confidence scores
- Accepting the stated brief without questioning it-that's the whole point of The Story
- Using Free Roam when you meant to start a pitch cascade-you'll lose the thread between tools
- Editing upstream tools without understanding it resets everything downstream
- Writing conventions as "everyone is bad" instead of specific patterns the category follows
- Ignoring the confidence score breakdown-it tells you where your brief has gaps
"Most agencies accept the brief. The best agencies reframe it."