Latest / The Promotion Memo with Fexingo: Getting Visibility, Sponsors, and Executive Presence / How One Employee Got Promoted by Writing a Career User Story
Transcript
- Lucas: So there's this method from product management that I think might be the most underused career tactic we've talked about on this show. Luna: I'm curious which one. Because you've brought up roadmaps, sprint planning, OKRs — you name it. Lucas: The user story. That simple three-line format: 'As a, I want, so that.' I've been digging into the story of Maria Chen, a senior analyst at a mid-sized fintech company called LendRight. She wanted to move into a lead product strategy role, and she didn't write a career memo or a brag book. She wrote a set of career user stories. Luna: So instead of saying 'I led X project,' she framed it as 'As a product manager, I want faster customer onboarding' — something like that? Lucas: Exactly. But she went deeper. She wrote user stories from the perspective of her stakeholders — the head of engineering, the VP of Sales, even customers. And then she mapped each story to a specific outcome she had delivered. For example: 'As the VP of Sales, I want a lead qualification process that reduces time to close, so that my team can hit quarterly targets without burning out.' Then below that, she listed the work she did: the automated scoring model she built, the cross-functional pipeline she ran, the 40 percent reduction in onboarding time. Luna: That's smart because it forces you to articulate the value from someone else's point of view. Instead of 'I did this,' it's 'This is what you needed, and here's how I delivered it.' Lucas: Right. And that's exactly what executives care about. They don't want a list of your activities — they want to know how you solved their problems. Maria told me that when she presented her career user story map to her VP, the VP actually said, 'This is the first time I've seen my own pain points reflected in a promotion packet.' She got the role, by the way. Luna: Let's break down the structure. Because I think there's a specific formula that makes this work, and it's not just writing 'as a' on a sticky note. Lucas: Yeah, let's. The first part is the persona. You need to pick the right stakeholder for each story. Maria had about six stories total — one for the VP of Sales, one for the head of engineering, one for the CEO, one for customers, one for her team, and one for herself as a future product leader. Each persona is someone who has a real stake in your work. Luna: And the 'I want' part — that's the capability. It has to be specific enough that someone could actually build or implement it. Not 'I want better results,' but 'I want a dashboard that shows real-time conversion funnel drop-offs.' Lucas: Precisely. And the 'so that' is the outcome — the business or emotional payoff. Maria told me the hardest part was making sure the outcome wasn't just a repeat of the capability. So if the capability is 'a dashboard that shows conversion funnel drop-offs,' the outcome isn't 'so that I can see the funnel.' It's 'so that I can prioritize the biggest leak and increase conversion by 15 percent.' That outcome has to be measurable or at least tangible. Luna: There's also a narrative arc to it. If you look at all six stories together, they tell a story of someone who understands the whole business — not just their own function. Lucas: That's key. Maria's VP told me that what sealed the deal wasn't any single story — it was the fact that her stories covered engineering, sales, customers, and strategy. It showed she had a product mindset, not just an analyst mindset. And that's exactly what they were looking for in the lead product strategy role. Luna: I've been thinking about how this compares to a career memo. A memo is usually backward-looking — here's what I did. A user story is forward-looking in a way, because it's about what the stakeholder wants to happen. Even when you're describing past work, you're framing it as the solution to a current need. Lucas: Yeah, and that forward-looking framing is really powerful in a promotion conversation. You're not just justifying a title change — you're showing that you already think like the person in that role. Maria actually included a future user story: 'As the lead of product strategy, I want to establish a quarterly product review cycle, so that the executive team has a consistent data-driven view of our portfolio.' That story had no past work — it was a proposal. And her VP loved it. Luna: That's a great way to plant a flag. You're saying, 'Here's what I'll do in the role.' And it gives your manager something to hold you accountable to. Lucas: Exactly. And it's low risk for the company — they can see your vision without committing to anything. Now, a lot of people ask me: how do you actually write these user stories if you've never done it before? Maria started by listing her top achievements from the past year — the ones with measurable impact. Then for each one, she asked herself: 'Who benefited the most from this?' That became the persona. Then she asked: 'What capability did I provide?' And 'What was the ultimate outcome?' She wrote them on index cards and shuffled them until she found the six that told the best story. Luna: I imagine some people might worry that this feels too salesy or gimmicky. But I think it's actually more honest than a standard bullet list because it connects your work to real business needs. Lucas: I agree. And if you do it well, it's not gimmicky at all — it's just clear communication. The user story format is used by millions of product teams worldwide. It's a shared language. When you bring that into a promotion conversation, you're speaking the same language as the people who build the products. That alone signals that you belong in a product leadership role. Luna: So if a listener wants to try this, what's the first step? Should they start with one story or try to write a full map? Lucas: Start with one. Pick the stakeholder who has the most influence over your promotion — maybe your boss's boss. Write a user story from their perspective. Then ask a colleague to read it and tell you if they can see your impact clearly. That one story will probably give you ideas for three or four more. And don't worry about getting it perfect — the goal is to get a reaction, not to publish a document. Luna: I also like that this method forces you to think about outcomes. A lot of us get stuck listing inputs — hours worked, meetings attended, reports written. The user story structure naturally pushes you toward outputs and outcomes. Lucas: Yeah, and that's exactly what promotion committees score on. They want to see business impact, not effort. Maria told me that before she used user stories, her self-reviews were basically a list of tasks. After she switched to this format, she got comments like 'I never realized you were involved in that' and 'That outcome is exactly what we needed.' That visibility alone is worth the effort. Luna: And I think there's another hidden benefit: writing user stories helps you clarify what you want next. If you can't articulate the outcomes you want to create, it's hard to convince anyone to give you the role. The exercise itself builds your own clarity. Lucas: That's a great point. And it ties into something we've talked about before on this show — the idea that the person who benefits most from a promotion document is often the person writing it. Because you have to get clear on your own story. Luna: Speaking of clarity, I want to mention something that's been on my mind. We put a lot of work into these episodes — no ads, no sponsors, just practical advice. And we deliberately keep it that way. If you find value in what we're doing and want to support the show, there's a link at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's a simple way to help us keep going ad-free. Lucas: Yeah, we really appreciate the listeners who have contributed. It allows us to focus entirely on content that helps people like Maria. So thank you. Now, back to the user story map. One thing Maria did that I found really clever: she created a visual map of her stories on a single page, with the personas on the left and the capabilities and outcomes as connected boxes. She presented that one-pager during her promotion conversation, and her VP kept referring back to it. Luna: So it's not just a document — it's a conversation tool. You can literally point to a box and say, 'Remember when we solved this pain point for sales? That's what I'm talking about.' Lucas: Exactly. And that visual element makes it memorable. Most promotion packets are dense text — this one stood out. Maria told me that three months after her promotion, her VP still had the one-pager on his desk. That's the kind of visibility that leads to more opportunities down the line. Luna: I think we've covered the core idea pretty well. Let's give listeners a concrete takeaway: if you're preparing for a promotion conversation, try writing three user stories this week. One from your boss's perspective, one from a key stakeholder, and one from the role you want. See how that changes your narrative. Lucas: That's a perfect action step. And if you do it, we'd love to hear how it goes. You can find us on the Fexingo network. Until next time, keep thinking like a product of your own career.