# How to Create a Unique Value Proposition That Stands Out
In today’s hyper-competitive marketplace, businesses face an unprecedented challenge: capturing customer attention in a landscape saturated with similar offerings. The difference between thriving companies and those that struggle often comes down to one critical element—a compelling unique value proposition (UVP). This strategic statement articulates precisely why customers should choose your solution over countless alternatives, addressing their specific needs in ways competitors simply cannot match. Research shows that businesses with clearly defined value propositions convert up to 400% more prospects than those with vague or generic messaging. Yet despite this evidence, many organisations continue to operate without a rigorously developed UVP, relying instead on feature lists or aspirational mission statements that fail to resonate with their target audiences. The process of crafting an effective value proposition requires deep customer understanding, competitive intelligence, and strategic positioning—skills that separate market leaders from followers.
Deconstructing value proposition frameworks: moore’s template vs. lean canvas methodology
Understanding the theoretical foundations of value proposition development enables you to select the most appropriate framework for your business context. Multiple methodologies have emerged over the past three decades, each offering distinct advantages depending on your market maturity, customer sophistication, and competitive landscape.
Geoffrey moore’s positioning statement architecture for target market segmentation
Geoffrey Moore’s positioning statement template, popularised in his seminal work “Crossing the Chasm,” provides a structured approach to articulating value for technology companies entering mainstream markets. The framework follows a specific formula: “For [target customer] who [statement of need or opportunity], our [product/service name] is a [product category] that [statement of benefit]. Unlike [competing alternative], our product [statement of primary differentiation].” This methodology excels at forcing clarity around customer segmentation and competitive differentiation. The template compels you to identify not just who your customers are, but specifically what problems they’re experiencing that existing solutions fail to address adequately. By explicitly naming the competitive alternative—whether a direct competitor or an indirect substitute—you crystallise your positioning in the customer’s mental landscape. Moore’s framework proves particularly valuable when launching innovative products into established categories, where customers possess existing reference points for comparison.
Ash maurya’s lean canvas UVP block: Problem-Solution fit analysis
Ash Maurya’s Lean Canvas methodology takes a different approach, embedding the unique value proposition within a broader business model framework. The UVP block sits at the canvas’s centre, emphasising its role as the connective tissue between customer problems and your solution. Maurya advocates for a high-concept pitch format—a concise statement that combines familiarity with novelty. Examples include “YouTube for education” or “Airbnb for parking spaces.” This approach leverages mental shortcuts by anchoring your offering to something customers already understand whilst highlighting your distinctive angle. The Lean Canvas methodology proves especially effective for startups and new ventures operating in ambiguous markets. Rather than requiring extensive market research upfront, it encourages rapid hypothesis testing through customer conversations and minimum viable products. You iterate your value proposition based on real-world feedback, refining your understanding of which problems matter most to customers and whether your proposed solution genuinely delivers superior outcomes.
Steve blank’s customer development model applied to value articulation
Steve Blank’s customer development framework emphasises empirical validation over theoretical planning. His methodology insists that you cannot develop an effective value proposition from inside your office—you must engage directly with potential customers to understand their workflow, pain points, and decision criteria. Blank distinguishes between customer discovery (identifying who your customers are and what problems they face) and customer validation (confirming they’ll actually pay for your solution). This disciplined approach prevents the common pitfall of building value propositions around features you think are important rather than benefits customers actually care about. The customer development model integrates particularly well with agile product development processes. As you gather evidence about customer needs and validate (or invalidate) your assumptions, you continuously refine your value proposition to reflect emerging insights. This iterative approach acknowledges that markets evolve, customer preferences shift, and competitive dynamics change—requiring ongoing value proposition optimisation rather than one-time definition.
Comparative analysis: traditional USP vs. modern UVP constructs
The evolution from unique selling propositions to unique value propositions represents more than semantic preference—it reflects a fundamental shift in how
selling on features to competing on delivered outcomes. Traditional USPs tend to emphasise product attributes—more speed, better quality, lower price—while modern UVPs centre on the change in the customer’s life or business after using your solution. A USP might say, “Fastest project management tool on the market.” A UVP reframes this as, “Ship complex projects 30% faster without burning out your team.” The former highlights what you sell; the latter highlights why it matters. In a digital environment where alternatives are just a click away, this shift from product-centric to customer-centric messaging is what allows a unique value proposition to cut through noise and drive meaningful differentiation.
Another key distinction is scope. USPs are often tied to a single product feature and can be easily copied as competitors catch up. UVPs integrate your offer, your service model, your brand promise, and sometimes even your pricing structure into one coherent narrative. This makes them harder to replicate because they are anchored in your overall strategy and operating model, not just a single attribute. When you craft a modern UVP, you are not only claiming uniqueness; you are committing your organisation to consistently deliver the value you describe. That is why the most effective UVPs are tightly aligned with internal capabilities, not just aspirational marketing claims.
Customer Jobs-to-be-Done theory: uncovering functional and emotional triggers
Clayton christensen’s JTBD framework for need identification
The Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) theory, popularised by Clayton Christensen, reframes how we think about customer needs by asking a deceptively simple question: “What job is the customer hiring this product to do?” Instead of segmenting by demographics alone, JTBD segments by the underlying tasks, goals, and progress customers seek in specific contexts. For example, people do not “buy a drill”; they “hire” a drill to make precise holes quickly and safely. This distinction matters when crafting a unique value proposition because it shifts your focus from surface-level preferences to the deeper progress customers are trying to make.
Christensen distinguishes between functional, social, and emotional jobs. A functional job might be “submit expense reports in under 10 minutes,” while the emotional job could be “feel in control of my finances and avoid anxiety at month-end.” When your UVP speaks to both levels—what customers want to do and how they want to feel—it becomes far more compelling. You move from saying, “Our software automates expense tracking,” to, “We help fast-growing teams close their books on time without last-minute chaos.” As you map your customers’ primary and secondary jobs, you uncover rich raw material for value proposition statements that resonate on multiple dimensions.
Outcome-driven innovation: quantifying customer success metrics
Outcome-Driven Innovation (ODI), pioneered by Tony Ulwick, builds on JTBD by quantifying how well existing solutions help customers get their jobs done. Instead of asking customers what features they want, ODI asks them to rate the importance and satisfaction of specific desired outcomes, such as “minimise the time it takes to generate a report” or “reduce the likelihood of errors in data entry.” The gaps between high importance and low satisfaction highlight underserved outcomes—prime targets for your unique value proposition. This data-driven approach takes the guesswork out of value articulation and grounds your messaging in measurable customer success metrics.
When you integrate ODI into your UVP development, you can confidently make precise claims such as “Reduce onboarding time by 40%” or “Cut failed deployments by half in 90 days.” These quantified outcomes act as proof points that your solution is not just different, but demonstrably better at helping customers achieve their goals. Moreover, tracking these metrics post-purchase allows you to validate and refine your value proposition over time. If customers consistently exceed the promised outcomes, you can update your messaging to reflect stronger results; if not, the variance flags a product or service delivery gap that needs attention.
Ethnographic research methods: contextual inquiry and observational studies
Ethnographic research methods—such as contextual inquiry and observational studies—provide powerful tools for uncovering the real jobs customers are trying to get done, including the subtle emotional triggers they may not articulate in surveys. Rather than asking customers what they want in an abstract setting, you observe them in their natural environment as they use products, improvise workarounds, and navigate constraints. You might sit with a sales team as they update their CRM late at night or watch warehouse staff as they process returns during peak season. These observations often reveal friction points and motivations that never appear in traditional questionnaires.
From a unique value proposition perspective, ethnography helps you discover unspoken jobs such as “avoid feeling stupid when using complex software” or “maintain a sense of professional pride despite budget constraints.” You can then weave these insights into your messaging with phrases like “no training required,” “guided workflows,” or “enterprise-grade tools at a small-business price.” Think of ethnographic research as the qualitative lens that brings JTBD and ODI data to life. By grounding your UVP in the messy reality of customers’ day-to-day lives, you ensure your promises are not only attractive but also deeply believable.
Voice of customer data mining: NPS surveys and interview transcription analysis
Voice of Customer (VoC) programmes transform raw customer feedback into strategic insight for your value proposition. Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys, open-ended feedback, and recorded interviews all contain the language customers naturally use to describe their jobs, pains, and desired gains. By systematically analysing this data—using text mining tools or manual thematic analysis—you can identify recurring phrases and metaphors that should inform your UVP copy. For example, if customers repeatedly describe your support as “having an expert on my team,” you might incorporate that exact phrase into your headline or subheadline.
Interview transcription analysis also highlights the specific outcomes customers celebrate: “We finally hit our SLA targets,” “Our churn dropped,” or “My team stopped working weekends.” These are not just testimonials; they are value signals. When you echo these outcomes in your unique value proposition—for instance, “Hit your SLA targets without growing your headcount”—you create instant recognition and relevance. In essence, the Voice of Customer becomes your best copywriter. Your job is to curate, structure, and prioritise these insights into a concise statement that reflects what customers already believe you deliver at your best.
Competitive differentiation mapping: blue ocean strategy and perceptual positioning
Kim and mauborgne’s strategy canvas for market space visualisation
Blue Ocean Strategy, developed by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, introduces the Strategy Canvas as a visual tool for mapping how different players in a market compete across key factors. On one axis, you list the variables customers care about—price, convenience, customisation, support, and so on. On the other, you plot the relative offering level of each competitor. The resulting curves make your industry’s “value profile” immediately visible. Most companies cluster together, competing on the same dimensions with similar intensity. These are the red oceans—crowded spaces where differentiation is hard and margins are thin.
To craft a unique value proposition that truly stands out, you use the Strategy Canvas to identify where you can raise, reduce, eliminate, or create value factors. Perhaps you drastically reduce complexity while creating a new dimension of “done-for-you implementation.” Or you eliminate bloated feature sets and instead raise usability and speed to an unprecedented level. Your UVP then summarises this new curve in plain language: “All the compliance you need, without the complexity you don’t.” By consciously designing a distinct value curve, you avoid the trap of incremental improvements and instead define a new, less contested space in which your proposition becomes the obvious choice.
Attribute-based perceptual maps: price-quality matrix construction
Attribute-based perceptual maps offer another lens for visualising how customers perceive competing value propositions. The classic example is the price–quality matrix, where brands are positioned according to their relative cost and perceived quality. However, you can construct similar maps for attributes such as “ease of use vs. feature richness” or “transaction speed vs. customisation depth.” When you plot your brand and competitors on these axes—ideally using customer perception data rather than internal guesses—you gain a clear picture of white space opportunities where your unique value proposition can live.
For instance, if the market is crowded with high-price, high-complexity enterprise software and low-price, low-support basic tools, there may be room for a “premium simplicity” position: “Enterprise reliability without the enterprise headache.” This position is not just a slogan; it is a strategic choice about where you invest in product, support, and brand experience. Perceptual maps thus act like a navigation chart, helping you choose a destination for your UVP and ensuring you do not accidentally anchor your message in a spot already occupied by stronger incumbents.
SWOT analysis integration with porter’s five forces competitive assessment
While visual tools help you see where you could play, traditional strategic frameworks like SWOT and Porter’s Five Forces help you assess whether those positions are defensible. A SWOT analysis—strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats—forces you to confront whether you truly have the capabilities to deliver the value your proposition promises. If your UVP emphasises “24/7 white-glove support,” but your support team is small and resource-constrained, you have a strategic misalignment. Conversely, if you have proprietary data, unique partnerships, or operational efficiencies, those strengths can underpin bold value claims.
Porter’s Five Forces complements this by analysing the competitive intensity of your target space: threat of new entrants, bargaining power of buyers and suppliers, threat of substitutes, and rivalry among existing competitors. A unique value proposition that ignores these forces might sound compelling but prove fragile in practice. For example, a low-cost leadership UVP in a market where suppliers wield high bargaining power may be impossible to sustain. By integrating SWOT and Five Forces into your UVP development process, you ensure that your positioning is not only distinctive and customer-centric but also strategically viable over the long term.
Category design methodology: creating uncontested market categories
Category design takes differentiation one step further by asking not just “How are we different?” but “What new category do we lead?” Rather than competing in an existing box, you redefine the box itself. Companies like HubSpot (“inbound marketing”), Gainsight (“customer success management”), and Figma (“multiplayer design”) did not merely craft clever value propositions; they named and shaped entirely new categories. Their UVPs became rallying cries that educated the market: “You need a new type of solution to solve this new type of problem.” This approach can feel ambitious, but when executed well, it turns your brand into the default choice for that category.
Practically, category design often starts with a powerful narrative about a change in the world—new technologies, shifting behaviours, or regulatory pressures—that makes old solutions obsolete. Your unique value proposition then positions your offer as the best way to thrive in this new reality. Instead of saying, “We are a better project management tool,” you might say, “The first collaboration OS designed for hybrid teams.” The risk is that you must invest heavily in education and evangelism. The reward is that, if you succeed, your UVP does not just stand out—it defines the reference point against which all future competitors are measured.
Crafting compelling value proposition copy: conversion copywriting techniques
Headline formula engineering: specificity, quantification and outcome-oriented language
Once your strategy is clear, the next challenge is translating it into sharp, memorable copy. Your headline is the front line of your unique value proposition—it often determines whether visitors stay to learn more or bounce within seconds. High-performing UVP headlines tend to follow three principles: they are specific, they are outcome-oriented, and they often include quantification. Compare “Powerful analytics software” with “Turn messy data into decisions in under 5 minutes.” The second headline immediately tells the reader what they gain and how quickly, using plain, concrete language.
You can think of headline formulas as scaffolding rather than rigid rules. Structures like “[Who] achieve [desirable outcome] in [timeframe] without [common objection]” or “The easiest way to [job-to-be-done]” help you generate options rapidly. For example: “Marketing teams launch campaigns 2x faster—without adding headcount.” The goal is not clever wordplay; it is instant clarity. Ask yourself: if a distracted visitor read only my headline and subheadline for five seconds, would they understand who this is for, what it does, and why it’s better than their status quo?
CXL institute’s conversion research framework applied to UVP testing
The CXL Institute advocates a rigorous, research-driven approach to conversion optimisation that applies directly to refining your unique value proposition. Their framework emphasises three pillars: heuristic analysis, quantitative data, and qualitative insight. Start with a heuristic review of your key pages, evaluating clarity, relevance, friction, and distraction. Is your UVP visible above the fold? Does it compete with vague taglines or rotating carousels? Are you burdening visitors with jargon instead of plain language? This expert review surfaces obvious issues that you can fix before deeper testing.
Next, you pair this with quantitative data from analytics tools to see how different segments respond to your current messaging. High bounce rates on critical landing pages or low engagement with hero CTAs may signal that your value proposition is not landing. Finally, you layer in qualitative research—on-site polls, user interviews, and session recordings—to hear, in customers’ own words, where your message is unclear or unconvincing. Together, these inputs guide a structured UVP testing roadmap. Rather than randomly rewriting headlines, you prioritise experiments that target the biggest clarity gaps and highest-impact pages, then measure uplift in conversion rates to validate what truly resonates.
Neuromarketing principles: loss aversion and social proof integration
Neuromarketing research offers further insight into why some value propositions compel action while others fade into the background. One well-documented principle is loss aversion: people are generally more motivated to avoid losses than to pursue equivalent gains. You can ethically harness this in your UVP by contrasting the positive outcome you provide with the risks of inaction. For instance, “Stop losing deals to slow proposals—send accurate quotes in minutes” taps into the pain of missed revenue while offering a clear solution. Used judiciously, this framing makes the cost of staying with the status quo more salient.
Another powerful lever is social proof. Humans are wired to look to others for cues about what works and what’s safe. Integrating specific, credible social proof near your unique value proposition—customer logos, testimonial snippets with results, or usage statistics like “Trusted by 8,000+ product teams”—reduces perceived risk. The key is alignment: your proof should reinforce the exact outcome your UVP promises. If your headline claims “Cut onboarding time in half,” an accompanying quote saying “We went from 4 weeks to 10 days” creates a tight, persuasive loop that feels both emotionally reassuring and logically convincing.
Clarity vs. persuasion balance: Flesch-Kincaid readability optimisation
In the effort to sound innovative or sophisticated, many companies sacrifice clarity, loading their value propositions with buzzwords and complex clauses. Yet numerous studies show that simpler language increases trust and comprehension, particularly in online environments where attention is scarce. Tools like the Flesch-Kincaid readability score help you audit your UVP copy for complexity. As a rule of thumb, aiming for a reading level equivalent to grades 7–9 keeps your message accessible without dumbing it down. If you find your score creeping higher, look for long sentences, nested clauses, and jargon that you can replace with plain alternatives.
Balancing clarity and persuasion means choosing concrete verbs over abstractions (“automate invoices” beats “optimise financial workflows”) and breaking long paragraphs into digestible units. Ask yourself: would a new visitor, skimming this on a mobile device, grasp the core promise in one pass? When in doubt, prioritise clarity. You can always add persuasive layers—proof, urgency, vivid imagery—once the basic promise is unmistakable. A clear, simple unique value proposition outperforms a clever but confusing one almost every time.
A/B testing and validation protocols for value proposition optimisation
Multivariate testing methodology: headline, subheadline and visual variants
Even the most carefully crafted unique value proposition is still a hypothesis until it is tested with real users. A/B and multivariate testing provide the experimental rigour needed to validate which version of your message actually drives more sign-ups, demos, or sales. In a simple A/B test, you might compare two UVP headlines on your homepage while keeping all other elements constant. Multivariate testing allows you to experiment with combinations of headlines, subheadlines, and hero images to identify the best-performing mix. For example, does a product screenshot or a human-centric image better reinforce your promise of “simplifying compliance workflows”?
To maximise learning, isolate variables carefully and avoid changing too many elements at once unless you have substantial traffic. Start with the headline, then test supporting copy, then visual treatments that support your value story. It can be tempting to declare a winner after a few days, especially if early results look dramatic. However, without sufficient data and time, you risk acting on noise rather than signal. Treat your UVP testing programme as an ongoing optimisation process rather than a one-off exercise—you are tuning the “front door” to your business as markets and customer expectations evolve.
Statistical significance calculations: sample size and confidence intervals
Reliable testing requires more than intuition; it demands basic statistical discipline. Concepts like sample size, confidence intervals, and statistical significance ensure that observed differences in conversion rates are unlikely to be due to chance. Many online calculators allow you to input your current conversion rate, desired minimum detectable effect (for instance, a 10% relative uplift), and preferred confidence level (commonly 95%) to determine the required sample size per variant. If your traffic is low, you may need to run tests longer or focus on bigger messaging changes that are more likely to produce detectable effects.
Ignoring these principles can lead to “peeking bias,” where you stop tests as soon as one variant appears to be ahead, only to see results regress once more data rolls in. By committing to pre-defined stopping rules—such as “run until each variant has at least 1,000 visitors and the calculator reports 95% confidence”—you protect yourself from false positives. This may sound technical, but the payoff is significant: you gain trustworthy evidence about which unique value proposition truly resonates, allowing you to invest confidently in scaling the winning message across channels.
Heatmap analysis tools: hotjar and crazy egg attention pattern insights
While A/B tests tell you what is working, visual analytics tools like Hotjar and Crazy Egg help you understand why. Heatmaps show where users click, move, and scroll on your pages, revealing whether your unique value proposition is actually being seen and engaged with. If most attention clusters around navigation links or secondary elements, your UVP may be visually underemphasised or pushed too far down the page. Scroll maps can indicate whether visitors even reach your subheadline or supporting proof before dropping off.
By pairing these insights with your tests, you can refine both message and layout. Perhaps a winning headline still underperforms because it appears below a large hero image that pushes it below the fold on mobile. Or maybe users hover over a phrase like “no-code automation” but fail to click because there is no clear next step. Treat heatmaps as behavioural x-rays: they reveal how users actually interact with your value proposition, not how you imagine they do. This understanding guides design tweaks that ensure your strongest message is not only compelling but also impossible to miss.
Qualitative validation: five-second tests and message testing surveys
Finally, qualitative validation methods such as five-second tests and structured message surveys give you fast, nuanced feedback on how well your unique value proposition lands. In a five-second test, participants view your page or hero section for just a few seconds, then answer simple questions: “What does this company do?” “Who is it for?” “What stood out to you?” If their answers do not align with your intended message, you know your UVP lacks immediate clarity. This method is particularly useful for catching jargon, ambiguous phrasing, or visual clutter that dilutes your core promise.
Message testing surveys can go deeper by presenting multiple UVP options and asking your target audience to rate them on attributes such as relevance, credibility, and uniqueness. You can also invite open-ended responses: “What, if anything, would stop you from believing this claim?” or “How does this compare to what you use today?” These qualitative insights complement your quantitative experiments, helping you understand not just which version “wins,” but why. Over time, this blend of testing and listening turns your UVP into a living asset—continuously tuned to the evolving language, priorities, and expectations of your best customers.
Real-world UVP exemplars: case study analysis across industries
Slack’s “be less busy” positioning: reframing workplace communication
Slack’s early value proposition, “Be less busy,” is a masterclass in concise, outcome-focused messaging. Rather than describing itself as “a team chat platform” or “enterprise messaging software,” Slack spoke directly to the job knowledge workers desperately wanted to get done: tame chaotic communication. The phrase captured both a functional outcome (streamlined workflows, fewer emails) and an emotional one (reduced overwhelm). Supporting copy and visuals then clarified how channels, integrations, and searchable archives contributed to that promise. By framing the problem as “busyness” rather than “email,” Slack redefined what effective workplace communication could look like.
This positioning also differentiated Slack in a crowded field of collaboration tools. Competitors touted features—file sharing, presence indicators, video calls—while Slack owned the broader benefit of reclaiming focus. For your own unique value proposition, the lesson is clear: if you can articulate the higher-order job your product serves, in language that feels human and aspirational, you create a narrative that transcends individual features. You are no longer just another tool—you are the antidote to a widely felt pain.
Dollar shave club’s disruptive value messaging: convenience and cost leadership
Dollar Shave Club entered a mature, highly commoditised market—razor blades—with a value proposition that combined sharp economic benefits with irreverent tone. At its core, the UVP was simple: “A great shave for a few bucks a month.” The company emphasised two primary jobs-to-be-done: save money on quality razors and avoid the hassle of in-store purchases. Their famously viral launch video hammered home this message with lines like “Stop paying for shave tech you don’t need” and “Our blades are f***ing great,” turning a mundane product into a cultural talking point.
By attacking both price and convenience, Dollar Shave Club created a blue ocean adjacent to premium razor brands locked into high-margin, retail-centric models. Their subscription model reinforced the promise of “never running out of blades again,” a concrete outcome customers could immediately appreciate. For your own UVP, this case underscores the power of combining rational value (lower cost, higher convenience) with a distinct brand voice. When your message sounds like something only you would say—and it tackles frustrations competitors overlook—you dramatically increase your chances of standing out.
Stripe’s developer-first value articulation in payment processing
Stripe revolutionised online payments with a value proposition aimed squarely at developers: “Payments infrastructure for the internet.” While incumbents emphasised merchant accounts, gateways, and risk management, Stripe focused on the job developers struggled with—integrating payments quickly and reliably into modern web applications. Their early messaging highlighted outcomes like “start accepting payments in minutes” and backed them up with clean APIs, excellent documentation, and sandbox environments. In effect, their UVP said, “We remove the pain and complexity from building payments, so you can focus on your product.”
This developer-first articulation created a powerful network effect. As developers adopted Stripe for its ease of integration, product teams and founders followed, trusting their technical leads’ preferences. Stripe did not try to speak to everyone at once; it chose a high-leverage segment and crafted a unique value proposition in their language. The takeaway for your business is to ask: who are the true decision-makers or influencers, and what specific jobs are they trying to get done? If you can become their obvious choice, broader market adoption often follows.
Airbnb’s “belong anywhere” emotional value proposition strategy
Airbnb’s “Belong Anywhere” is a quintessential example of an emotionally charged unique value proposition that transcends functional benefits. On a practical level, Airbnb offers alternative accommodation options, often at competitive prices and with more character than traditional hotels. But instead of leading with “cheaper rooms” or “more space,” the company framed its promise around a universal human desire: feeling at home, even when far from it. The phrase “Belong Anywhere” speaks to travellers who want authentic experiences, connection with local communities, and a sense of comfort in unfamiliar places.
Supporting narratives—host stories, guest reviews, imagery of real homes—reinforced this emotional UVP, differentiating Airbnb from hotels focused on consistency and amenities. Functionally, the platform still needed to deliver on safety, convenience, and reliability, but its core message lived at the level of identity and aspiration. For your own value proposition, Airbnb demonstrates how powerful it can be to connect your offer to deeper emotional jobs: the desire for status, security, mastery, freedom, or community. When you align functional outcomes with an emotional promise that feels true, your UVP does more than describe your product—it invites customers into a story they want to be part of.