How Do You Tell a Story That Matters? Start at the Top.
In the complex world of modern IT, information is everywhere, yet true understanding is scarce. The most effective technical narratives, whether they're system designs or documentation, begin with a simple, high-level view—the **nice high level picture of a duck**.
The details are fascinating, but if you start there, you limit what your audience can see. This is the core principle of **Progressive Disclosure** and the brilliance of the **C4 Model** (Context, Containers, Components, Code). You only explode the detail out when the audience signals they need to zoom in.
Tools that allow a high level and then enable links or zoom into a low level, like **Mural**, do a great job of this. They prioritize the **user's cognitive journey**.
The High-Level View
Explode Detail Out as Needed
The Knowledge Graveyard (Slack)
Tools like **Slack** do a bad job of storytelling. They become a **burial ground of Frequently Asked Questions**.
This is the **SEO anti-pattern "Bury the lead"** in real-time. Anything you post or answer quickly gets buried by the chronological feed. Extending Slack with Knowledge Management is often **putting lipstick on a pig**—it doesn't solve the core information retrieval problem.
Ask yourself: **Is the status quo working?** In an **IBM Garage Discovery** phase, we often find the data shows SMEs are asked the same questions repeatedly, leading to burnout and siloing.
The Knowledge Exchange (Stack Exchange)
Platforms like **Stack Exchange** solve Q&A by **gamifying information retrieval**.
Good questions and answers are rewarded with upvotes and reputation, ensuring **rank ordering** and quality control. Bad content is de-ranked. Tags allow you to classify information and find experts, ensuring you don't waste an **SME's** time with repeated questions.
The system even rewards **"Necromancers"** for reviving dead questions with useful, modern answers. This creates a lasting, searchable knowledge artifact, not an ephemeral chat log.
The Guiding Star: What Problem Are You Solving?
There's a common question in IT for a reason: **Instead of telling me exactly what you're trying to build, tell me what problems you're trying to solve.** This problem becomes the guiding star for everything that follows.
When you tell your story, lead with the problem. This establishes the context and allows your audience to filter the details. Only then do you introduce the solution—the technical details that "explode out."
Expertise is Practice, Not Paper
Finally, real expertise isn't established by certifications alone. What truly validates expertise is **weekly practice**, like an **Architecture Kata** or **Development Kata**. What we practice weekly, we get better at. We become better storytellers when we practice structuring and presenting our technical narratives with clarity and progressive disclosure.