Harari and the Power of Product Narratives
Why customers buy stories, not features, and what product managers can learn from Yuval Harari..
Why Customers Buy Stories, Not Features
Most product managers spend their careers discussing features, but customers rarely think in those terms. Customers do not usually wake up wanting a configurable workflow, an improved dashboard, or a refined permission model. They buy into stories about how their life, work, status, efficiency or confidence will change.
This is one of the most useful lessons product managers can take from Yuval Harari. In Sapiens, Harari argues that human civilisation became possible because large groups of people can cooperate around shared beliefs. Money, governments, corporations and religions are all examples of what Harari calls imagined orders. They exist because enough people collectively believe they exist and act as though they are real.
That idea is highly relevant to product management because products are not just collections of features. They are stories that customers choose to believe in.
Products Are Stories
The same principle applies to products. Amazon’s story was never simply, “We have an online catalogue.” Its story was that everything could be purchased online, quickly, conveniently and with less friction than traditional retail. The catalogue was only the mechanism through which that story became believable.
Uber’s story was not, “We have a mobile application.” Its story was that transport should be as easy as pressing a button. The app mattered because it made that belief feel obvious, immediate and normal.
OpenAI’s story is not merely, “We built a large language model.” Its wider story is that intelligence is becoming more abundant and accessible. The technology supports that story, but the story is what changes expectations.
This is why the story often becomes the product. The technology matters, but it is the narrative that helps customers understand why the technology matters to them.
The Danger of Feature Thinking
Many product teams focus on features because features are tangible. They can be estimated, prioritised, designed, tested, shipped and reported on in a roadmap update. Stories are harder because they have to be understood, believed and reinforced over time.
This creates a common product trap. Teams spend months debating buttons, screens, workflows and configuration options while ignoring the narrative customers are telling themselves. They optimise the visible mechanics of the product without asking whether the product still fits the customer’s view of the world.
History suggests narratives matter more than we often admit. Humans are storytelling animals, and our decisions are shaped by the stories we believe about progress, risk, identity, status, fairness and control. Product managers ignore that at their peril.
AI and New Narratives
Harari’s work becomes particularly useful when thinking about AI. Many organisations are currently asking, “How can AI improve our existing products?” That is a reasonable question, but it is not always the most interesting one.
A better question is, “What new story does AI enable?” Historically, major technological shifts have changed the stories people believe. The printing press changed the story of knowledge by making information easier to reproduce and distribute. The internet changed the story of communication by making global connection feel immediate and ordinary. AI may change the story of expertise itself.
If intelligence becomes more abundant, entire industries may need to rethink their assumptions about work, value, knowledge and decision-making. The most important AI products may not simply make existing tasks faster. They may change what people believe is possible.
Product Management as Narrative Design
Product managers often describe themselves as problem solvers, and that is true. But they are also narrative designers, whether they realise it or not. Every roadmap tells a story about where the product is going. Every vision statement tells a story about the future. Every strategy tells a story about what matters, what will change and why anyone should care.
The best products align themselves with stories customers already want to believe. They make a desired future feel credible. They help customers explain a change to themselves, to their colleagues, to their board or to their users.
The worst products force customers to care about features nobody asked for. They may be well built, technically impressive and internally celebrated, but they fail because they never connect to a story the customer finds meaningful.
A Peep Show Thought Experiment
Imagine Mark Corrigan launching a product. The launch presentation would probably contain 147 slides, 63 risk assessments, 18 spreadsheets and one deeply uncomfortable section titled “Stakeholder Alignment Matrix.” Every possible objection would be documented, every dependency tracked and every risk logged with the grim determination of a man who believes certainty can be achieved through formatting.
Yet the launch would probably fail because nobody would understand why they should care. The presentation would explain what had been built, but not why it mattered. It would describe the features, but not the story.
Jeremy, despite possessing the organisational capability of a distracted Labrador, might accidentally outperform him because Jeremy understands something Mark often does not: people follow stories. They do not follow requirements documents, however carefully version controlled those documents may be.
What This Means for Product Managers
The lesson is not that features are irrelevant. Features matter, delivery matters and quality matters. A story cannot save a product that does not work, and no amount of narrative polish will compensate for a broken customer experience.
But features only become meaningful when they fit into a story customers understand. A strong product manager does not simply ask, “What feature should we build next?” They ask what belief the product is reinforcing, what change customers are being asked to accept, what story the roadmap tells and why anyone would care.
That is the difference between a product backlog and a product strategy. A backlog lists things the team might build, while a strategy explains why those things matter and how they contribute to a larger change.
Final Thoughts
Harari’s greatest lesson for product managers is that humans do not organise themselves around features. They organise themselves around narratives. Products that understand this can become movements, while products that ignore it often become little more than backlog items with better branding.
The next time you are discussing a feature, it is worth asking what story you are helping customers tell. That story is usually far more important than the feature itself, because the story is what gives the feature meaning.