Kent Beck is running an interesting experiment. He’s asking start ups to step up and take a chance, put their creation stories on their site, and to test it against their usual homepage.

The idea behind this is that a compelling story makes visitors into customers. People make the tie between the product or service, and the story behind it, and once they do, they are more likely to buy.

Stories do that to us. For centuries we had storytellers to convey ideas, religion, persuade and sell. Us developers, we like the data, and lots of it. But that’s not what we remember over time. That’s why I’m the T Shirt guy.

I like to tell my tank story (and I’m going to do it here one day) at the beginning of a presentation.  A story helps relate to the presenter, become more susceptible to listen to him. He becomes less remote, approachable. And that helps him to pass his message (which is what he’s there to do).

What is your favorite story to tell? Has it helped you convey a message?