Matt Lane · Notes← All notes
2025-02-17 · Products & systems

By employing narrative devices, aphoristic language, and abductive reasoning to craft a compelling strategic narrative, we can articulate the purpose of a business or product and its significance to people. This approach enables us to scale autonomously decentralized actions in a coherent direction.

High-level Example:

**UrbanFlow: Transforming Medellín Through Mobility**

**Background information: ****[https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/colombia-medellin-neighborhood/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/colombia-medellin-neighborhood/index.html)**

**1. Protagonist (Who We Are)**

Mobility is opportunity. A city should connect, not divide. We exist to lift people up—literally and figuratively.

**2. Setting & Backstory (The World Today)**

Mountains should inspire, not isolate. In Medellín, steep hills trapped entire communities, turning daily life into a daily climb.

**3. Conflict (The Problem We Solve)**

A staircase shouldn’t stand between a worker and a wage. Distance shouldn’t dictate destiny. The harder the climb, the fewer the opportunities.

**4. Rising Action (Our Innovation)**

We replaced struggle with simplicity. A five-minute ride erased a 35-minute climb. The escalator isn’t just a machine—it’s momentum.

**5. Climax (Our Vision for the Future)**

A city should rise with its people. When movement is effortless, progress is unstoppable.

**6. Falling Action (How We Get There)**

Infrastructure must serve the many, not the few. We build systems that make cities smaller, possibilities larger, and futures brighter.

**7. Resolution (Call to Action & Impact)**

This isn’t just an escalator—it’s a revolution. Join us in designing cities where no one is left behind, and no one is left behind because they couldn’t move forward.

**Abductive Argument**

**Premises:**

1. **If people in steep, isolated areas have difficulty accessing essential services, their economic and social mobility is restricted.***(Empirical evidence: Studies on urban mobility and socioeconomic inequality show that accessibility correlates with opportunity.)*
2. **Infrastructural improvements that reduce physical barriers (such as escalators or transit systems) increase access to jobs, education, and healthcare.***(Confirmed by urban planning research: Transit accessibility directly correlates with economic participation.)*
3. **Medellín’s outdoor escalators have significantly reduced travel time, improved economic activity, and increased community well-being.***(Documented case studies demonstrate improved local business growth, reduced commute times, and enhanced quality of life.)*
4. **If a system consistently produces the intended effects, then it is a plausible and justified explanation that the system itself is the cause of those improvements.***(This follows from the principle of inference to the best explanation in abductive reasoning.)*
**Conclusion:**

Since Medellín’s outdoor escalators demonstrably improve economic and social conditions by reducing mobility barriers, it follows that designing similar infrastructure in similar cities with mobility constraints will likely yield benefits. Therefore, investing in mobility solutions for underserved communities is both a justified and necessary urban policy.

1. Prose for Business That Won't Bore the Shit Out of Your Colleagues

Discussion

NOTE: These tools do not address the business model or differentiation strategy.