PlaceStory™
The chapter-based location narrative, built through a guided conversation rather than a single prompt.
01 / The problem
The deck that took a week, and still did not make anyone in the room feel the place. Screenshots of a map are not a location story.
02 / The decisions it serves
Not a report. A decision somebody has to sign.
Each of these is a question your team already asks, and currently answers with a spreadsheet, a phone call and a fortnight.
How to tell it
Chapter by chapter, built through a conversation rather than a one-line brief.
What the reader should do next
Declared up front, because a narrative with no intended action is a brochure.
03 / It is willing to say no
It does not hand you numbers. It gives you a verdict.
An assistant that only ever agrees with you is a mirror, not an analyst. This one holds a line, names the thing that kills the deal, and will tell you to walk away from a site you already like.
The thresholds it holds you to
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Nine things it needs before it will start: the project, the tagline, the address, the asset type, the phase, the audience, what the story is for, what you want the reader to do, and the tone.
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It builds through a conversation rather than a single prompt, because a narrative written from a one-line brief reads like it was.
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The maps, drive times and demographics inside it are real GIS output, not decoration.
04 / Why not just ask an AI
A fluent answer and a defensible one are not the same thing.
Every model will answer a location question now, and most of the answers sound right. Ask twice and you get two of them. Ask where the number came from and the room goes quiet.
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The maps, drive-times and demographics inside it are live GIS output, not screenshots pasted into a template.
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It refuses to start until it knows who the story is for and what it is meant to make them do. A narrative written from a one-line brief reads exactly like one.
05 / What it runs on, and what you get
The data underneath
Licensed and authoritative, and named in the output, so the number keeps its source when it travels.
- Esri GeoEnrichment
- Esri Network Analyst
- Esri Places
What you walk out with
A chapter-based story: cover, demographics, location with live drive-times, amenities, vision, gallery and timeline. It travels as a link.
The method it used and the vintage of every number travel with it, so it still holds up when somebody asks you why in six months.
How an answer travels06 / It pairs with
Nobody makes one decision in isolation. Most teams run this alongside two or three of these.
Run PlaceStory™ on something you already decided. See if it agrees with you.
The honest test of a method is whether it reaches the conclusion your best analyst already reached, and tells you plainly when it does not.
Twenty minutes, and you can argue with the weights.