GenAI allows anyone to publish their ideas, flooding the internet with content that may or may not contain actual expertise. This reality means PR and marketing professionals need to work harder to ensure their subject matter experts (SMEs) present unique thoughts worth listening to.
With the help of AI, people can spin up a one-thousand-word piece on any subject in seconds. The resulting prose is often abstract, theoretical, vague, and generally common knowledge. Almost everyone is tired of reading about how AI will eliminate tedious work and how data is the foundation of good AI.
Reporters and potential customers want details, results, and humanity in the content they publish or consume. You know who can provide that insight? Your SMEs. They have nuanced, real-world experience that no one else can provide. The trick is uncovering the nuggets that differentiate your company or client from the market noise.
PANBlast holds story mining sessions with our clients to tease out novel insights for pitches and content. These casual discussions allow you to dig beneath the marketing language to extract the story behind the product.
Talking about general market trends isn’t enough anymore. You’ve got to get really specific on how and why things are happening, and gather proof points.
We analyzed dozens of agency story mining calls from 2026 to see which questions generated useful, distinctive answers only the individual spokesperson could provide.
The prompts fell into several categories.
1. Humanizing feature descriptions
Describing features is boring. Learning how they help humans tells a story people want to read.
Example questions:
- Who on your (or your customer’s) team uses this product daily, and what was their challenge before this existed?
- What did that person say when they realized the feature saved them time or improved their work?
- What was the most surprising human reaction to this change?
- If you had to script a 30‑second customer quote about this, what would it say?
2. Specifics on competitive differentiators
So many brands have the same talking points. You’ve got to nail down the language and details that show your client or company is doing something different.
Example questions:
- When a client left a competitor for you, what was the problem the other vendor couldn’t solve?
- What’s the one implementation detail competitors never get right, and how do your customers benefit from your approach?
3. Illustrating customer journeys
These narratives detail real-world experiences by real people. No other company can provide this perspective.
Example questions:
- Take me through the first 90 days of onboarding with this customer. What were the milestone moments?
- Who was the internal skeptic, and what convinced them to change course?
- Describe the one anecdote you’d put on a slide that proves adoption succeeded.
4. Quantifying value with outcomes
Anyone can claim AI solves problems. SMEs can differentiate themselves by providing metrics on what AI actually accomplished.
Example questions:
- How many minutes/hours did this task take before and after the new product or feature? Can you give me an exact before/after example?
- Tell me about one pilot customer. How did you measure impact, and what outcome surprised you?
- If you had to show CFOs one Excel line demonstrating ROI, what would it be?
5. Root‑cause stories that reveal market insight
These questions are designed to elicit both industry trends and what’s driving them.
Example questions:
- What conventional wisdom about this problem do you think is wrong, and why? Tell me about a time you saw that play out.
- What’s one anecdote that reveals the system failure behind this trend?
- What are customers or sales prospects saying in your discussions?
- What is the single most common mistake buyers make during the procurement stage?
The above examples are all real questions that turned otherwise vague commentary into distinctive quotes, bylines, pitches, and case studies. Obviously, these aren’t right for every account, but they are some thought starters for your next story mining. And of course, the SMEs don’t need to name any clients. Just the story is enough.
How to write story mining questions
When writing your questions, phrase them to generate specific, tangible, and human answers. Aim to uncover genuine emotions and metrics rather than theoretical speculation. If your thought leader gives you a jargon-filled spiel, ask follow-up questions to dig deeper.
You might consider these templates:
- Describe one concrete example that proves this idea.
- What single metric changed and by how much?
- What was broken? How did you respond? What changed as a result?
- What was the person or team’s response to this event or change?
- What conventional industry wisdom is wrong, and what real-world event proved it to you?
Be sure to set the stage with your client or SME before you start the conversation. Sometimes, clients bristle when you ask about customers, mistakes, or granular details. Explain to them how these insights demonstrate to potential buyers that the spokesperson and the brand know what they’re talking about and can be trusted.
Being human has always been the best PR strategy. But now there are a lot more machines in the conversation. Asking the right questions helps create content that makes the SME stand out.
Want help building up your irreplicable thought leadership? Say hello.