User Story Mapping : Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product

How do you build a product that delights users? You must first know who your users are and how they plan to use what you're building. With this practical book, you'll explore the often-misunderstood practice of user story mapping, and learn how it can help keep your team stay focused on users and their experience throughout the development process.You and your team will learn that user stories aren't a way to write better specifications, but a way to organize and have better conversations. This book will help you understand what kinds of conversations you should be having, when to have them, and what to keep track of when you do. Learn the key concepts used to create a great story map. Understand how user stories really work, and how to make good use of them in agile and lean projects. Examine the nuts and bolts of managing stories through the development cycle. Use strategies that help you continue to learn before and after the product's release to customers and users__User Story Mapping__ Copyright 4 Table of Contents 7 Foreword by Martin Fowler 13 Foreword by Alan Cooper 15 Foreword by Marty Cagan 19 Preface 23 Why Me? 24 This Book Is for You If You’re Struggling with Stories 25 Who Should Read This Book? 26 A Few Conventions Used in This Book 27 The Headings Inside Each Chapter Guide You Through the Subject 27 How This Book Is Organized 28 Story Mapping from 10,000 Feet 28 Grokking User Stories 28 Better Backlogs 28 Better Building 29 Safari® Books Online 29 How to Contact Us 30 Read This First 31 The Telephone Game 31 Building Shared Understanding Is Disruptively Simple 35 Stop Trying to Write Perfect Documents 36 Good Documents Are Like Vacation Photos 37 Document to Help Remember 38 Talking About the Right Thing 39 Now and Later 39 Software Isn’t the Point 41 OK, It’s Not Just About People 42 Build Less 43 More on the Dreaded "R" Word 44 That’s All There Is to It 45 Chapter 1. The Big Picture 47 The "A" Word 47 Telling Stories, Not Writing Stories 49 Telling the Whole Story 49 Gary and the Tragedy of the Flat Backlog 51 Talk and Doc 52 Frame Your Idea 54 Describe Your Customers and Users 55 Tell Your Users' Stories 56 Explore Details and Options 60 Chapter 2. Plan to Build Less 67 Mapping Helps Big Groups Build Shared Understanding 68 Mapping Helps You Spot Holes in Your Story 71 There’s Always Too Much 72 Slice Out a Minimum Viable Product Release 73 Slice Out a Release Roadmap 74 Don’t Prioritize Features—Prioritize Outcomes 75 This Is Magic—Really, It Is 76 Why We Argue So Much About MVP 78 The New MVP Isn’t a Product at All! 80 Chapter 3. Plan to Learn Faster 83 Start by Discussing Your Opportunity 84 Validate the Problem 85 Prototype to Learn 86 Watch Out for What People Say They Want 87 Build to Learn 87 Iterate Until Viable 90 How to Do It the Wrong Way 90 Validated Learning 92 Really Minimize Your Experiments 94 Let’s Recap 94 Chapter 4. Plan to Finish on Time 97 Tell It to the Team 98 The Secret to Good Estimation 99 Plan to Build Piece by Piece 100 Don’t Release Each Slice 102 The Other Secret to Good Estimation 102 Manage Your Budget 103 What Would da Vinci Do? 105 Iterative AND Incremental 108 Opening-, Mid-, and Endgame Strategy 109 Slice Out Your Development Strategy in a Map 110 It’s All About Risk 110 Now What? 111 Chapter 5. You Already Know How 113 1. Write Out Your Story a Step at a Time 113 Tasks Are What We Do 114 My Tasks Are Different Than Yours 115 I’m Just More Detail-Oriented 116 2. Organize Your Story 117 Fill in Missing Details 118 3. Explore Alternative Stories 118 Keep the Flow 120 4. Distill Your Map to Make a Backbone 121 5. Slice Out Tasks That Help You Reach a Specific Outcome 122 That’s It! You’ve Learned All the Important Concepts 123 Do Try This at Home, or at Work 124 It’s a Now Map, Not a Later Map 125 Try This for Real 127 With Software It’s Harder 128 The Map Is Just the Beginning 130 Chapter 6. The Real Story About Stories 135 Kent’s Disruptively Simple Idea 135 Simple Isn’t Easy 137 Ron Jeffries and the 3 Cs 138 1. Card 139 2. Conversation 139 3. Confirmation 140 Words and Pictures 141 That’s It 142 Chapter 7. Telling Better Stories 143 Connextra’s Cool Template 143 Template Zombies and the Snowplow 148 A Checklist of What to Really Talk About 150 Create Vacation Photos 153 It’s a Lot to Worry About 154 Chapter 8. It’s Not All on the Card 155 Different People, Different Conversations 155 We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Card 156 Radiators and Ice Boxes 159 That’s Not What That Tool Is For 162 Building Shared Understanding 162 Remembering 164 Tracking 165 Chapter 9. The Card Is Just the Beginning 167 Construct with a Clear Picture in Your Head 168 Build an Oral Tradition of Storytelling 169 Inspect the Results of Your Work 170 It’s Not for You 172 Build to Learn 173 It’s Not Always Software 174 Plan to Learn, and Learn to Plan 175 Chapter 10. Bake Stories Like Cake 177 Create a Recipe 178 Breaking Down a Big Cake 179 Chapter 11. Rock Breaking 183 Size Always Matters 183 Stories Are Like Rocks 185 Epics Are Big Rocks Sometimes Used to Hit People 186 Themes Organize Groups of Stories 188 Forget Those Terms and Focus on Storytelling 188 Start with Opportunities 189 Discover a Minimum Viable Solution 190 Dive into the Details of Each Story During Delivery 192 Keep Talking as You Build 194 Evaluate Each Piece 195 Evaluate with Users and Customers 196 Evaluate with Business Stakeholders 198 Release and Keep Evaluating 199 Chapter 12. Rock Breakers 201 Valuable-Usable-Feasible 202 A Discovery Team Needs Lots of Others to Succeed 204 The Three Amigos 205 Product Owner as Producer 209 This Is Complicated 210 Chapter 13. Start with Opportunities 213 Have Conversations About Opportunities 213 Dig Deeper, Trash It, or Think About It 214 Opportunity Shouldn’t Be a Euphemism 219 Story Mapping and Opportunities 219 Be Picky 225 Chapter 14. Using Discovery to Build Shared Understanding 227 Discovery Isn’t About Building Software 227 Four Essential Steps to Discovery 228 1. Frame the Idea 229 2. Understand Customers and Users 229 3. Envision Your Solution 232 4. Minimize and Plan 242 Discovery Activities, Discussions, and Artifacts 245 Discovery Is for Building Shared Understanding 246 Chapter 15. Using Discovery for Validated Learning 247 We’re Wrong Most of the Time 247 The Bad Old Days 249 Empathize, Focus, Ideate, Prototype, Test 250 How to Mess Up a Good Thing 254 Short Validated Learning Loops 255 How Lean Startup Thinking Changes Product Design 256 Start by Guessing 257 Name Your Risky Assumptions 258 Design and Build a Small Test 258 Measure by Running Your Test with Customers and Users 260 Rethink Your Solution and Your Assumptions 261 Stories and Story Maps? 261 Chapter 16. Refine, Define, and Build 263 Cards, Conversation, More Cards, More Conversations... 263 Cutting and Polishing 264 Workshopping Stories 264 Sprint or Iteration Planning? 268 Crowds Don’t Collaborate 271 Split and Thin 273 Use Your Story Map During Delivery 278 Use a Map to Visualize Progress 279 Use Simple Maps During Story Workshops 280 Chapter 17. Stories Are Actually Like Asteroids 285 Reassembling Broken Rocks 287 Don’t Overdo the Mapping 289 Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff 290 Chapter 18. Learn from Everything You Build 293 Review as a Team 293 Review with Others in Your Organization 297 Enough 299 Learn from Users 300 Learn from Release to Users 301 Outcomes on a Schedule 301 Use a Map to Evaluate Release Readiness 302 The End, or Is It? 305 Acknowledgments 307 References 311 Index 313 About the Author 323 How do you build a product that delights users? You must first know who your users are and how they plan to use what you're building. With this practical book, you'll explore the often-misunderstood practice of user story mapping, and learn how it can help keep your team stay focused on users and their experience throughout the development process. You and your team will learn that user stories aren't a way to write better specifications, but a way to organize and have better conversations. This book will help you understand what kinds of conversations you should be having, when to have them, and what to keep track of when you do. Learn the key concepts used to create a great story map. Understand how user stories really work, and how to make good use of them in agile and lean projects. Examine the nuts and bolts of managing stories through the development cycle. Use strategies that help you continue to learn before and after the product's release to customers and users User Story Mapping is ideal for agile and lean software development team members, product managers and UX practitioners in commercial product companies, and business analysts and project managers in IT organizationswhether you're new to this approach or want to understand more about it. User story mapping is a valuable tool for software development, once you understand why and how to use it. This insightful book examines how this often misunderstood technique can help your team stay focused on users and their needs without getting lost in the enthusiasm for individual product features.Author Jeff Patton shows you how changeable story maps enable your team to hold better conversations about the project throughout the development process. Your team will learn to come away with a shared understanding of what you’re attempting to build and why.Get a high-level view of story mapping, with an exercise to learn key concepts quicklyUnderstand how stories really work, and how they come to life in Agile and Lean projectsDive into a story’s lifecycle, starting with opportunities and moving deeper into discoveryPrepare your stories, pay attention while they’re built, and learn from those you convert to working software User story mapping is a valuable tool for software development, once you understand why and how to use it. This insightful book examines how this often misunderstood technique can help your team stay focused on users and their needs without getting lost in the enthusiasm for individual product features. Author Jeff Patton shows you how changeable story maps enable your team to hold better conversations about the project throughout the development process. Your team will learn to come away with a shared understanding of what you’re attempting to build and why. • Get a high-level view of story mapping, with an exercise to learn key concepts quickly • Understand how stories really work, and how they come to life in Agile and Lean projects • Dive into a story’s lifecycle, starting with opportunities and moving deeper into discovery • Prepare your stories, pay attention while they’re built, and learn from those you convert to working software User story mapping is a valuable tool for software development, once you understand why and how to use it. This insightful book examines how this often misunderstood technique can help your team stay focused on users and their needs without getting lost in the enthusiasm for individual product features. Author Jeff Patton shows you how changeable story maps enable your team to hold better conversations about the project throughout the development process. Your team will learn to come away with a shared understanding of what you're attempting to build and why. Get a high level view of story mapping, with an exercise to learn key concepts quickly Understand how stories really work, and how they come to life in Agile and Lean projects Dive into a story's lifecycle, starting with opportunities and moving deeper into discovery Prepare your stories, pay attention while they're built, and learn from those you convert to working software "User story mapping is a valuable tool for software development, once you understand why and how to use it. This insightful book examines how this often misunderstood technique can help your team stay focused on users and their needs without getting lost in the enthusiasm for individual product features. Author Jeff Patton shows you how changeable story maps enable your team to hold better conversations about the project throughout the development process. Your team will learn to come away with a shared understanding of what you're attempting to build and why."--Provided by publisher