User Story Mapping is a visual exercise that helps product teams organize and prioritize user stories. It’s a technique introduced by Jeff Patton and is particularly useful in Agile and Lean methodologies. The main goal of user story mapping is to provide a structured approach to release planning and product backlog creation, ensuring that the team maintains a user-centric approach.
How to Create a User Story Map:
- Identify User Activities: Start by listing the high-level user activities. These are the primary tasks or goals a user wants to achieve with the product. Arrange them from left to right in the order a user would typically perform them.
- Break Down Activities into Tasks: For each high-level activity, identify the smaller tasks or steps a user would take. Place these tasks vertically below each activity, creating columns.
- Prioritize: Within each column, prioritize tasks from top to bottom based on their importance or the order in which they’ll be developed.
- Determine Releases: Now, you can draw horizontal lines across the map to group tasks into releases or iterations. This gives you a clear visual representation of what will be delivered in each release.
- Add Further Details: As you refine and discuss, you can attach additional details, acceptance criteria, or even mockups to specific tasks.
Benefits of User Story Mapping:
- Shared Understanding: It helps the team and stakeholders build a shared understanding of the user journey and product functionality.
- Focus on Value: By visualizing the entire user journey, teams can prioritize features that deliver the most value to users.
- Iterative Development: It’s easier to determine which stories or features to tackle in the upcoming sprints or releases.
- Improved Backlog Management: Provides a clear and organized structure to the product backlog.
- User-Centric: Helps ensure the development remains focused on user needs and experiences.
Example:
Let’s say you’re building an online bookstore:
- High-Level Activities (left to right): Browse Books, Choose a Book, Purchase, Read.
- Browse Books:
- Search by title
- Filter by genre
- View recommendations
- Choose a Book:
- View book details
- Read reviews
- Add to cart
- Purchase:
- Checkout
- Apply discount
- Select delivery method
- Read:
- Select reading mode (dark/light)
- Bookmark page
- Adjust font size
- Browse Books:
Then, by drawing horizontal lines, you can group these tasks into different releases based on priority, dependencies, or other criteria.
In conclusion, user story mapping is a powerful tool for planning and communication, ensuring that product development remains user-centered and aligned with strategic goals.