User Story Mapping (2008)

© Jeff Patton, all rights reserved, www.AgileProductDesign.com
Building Better Products Using
User Story Mapping
Jeff Patton
jpatton@acm.org
www.agileproductdesign.com

2© Jeff Patton, all rights reserved, www.AgileProductDesign.com
Our goals and agenda today
Goal: Learn to use the user story backlog as a way to
describe user’s experience with your product
Part 1: Mapping user stories
 User story essentials
 Telling stories about the user experience
 Mapping user stories based on experience
Part 2: Planning valuable incremental releases
 Identifying product goals that delivery value
 Slicing the story map into valuable releases
Part 3: Iteratively constructing software (time permitting)
 Identifying an iterative and incremental construction
strategy
 Splitting and thinning stories for upcoming development
iterations

Starting with the
User Story
What do you know about user stories?
What do you like about user stories?
What causes you trouble with user stories

QuickTime™ and a
Cinepak decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
User Stories are multi-purpose
© NBC Studios

User Stories are multi-purpose
Stories are a:
 User’s need
 Product description
 Planning item
 Token for a conversation
 Mechanism for deferring
conversation
* Kent Beck coined the
term user stories in Extreme
Programming Explained 1st
Edition, 1999

Stories gain detail over time
Start with a title
Add a concise description often
using this useful template:
As a [type of user]
I want to [perform some task]
so that I can [reach some goal]
Add other relevant notes,
specifications, or sketches
Before building software write
acceptance criteria (how do we
know when we’re done?)

Agile customers or product owner
prioritize stories into a backlog
A collection of stories
for a software product is
referred to as the
product backlog
The backlog is prioritized
such that the most
valuable items are
highest

Let’s talk about the nature
of multi-purpose things
(yes I’m going meta. I blame Brian.)

User Stories are boundary objects
“A boundary object is a concept in sociology to describe
information used in different ways by different communities.
They are plastic, interpreted differently across communities but
with enough immutable content to maintain integrity”
--Wikipedia
“They are weakly structured in common use, and become
strongly structured in individual-site use. They may be abstract
or concrete. They have different meanings in different social
worlds but their structure is common enough to more than one
world to make them recognizable means of translation. The
creation and management of boundary objects is key in
developing and maintaining coherence across intersecting social
worlds.” -- Leigh & Griesemer

User Stories act as the boundary to
facilitate conversation between many
people
user
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business leader

But size always matters...
How big is the story we
want to talk about?
11

And, it’s easy to get lost in the sheer
number of them
12

And, as we start moving forward, how
do we stay on track?
13

User Story Mapping is an an approach to
Organizing and Prioritizing user stories
Unlike typical user story
backlogs, Story Maps:
 make visible the workflow or
value chain
 show the relationships of
larger stories to their child
stories
 help confirm the
completeness of your
backlog
 provide a useful context for
prioritization
 Plan releases in complete and

User Story Mapping is an an approach to
Organizing and Prioritizing user stories
Story Maps support the
primary intent of user stories,
rich discussion

The foundational building
block of a story map is
the user task

First let’s do a warm-up exercise to
understand a few concepts
What were all the things you did to get ready to
be here today?
 Starting from the moment you woke up until you
arrived here
 Write one item per sticky note
17

First let’s do a warm-up exercise to
understand a few concepts
In a small group (3 to 5 people) merge these stickies
into a single model
 Arrange them left to right in an order that makes sense to
the group
 Eliminate duplicates
 Cluster items that seem similar and create labels for the
clusters if items that seem to go together

What’s common about the items
each of you wrote down?
What was different?
How did the models created by
different groups vary?

People achieve goals through
interaction
problem or
goal
How I’d like to feel, or what
I’d like to achieve
Take some
action
action evaluation
Did that action deliver the results I
expected?
goal evaluation
Is my goal met or problem
resolved?
the world
Information and tools

problem or
goal
How I’d like to feel, or
what I’d like to
achieve
Think of three levels: goal, task, and
tool
the world
Information and tools
Take some
action
action evaluation
Did that action deliver the results I
expected?
goal evaluation
Is my goal met or problem
resolved?
goal
task
tool

Think of three levels: goal, task, and
tool
goal
task
tool

Software contains features that support
a variety of tasks and a variety of goals
software
goals
tasks
toolsfeatures

Goals, tasks, and tools apply at both a
personal and organizational level
business
processes
employees,
vendors, & systems
business
objectives
asks
ools
oals

activity
User tasks are decompose to smaller
tasks and organize into activities
Tasks require intentional action on behalf of a tool’s
user
Tasks have an objective that can be completed
Tasks decompose into smaller tasks
Tasks often cluster together into activities of related
tasks
task task task task
task

activitymanage email
User tasks are decompose to smaller
tasks and organize into activities
Tasks require intentional action on behalf of a tool’s
user
Tasks have an objective that can be completed
Tasks decompose into smaller tasks
Tasks often cluster together into activities of related
tasks
“Read an email message” is a task, “Managing
email” is an activity.
task
task
task
task
task
task
read
message
send
message
create
folder delete
message
prioritize
message
place
message
in folder

tasktasktasktask
Activities have characteristics relevant to
the software we’ll choose to build
some number of common tasks
a general goal or purpose
a primary human participant
usually other human participants
a physical place or location
some number of tools including computers, software, electronic
files, telephones, information, paper, etc..
activity

Be sensitive to your user task’s
“altitude”
* from Cockburn’s Writing
Effective Use Cases
Functional or “Sea level”
I’d reasonably expect to complete this in a single sitting
Sub-Functional or “Fish level”
Small tasks that by themselves don’t mean much. I’ll do several
of these before I reach a functional level goal
Activity or “Kite level”
Longer term goals often with no precise ending. I’ll perform
several functional tasks in the context of an activity
Too abstract
Too detailed
Think about user
experience at this
level

User tasks make ideal
user stories:
Title: Take a shower
As an instructor
I want to take a shower
So that I don’t offend my colleagues

user story
In practice user stories may be written to
describe user tasks or the tools that support
them
software
tasks
features
goals
As a weekend gardener
I want to dig a hole
so that I can plant a tree
More task-centric:
As a weekend gardener
I want a shovel
so that I can [dig a hole to]
plant a tree
More tool-centric:
(or feature-centric)

Barney’s
Getting started with a
Story Mapping Problem
Read the Barney’s Information Kiosk
problem
Think about the experience of someone
using the kiosk
(5 minutes)
In small workgroups (3-5 people) discuss:
 What are Barney’s goals or pains?
 What types of users might use the kiosk and why?
 Try to talk about users tasks without talking about the
kiosk (tool) – this can be difficult
(5 minutes)
Your team 33

What are the goals & tasks?
Business goals or
pain points?
Types of users using
this system?
User’s goals or
pains?
How will users of
the system reach
their goals?
34

Start with an
understanding or user
experience

experience
Field Manager enters daily performance reports
The shift has just ended and his reps are coming up with their
totals. They have printed sheets with totals written on them.
Steve quickly looks them over and signs them off. His
assistant manager brings him other sheets with totals he’s
signed off.
In between visits by reps, Steve opens his Field Manager
Workbench on his laptop. After logging in he sees today’s
date and the planned number of applications his reps should
be gathering – 180 for today.
He also sees yesterday’s numbers, and last week’s numbers,
and the last 30 days in graph that shows applications
relative to approval rate. Last week’s numbers were bad,
and it’s the last week of the month, so Steve knows he’s got
to do well today.
Steve clicks “enter rep performance data.” He shuffles his reps
5. The date is defaulted to today, and the shift is defaulted to ‘morning’
since he hasn’t yet entered info for today. Steve begins to enter the
reps name, but after a few characters the system auto-completes his
name.
6. The rep’s ID is already filled in, along with the code for the credit card
promotion they’re working on today.
7. Steve fills in the shift information for his rep. He then enters the total
number of applications taken.
8. It looks like from the notes on this sheet that this rep left sick two hours
early. Steve adds a note about this in the system.
9. Time passes as more reps bring in their sheets and Steve completes
entering them in between conversations.
10. After all the sheets are done, Steve looks at a summary screen for the
day. It looks like he’s close to his goal. If the next shift continues at
this rate he’ll beat the plan by 5% or so. That’s good.
11. Steve validates that the base pay is correct at $5 per app, and that
he’s set an individual bonus giving reps $50 each if they reach 20
apps. Next to each rep he sees the calculated pay, base, bonus, and
total pay for the day.
12. The annual sale at Macy’s has brought a lot of people in today. Steve
chooses a “sale increases mall foot traffic” code to add to his shift data
sheet. Frank, his boss, has pestered him to make sure he includes
this type of information in his daily summaries.
Steven
Credit Card Marketing Field
Manager
Steven is a field manager working
at the local shopping center.
He’s in the middle of a long
workday supervising 13 reps
who are busy talking to people
trying to convince them to
apply for a credit card.

A user scenario is a simple way to think
through user experience concretely
A user scenario tells a story about a main character with a
problem or goal
 Describes how that character reaches their goal
 contains important facts
 describes external context
 describes goals and concerns of our character
include interesting plot points that help us envision
important aspects of the system
A scenario can gloss over uninteresting details

Imagine the user experience
as a scenario
as a scenarioSeparate your team of four into two pairs
One person imagine out loud the experience of someone using the kiosk. Think about:
 Typical use, including typical problems
 Interesting plot points
 Goals and pains of your user
The other ask questions to better understand
After 5 minutes of discussion write out the scenario
Pair one think about Carol:
casual browser
“I want to find something good from a
band I heard on the radio.”
Goal: : have fun finding something
interesting
Pair two think about Isaac:
Impatient buyer
“I wan to find a specific hard to find
foreign film.”
Goal: : Find it and get out quickly
without wasting my time

Extract task-centric user stories
from your user scenarios
from your user scenarios
Come back together as
a team
Reviewing each others
scenarios, extract task-
centric stories using
yellow stickies
Write only the tasks
verb-phrase for your
title

Organize user stories into
a map that
communicates
experience

By arranging activity and task-centric
story cards spatially, we can tell bigger
storiesTell a big story of the product by starting with the major user
activities the kiosk will be used for
 Arrange activities left to right in the order you’d explain them to
someone when asked the question: “What do people do with this
system?”
time

By arranging task-centric story cards
spatially, we can tell bigger stories
Add task-centric stories in under each activity in workflow order
left to right.
 If you were to explain to someone what a person typically does in
this activity, arrange tasks in the order you’d tell the story. Don’t
get too uptight about the order.
time

By arranging task-centric story cards
spatially, we can tell bigger stories
Overlap user tasks vertically if a user may do one of several tasks at
approximately the same time
 If in telling the story I say the systems’ user typically “does this or this
or this, and then does that,” “or’s” signal a stacking vertically, “and
then’s” signal stepping horizontally.
time

The map shows decomposition and
typical flow across the entire system
Reading the activities across the top of the system helps us
understand end-to-end use of the system. (Talk through
just these when talking with people with short attention
spans.)
time
Below each activity, or large
story are the child stories that
make it up

Building a story map helps facilitate
discussion – but requires a bit of space
Gary Levitt, owner & designer of Mad Mimi

A story map for a reasonable sized
system
can fill a room

Assemble your harvested task-centric
stories into a simple story map
Work as a team to organize your stories
Look for activities: tasks that seems similar, are done by similar
people in pursuit of similar goals
Use a different color sticky to label activities
time

Discuss, fill in, refine the
map, and test for
completeness

Once you’ve got the idea down, it’s quick to
record stories as you discuss the experience with
users
Discuss the steps of the process with candidate users
 Record tasks as they say them
 Rearrange tasks and insert tasks as you clarify the big story
 Add activities as you identify them from discussion
time

As details emerge in conversation, trap
them under their associated task cards
Record details so they’re not lost, and so those who
you’re working with know that you’re listening
 Consider tucking them under tasks cards to “hide them”
from the discussion
time
activity
task
sub-tasks or
task details

This simple model is easy to stack
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8 9
1
0
1
11
.
1110
9
8
76
5
4
32
1
2.
1110987654321
3.

storiesAdd a vertical axis to indicate necessity
Move tasks up and down this axis to indicate how necessary they are
to the activity.
 For a user to successfully engage in this activity, is it necessary they
perform this task? If it’s not absolutely necessary, how critical is it?
time
necessity

storiesTest the Story Map by telling bigger stories with it
 Choose an activity to start with
 When reading left to right use the conjunction “and then” to connect cards in the story
 With cards in the same row use “or” to connect cards in the story
 For cards below the top, “absolutely necessary” axis, use the phrase “might optionally”
to communicate optionality
 Chose a concrete user name to help tell the story
time
necessity

stories
time
necessity
“Steve knows the title of what he’s looking for. He steps up to
the kiosk and searches by title. Optionally he might have
searched by artist. After seeing titles that match what he
typed in, Steve views the price new and used, and then views
the status – whether it’s in stock or not. He notices it’s in stock
as both new and used, so then Steve views the location in the
store for the used title.”
Notice the bold faced user tasks
from our story map
Notice the conjunctions that knit the
cards together into a longer story

Discussions over story maps help drive
out more details
QuickTime™ and a
YUV420 codec decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Repeated review of the story map with
multiple users and subject matter experts will
help test the model for completeness

The user story map contains two
important anatomical features
The backbone of the application is the list of
essential activities the application supports
The walking skeleton is the software we build
that supports the least number of necessary tasks
across the full span of user experience
time
necessity
The backbone
The walking skeleton

Using discussion, fill in your story map
Work together as a team
Look for alternative tasks
 What else might users of the system have
done that didn’t come up in your
scenarios?
Look for exceptions
 What could go wrong, and what would the
user have to do to recover?
Consider other users
 What might other types of users do to
reach their goals?
Knit al these additional stories into your
map

Slice the map to find ideal
incremental releases

Agile teams plan product construction in
layers

61
Release
How can we release value
incrementally?
What subset of business
objectives will each release
achieve?
What user constituencies will
the release serve?
What general capabilities
(big stories) will the release
offer?
Release Roadmap
Target Customers
Target Personas
Story (Backlog
Item)
What user or stakeholder need will
the story serve?
How will it specifically look and
behave?
How will I determine if it’s
completed?
Story Details
Acceptance Tests© Jeff Patton, all rights reserved, www.AgileProductDesign.com
Product
or Project
What business
objectives will the
product fulfill?
Product Goals
Product Charter
Customers
User Personas
Iteration or
Sprint
What specifically will we
build? (user stories)
How will this iteration
move us toward release
objectives?
Iteration Goal
Development or
Construction Tasks

Given story map organized vertically by
necessity, we need only slice to plan
Choose coherent groups of features that consider the span of business
functionality and user activities
Support all necessary activities with the first release
Improve activity support and add additional activities with subsequent
releases
time
optionality
necessary
less
optional
more
optional
first release
second release
third release

Given story map organized vertically by
necessity, we need only slice to plan

Adding tape lines to the wall lets
participants organize stories into layers

Planning incremental releases can be
facilitated as a collaborative event

There’s a secret to
effective prioritization
(Before I give my ideas about what it is,
what’s worked for you?)

Identify and prioritize desired outcomes
before prioritizing the backlog
Product goals describe what
outcome or benefit received by
the organization after the
product is in use

Product goals suggest how the business will earn value
from the product, and how we can tell we’re getting it
Software built for internal use usually saves
money or helps improve service to customers
indirectly earning money
Software built for use by customers earns money
through direct sales, improved customer
retention, or improved customer loyalty
Product goals are specific to that product - not
generic to any product. A goal to earn more
money isn’t useful
Given a product goal, ask:
“if we’re making progress towards this goal,
how would we know it? What would we
observe in our organization that indicates
success?”
The answer to these questions are useful metrics

incremental releases, where each release delivers
benefit
incremental releases, where each release delivers
benefitCreate horizontal swim-lanes to group features into releases
Arrange features vertically by necessity from the user’s perspective
Split tasks into parts that can be deferred till later releases
Use the product goals from your handouts to identify slices that incrementally
realize product goals
optionality
necessary
less
optional
more
optional

The software we choose to build is a
consequence of smaller upstream
choices
Choices in business
goals, users, and use
have big
consequences to
software scope
Use
(Activities & Tasks)
Software to build
(Specified as User
Stories)
User
Constituencies
Business
Goals

Segmenting scope into incremental releases
also segments use, user goals, and business
goals
Use
(Activities & Tasks)
Software to build
(Specified as User
Stories)
User
Constituencies
Business
Goals
1 2 3
Work top down (goals to
scope) or bottom up
(scope back to goals), but
always work to ensure
you’re delivering scope
that delivers on targeted
business and user goals

73
EasyPOS Point of Sale Software
Release 1: Replace the cash register
Business: gets rid of old manual cash registers and gets accurate up to the
minute sales information across locations.
Users: Cashiers get an easier to use cash register that helps them make
less mistakes, corrects them when they do, and saves time balancing cash
ry night.© Jeff Patton, all rights reserved, www.AgileProductDesign.com
A product release roadmap targets
benefit delivered over time
A roadmap serves to clearly communicate release level product goals and
benefits to stakeholders
For each incremental release:
 Give the release a name or simple statement describing its purpose – think
mantra
 Write a short sentence or two describing what value or benefit the business
gets
 Write a short sentence or two describing what value or benefit the users get

74
EasyPOS Point of Sale Software
Release 1: Replace the cash register
Business: gets rid of old manual cash registers and gets accurate up to the
minute sales information across locations.
Users: Cashiers get an easier to use cash register that helps them make
less mistakes, corrects them when they do, and saves time balancing cash
ry night.© Jeff Patton, all rights reserved, www.AgileProductDesign.com
Turn your sliced story map into a
roadmap
For each slice in your release:
 Give the release a name or simple statement describing its
purpose – think mantra
 Write a short sentence or two describing what value or benefit
the business gets
 Write a short sentence or two describing what value or benefit
the users get

Iteratively and
incrementally construct
software

Traditional software development fixes scope
then estimates, and attempts to fix time and
cost
Traditional software
development
Scope
Time Cost
(resources)

Agile development fixes time and cost, then
leverages iteration and incrementing to maximize
scope
development
Scope
Time Cost
(resources)
Scope
Time
Cost
(resources)
Agile software
development

Leverage a shared understanding of desired
product goals to minimize scope while maximizing
value
development
Scope
Time Cost
(resources)
Scope
Time
Cost
(resources)
Agile software
development
Target business goals &
outcomes

To release benefit on a
schedule we’ll need to
leverage incremental and
iterative thinking
(What’s the difference?)

“incrementing” builds a bit at a time
1 2 3 4 5
Incrementing calls for a fully
formed idea.
And, doing it on time requires
dead accurate estimation.

“iterating” builds a rough version,
validates it, then slowly builds up quality
1 2 3
A more iterative allows you to
move from vague idea to
realization making course
corrections as you go.
4 5

193 82
Many organizations consider revising the same
functionality as failure. Iteration is not
tolerated.

As a product owner, you need a more refined
understanding of “shippable”

tool
Keeping our user stories task-centric
allowed us to defer solution decisions
user goal
user task

Commit to satisfying user needs, not to
specific features
hole
(to put the flower in)
dig hole
?

51
Products with similar features often vary
substantially in the price we pay
low cost moderate cost high cost
Think about the high-level features
in a car - well a bus in our example
At a high level, all features are
necessary
But we know that all buses don’t
have the same price
Each essential feature varies in
subjective quality affecting the final
price
engine
transmission
brakes
suspension
seats
steering wheel
…

Kano cautions us to consider quality as being
composed of objective and subjective
elements
“Discussions of quality have
revolved around the two aspects of
subjectivity and objectivity since the
time of Aristotle.
Embedded in this objective-
subjective split is the idea that
objective quality pertains to the
‘conformance to requirements’
while subjective quality pertains
to the ‘satisfaction of users.’”
--Noriaki Kano
There’s more to
me than that
silly survey
technique!

Kano explains three general classifications for product
features: must-haves, one-dimensionals, and
delighters
Must-haves
The products must have
this features for me to be
consider the product
acceptable
One-dimensionals
The more of this I get, the
better
Delighters
I love this element of the
product!
“This car has many flaws. Buy it
anyway. It’s so much fun to
drive”
-- from a NY Times review of the
Mini Cooper

Separate objective quality from
subjective quality
Objective quality refers to the visible measurable,
and easily validated characteristics of the product
usually in relation to the products’ specifications.
 Does the product perform bug free as
specified?
 Expect objective quality to be high.
Subjective quality refers to the specification
or product design choices you make as a
product owner. These choices affect the
product users’ perception of quality
Is the product simple to use?
Is the product efficient to use?
Do I like using the product?

Use the Kano classifications to both
prioritize and split
Brakes
(must have)
Basic brakes
(must have)
Stopping
distance
(one dimensional)
Anti-locking
(delighter)
Cool dashboard
light when slipping
(delighter)
Keep in mind: you must know your customers and users to
determine subjective value.
One person’s delighter may leave others apathetic.
Another’s must have is useless to other customers

features
release
engine
transmission
suspension
brakes
exteriorbody
Interiorseating
tires
sprint
1234
Product goal: (in 4 sprints) be driving the coolest bus in town
Let’s look at what happens if we take a
naive incremental aproach to
construction
Let’s start with the basic features of our bus.

1 2 3
Iterating affords
building up quality
over time
We can leverage iteration to build up
quality

Consider these four story splitting
heuristics that build up quality
Bare Necessity
For the feature to be minimally demonstrable – but not releasable, what is the minimal
functionality
Example: A form with only necessary fields and no validation
Capability & Flexibility
What would add the ability to perform the user task in different ways? Adding in sub
tasks that are optionally performed?
Example: a form with optional fields, date lookup tools, input translation on
dates
Safety
What would make this feature safer for me to use? For both the user, and for the
business paying for the software?
Example: input validation, enforcement of business rules such as credit card
validation* Adapted from Gerard Meszaros’ “Storyotypes”

usertaskstosupport
releaseD D D D D I IB- C C- D D D DA- B B- B B B B-A- A B A A- A- B-
sprint
1234
Product goal: (in 4 sprints) be driving the highest quality bus possible
Building up quality iteratively and
incrementally ships the best product
possibleWe know each story can be split into at least four parts
Early iterations strive to build bare necessities, later iterations build up
quality
Evaluating readiness based on subjective quality to understand doneness

Divide release design & development
into three phases
Opening Game: Build a simple system span of necessary features first –
the walking skeleton
Mid-Game: Add flexibility and safety next
End Game: Finish with comfort, performance, and luxury
Reserve time in the remaining third for unforeseen additions
and adaptations
time
uncertainty decreases over time
uncertainty
Opening
Game
Build up
necessities
Mid-Game
Build out
flexibility and
business rule
enforcement
End-Game
Refine the UI and
interactions, take
advantage of
iterative learning
Construx on the Cone of Uncertainty: http://www.construx.com/Page.aspx?hid=1648
Visdos on the cone: http://www.implementingscrum.com/2008/02/19/vegas-hangover-enlightenment/

time
uncertainty decreases over time
uncertainty
This product growing strategy slowly
brings the product into focus
An artist envisions an entire painting by starting with a sketch or an
under-painting and slowly building up detail
Apply the same strategy to learn about the product domain as
quickly as possible – to chase out uncertainty before too heavily
investing
Opening
Game
Build up
necessities
Mid-Game
Build out
flexibility and
business rule
enforcement
End-Game
Refine the UI and
interactions, take
advantage of
iterative learning

End Game
Over time the value of
stories begin to diminish
signaling it’s time for
release
Mid Game
Once we’re confident
we have the “shape” of
the product right, we
begin to pile in value
Opening
Game
Early stories emphasize
iteration and learning.
We need to be sure
we’re building the right
product
Looking at the release of business value
over time lets us see what’s going on
here To finish on time
we may “trim
the tail” by
deferring stories
of modest value
time
cumulativebusinessvalue

Split a task-centric backlog item into smaller
iteration stories using the 4 quality heuristics
Work in small groups of 2-3 people.
Review the Story Map – the organized backlog –
for the Barney’s problem
Choose a story you’d like to work with, one
where your group can imagine a prospective
user interface.
Brainstorm the smaller stories that could build
up the larger story to its full quality.
Arrange your brainstormed stories into 3 pile:

Guidelines for releasing on time
Thin stories aggressively during early sprints to
build all essential functionality early.
Build up functionality only after all necessities
are in place.
Protect time in the final sprints for product
refinement.
Assess release readiness at the end of each
sprint as part of product review.

Parting thoughts

Questions?

User Story Mapping (2008)

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