Whether you’re completely new to user story mapping or you’re close to becoming a black-belt story mapper, we’ve got some useful resources for you. We’ve collected the top:
- short intros into user story mapping,
- advanced techniques and use-cases in detail,
- best story mapping tools out there.
Best places to go if you need a short intro into user story mapping
- It’s All in How You Slice – Design your project in working layers to avoid half-baked incremental releases – Jeff Patton, 2005, the first article, where it all begin, an eye opener, the essence in 6 pages, pdf
- The new user story backlog is a map – Jeff Patton, 2008, similar to the previous, 10 minute read
- User stories and use cases – don’t use both! – Shane Hastie, Angela Wick, 2014, for those who worked with uses cases, 15m read
- Lean Startup + Story Mapping = Awesome Products Faster! – Brad Swanson, 2014, 24 slides
- How Story Mapping Complements Agile Development – Matthew Heusser, 2014, “conversation with several experts on the topic” in a q&a format, 5m read
- User Story Mapping: our choice as feature listing method – Andrea Giannangelo, 2010, 5m read
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What to read after the intros
- How to create a User Story Map – Steve Rogalsky, 2012, 5m read
- User Story Mapping in Practice – Steve Rogalsky, 2013, 70 slides
- Tips for Facilitating a User Story Mapping Session – Steve Rogalsky, 2012, 2m read
- How to Prioritize a User Story Map – Steve Rogalsky, 2013, 5m read
- Don’t Etch your User Story Map in Stone – Steve Rogalsky, 2013, 5m read
- Splitting user stories: the hamburger method – Gojko Adzic, 2012, another interesting method for making stories small from a technical perspective, 10m read
- Why are software development task estimations regularly off by a factor of 2-3? – Michael Wolfe, 2013, very well written Quora answer, 5m read
Master your story mapping skills
Download the Free Story Mapping Playbook
- 50 handpicked hints
- 100 user story examples
- Templates for specs
- and much more advanced materials
Longer (deeper) readings & videos on user story mapping
- Story Mapping for UX Practitioners: Tying Agile & UX Together – Jeff Patton, 2011, 90m video, accessible with 30 days free trial account
- The book: User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product on Amazon and O’Reilly – Jeff Patton, 2014
- Story Mapping – David Hussman, 2013, seems to be a record from DevJam’s training, 43m
- Story Map, Slices, Customer Journeys and Other Product Design Tools – David Hussman, 2013, A presentation recorded at AgileSingapore, 1:18m
- Jeff Patton Discusses Product Development, Agile, and Story Mapping – Interview with Jeff Patton by Todd Charron, 2014, 33m video
Practical resources for agile planning with story mapping
- Hot to plan a product release with story maps by Suzanne Abate, PM Coach, Cofounder of TDF
- Expert tips for user persona design in story mapping
- Agile story mapping mistakes and how to avoid them
Top story mapping tools
- walls, whiteboard and pen
- Spreadsheet tool like Ms Excel, Google Spreadsheet, Libre Calc
- Richard Hundhausen’s list of Story Mapping Software, 2013
- CardBoard by DevJam
- Story Mapper by Carbon Five
- FeatureMap by Salience
- murally by Tactivos
- Miro
- Agile User Story Map by bauer.it consulting
- Silver Stories by Silver Stripe Software
- last but not least StoriesOnBoard by DevMads
Did you read anything valuable that’s not on the list? Please share it in the comments.
Other handy story mapping resource collections
The latest articles about user story mapping (2019)
Top 5 short articles about user story mapping (2017)
Useful resources for agile business strategy mapping and content strategy mapping (2017)
Story mapping for UX (2021)
Differences between story mapping and process mapping (2021)