As we approach the end of 2024, it’s time to reflect on a year of exciting updates and innovations at StoriesOnBoard. This year has been all about enabling teams to work smarter, faster, and more collaboratively. Our updates can be categorized into two major areas: enhancing StoriesOnBoard’s AI capabilities and improving the story mapping experience. Here’s a detailed look at the strides we’ve made this year.
StoriesOnBoard AI: Smarter Assistance for Product Teams
2024 marked a significant leap in our AI capabilities, introducing features designed to make product management more intuitive and efficient:
- Multilingual AI Output (March 2024):
One of the key updates this year was enabling multilingual support for AI-generated outputs. Users can now set the AI to generate content in their preferred language, choosing from English, German, Spanish, French, or Chinese. This enhancement ensures that users worldwide can benefit from AI assistance tailored to their linguistic needs, whether for creating user stories, acceptance criteria, or brainstorming ideas. - Custom AI Templates (April 2024):
To provide even more customization, we introduced custom AI templates. With this feature, users can define their formats for AI-generated content, such as user stories or acceptance criteria. Teams can now standardize their workflows and ensure project consistency by aligning AI outputs with their needs.
- AI-Generated User Personas (September 2024):
Understanding your audience is key to building great products. In September, we launched a feature that allows StoriesOnBoard AI to suggest user personas based on product descriptions. This innovation empowers teams to align their story maps and priorities with their target users’ actual needs and expectations, streamlining the discovery phase. - Upgrade to GPT-4o Mini (August 2024):
We upgraded all AI functionalities to the GPT-4o mini model to ensure faster and more precise AI-generated content. This update has significantly improved the speed and accuracy of tasks like collecting user goals, brainstorming user stories, and drafting acceptance criteria.
These updates underline our commitment to making StoriesOnBoard AI an indispensable tool for modern product teams. By automating repetitive tasks and providing intelligent recommendations, our AI helps teams focus on what matters most: delivering value to their users.
Story Mapping: Smoother, Smarter Collaboration
While AI took center stage this year, we also made substantial improvements to the core story mapping experience, ensuring that teams can collaborate more effectively:
- Focus Release Mode (January 2024):
The year began by introducing Focus Release Mode, a feature simplifying backlog management. Teams can now hide unrelated cards and columns to focus on specific releases. This makes prioritizing tasks easier and maintaining a clear view of ongoing work. - Jira Integration Enhancements (February 2024):
We simplified the integration of StoriesOnBoard with Jira by introducing a new wizard within the NextGen Story Map. Users can now set up and manage integration settings directly from the story map, making synchronization between the two tools faster and more user-friendly.
- Improved Drag-and-Drop Functionality (November 2024):
November brought a major usability upgrade with enhanced drag-and-drop capabilities. Users can now move cards between hierarchy levels—such as goals, steps, or user stories—easily, provided the cards have no child dependencies. This improvement allows for quick adjustments during discovery sessions and brainstorming, promoting flexibility in structuring story maps. - Real-Time Collaboration Indicators (October 2024):
To make team collaboration more transparent, we introduced real-time collaboration indicators. Online team members’ avatars are now displayed in the top toolbar and on individual cards. When a user views or edits a card, their avatar appears on it, fostering better awareness and coordination within teams.
These updates make story mapping more dynamic, collaborative, and user-friendly. By refining core features and adding new ones, we aim to support teams in visualizing and organizing their work seamlessly.
Looking Ahead
2024 has been an awesome year of innovation for StoriesOnBoard. Our AI advancements have set a new standard for what product teams can achieve, while our story mapping improvements have made collaboration more intuitive and productive.
As we look to the future, we remain committed to empowering product teams with tools that help them deliver exceptional results. Thank you for being part of our journey this year. Here’s to more breakthroughs in 2025!