Story mapping basics

Story mapping basics

Story mapping basics

Learn user story mapping step by step

Learn user story mapping step by step

Learn user story mapping
step by step

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What is story mapping?

Story mapping is to design a user-centric product, and easily create a visual backlog that everybody understands.

Story mapping is a simple way to create a product plan by breaking down the concept of a product idea.

Story mapping is to map requirements before starting a software development project.

How to make a story map
step by step?

An office whiteboard and sticky notes can be used for story mapping, but an online story mapping tool facilitates remote collaboration, allows the process to be continued at any time, and can be shared with external or internal decision-makers.

User story mapping is an agile product design method. It is the most effective way to create a user-centric product. By organizing user goals, activities and user stories, you can create an intuitive, visual backlog that everyone can understand. This is a user story map.

User story mapping is the most effective way to design a user-centric product. By organizing user goals, activities, and user stories, you create a visual backlog that everybody understands.

User story mapping is the most effective way to design a user-centric product. By organizing user goals, activities, and user stories, you can create a visual backlog that everybody understands.

Create user personas

Describe the main users of your product or service: find out their goals, pain points, typical skills, and personality traits.

Story mapping step 1: create user personas
Story mapping step 1: create user personas
story mapping process step 2, discover project goals
story mapping process step 2, discover project goals

Discover project goals

The first step is to focus on your potential customers. Summarize which goals the users achieve by using the product. Write each goal on an index card or post it, and arrange them into the logical order.

For example on an accommodation website, the goals can be: “find hotels in Florida”, “choose the best hotel, near to the beach”, “book a room for a week”

Map the user journey

After collecting the goals, retell the user journey. Identify the steps the user takes to fulfill her/his goal. Avoid mistakes by dutifully follow the narrative flow. Place the sticky notes into the second line, step-by-step. If you discover missing steps, just put it into the journey.

Sticky notes are a clever way to create small documents, but an online story mapping tool gives you more flexibility.

user story mapping process, step 3: map the user journey
user story mapping process, step 3: map the user journey
 Story card from StoriesOnBoard
 Story card from StoriesOnBoard

Write user stories

The next step is to find solutions for achieving the user steps. Through this process, you create "user stories". Initially, you can use the following template:

As a user , I want so that step.

Using the accommodation example, user stories are: “As a user, I want to find hotels for my holiday, so I start browsing the discounts and advertisements” or “As a user, I want to find hotels for the next week, so I start searching by date.” Brainstorm with your team to collect the most possible solutions and put all user stories under the related steps.

Prioritize your backlog

If the team was successful, the story map should be full of great ideas! User stories have different priority levels. Identify the most common behavior or the basic solution to the problem.

Organize user stories by priority and place the most important card at the top of the column. Discussing priorities with the customer is crucial, so be sure to stay connected with your partners.

backlog prioritization example
backlog prioritization example
 MVP slicing example
 MVP slicing example

Slice out the MVP

First, specify the smallest working part of the product, the Minimum Viable Product. It's always hard to choose the fewest tasks for a marketable product.

Try to complete the user journey by beginning with the most common or most easy-to-develop tasks. Just focus on completing at least one user journey. After that, try to organize the rest of the backlog into tangible pieces by drawing horizontal lines between cards.

If you add estimations to user stories, you can plan and schedule the whole development process release by release. This is one of the most important pieces of information, so that your customer or executive needs to calculate estimated delivery time and costs.

How to do story mapping?

how to do story mapping illustration
how to do story mapping illustration
how to do story mapping illustration
User Story Mapping

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simplfied story map example
simplfied story map example
simplfied story map example
Story map examples

An overview of the different types of story maps.

Free story mapping ebook

50 handpicked hints on

  • Discovering project goals

  • Mapping the user journey

  • Prioritizing user stories

Bonus materials included

  • 100 user story map examples

  • Templates for specs

  • Useful articles

Free story mapping ebook

50 handpicked hints on

  • Discovering project goals

  • Mapping the user journey

  • Prioritizing user stories

Bonus materials included

  • 100 user story map examples

  • Templates for specs

  • Useful articles

Free story mapping ebook

50 handpicked hints on

  • Discovering project goals

  • Mapping the user journey

  • Prioritizing user stories

Bonus materials included

  • 100 user story map examples

  • Templates for specs

  • Useful articles

Story Mapping Tool

Save up to 20% with annual billing

Billed Annually

Billed monthly

BASIC

First user $19, every other

$9

/ user / month

BASIC plan includes:

NEW! AI Assistance

Unlimited story maps

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User personas

Release management

Brainstorming mode

Assignees

Kanban Board

Status reports

Bulk edit story cards

Slack integration

Chat Support

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First user $26, every other

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10 Products

Global Persona

Custom workflows

Excel import/export

Private link sharing

Shared personas

Two-way integrations

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Azure DevOps and TFS

Trello

Github

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First user $45, every other

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/ user / month

Everything in STANDARD +

Unlimited products

SSO with SAML 2.0

Email based access control

IP based access control

Security audit logging

Custom password policy

Advanced Jira security

DevOps impersonation

Jira impersonation

Priority support

Story Mapping Tool

Save up to 20% with annual billing

Billed Annually

Billed monthly

BASIC

First user $19, every other

$9

/ user / month

BASIC plan includes:

NEW! AI Assistance

Unlimited story maps

Unlimited story Cards

Unlimited guests For Free

User personas

Release management

Brainstorming mode

Assignees

Kanban Board

Status reports

Bulk edit story cards

Slack integration

Chat Support

ISO 27001 & SOC 2 compliant infrastructure

STANDARD

First user $26, every other

$12

/ user / month

Everything in BASIC +

10 Products

Global Persona

Custom workflows

Excel import/export

Private link sharing

Shared personas

Two-way integrations

Jira Cloud and Server

Azure DevOps and TFS

Trello

Github

Pivotal Tracker

PRO

First user $45, every other

$15

/ user / month

Everything in STANDARD +

Unlimited products

SSO with SAML 2.0

Email based access control

IP based access control

Security audit logging

Custom password policy

Advanced Jira security

DevOps impersonation

Jira impersonation

Priority support

Story Mapping Tool

Save up to 20% with annual billing

Billed Annually

Billed monthly

BASIC

First user $19, every other

$9

/ user / month

BASIC plan includes:

NEW! AI Assistance

Unlimited story maps

Unlimited story Cards

Unlimited guests For Free

User personas

Release management

Brainstorming mode

Assignees

Kanban Board

Status reports

Bulk edit story cards

Slack integration

Chat Support

ISO 27001 & SOC 2 compliant infrastructure

STANDARD

First user $26, every other

$12

/ user / month

Everything in BASIC +

10 Products

Global Persona

Custom workflows

Excel import/export

Private link sharing

Shared personas

Two-way integrations

Jira Cloud and Server

Azure DevOps and TFS

Trello

Github

Pivotal Tracker

PRO

First user $45, every other

$15

/ user / month

Everything in STANDARD +

Unlimited products

SSO with SAML 2.0

Email based access control

IP based access control

Security audit logging

Custom password policy

Advanced Jira security

DevOps impersonation

Jira impersonation

Priority support

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story mapping

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Start story mapping today

Save time, and unlock the full potential
of your software projects.

Start story mapping today

Save time, and unlock the full potential of your software projects.