User story mapping basics

User story mapping basics

User story mapping basics

Learn user story mapping step by step

Learn user story mapping step by step

Learn user story mapping
step by step

What is user story mapping?

User story mapping is a design method that creates a visual backlog that eveybody understands. It’s also a simple way to understand the user needs and create user-centric product.

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.

How to make a user story map
step by step?

User story mapping sessions can be organized on an office whiteboard using sticky notes to build the user journey and collect user stories. Let’s see how it goes in 5 simple steps.

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.

Step 1: Define 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

Step 2: 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”

Step 3: 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

Step 4: 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.

Step 5: 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

Step 6: 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?

User Story Writing With AI

Learn user story mapping step by step with AI assistance.

Learn more ->

simplfied story map example
simplfied story map example
simplfied story map example
Mastering user story writing

The basic techniques and tools to write excellent user stories.

how to do story mapping workshop illustration
how to do story mapping workshop illustration
how to do story mapping workshop illustration
How to Prepare for a Story Mapping Workshop?

Organizing and facilitating a story-mapping workshop can be a challenging task.

Story Mapping With AI

Learn user story generation and create a story map outline with AI assistance.

Learn more ->

user story templates vs ai
user story templates vs ai
user story templates vs ai
User Story Templates vs. AI

Choosing the right approach can impact the success of your project

Free story mapping ebook

50 handpicked hints on

  • Discovering project goals

  • Mapping the user journey

  • Prioritizing user stories

NEW! AI 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

NEW! AI 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

NEW! AI 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:

Unlimited story maps

Unlimited story Cards

Unlimited guests For Free

50k AI tokens - Reset Each Month

User personas

Release management

Brainstorming mode

Assignees

Kanban Board

Status reports

Bulk edit story cards

Slack integration

Support & Business Continuity

Chat Support

ISO 27001 & SOC 2 compliant infrastructure

STANDARD

First user $26, every other

$12

/ user / month

Everything in BASIC +

10 Products

100k AI Tokens - Reset Each Month

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

150k AI Tokens - Reset Each Month

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:

Unlimited story maps

Unlimited story Cards

Unlimited guests For Free

50k AI tokens - Reset Each Month

User personas

Release management

Brainstorming mode

Assignees

Kanban Board

Status reports

Bulk edit story cards

Slack integration

Support & Business Continuity

Chat Support

ISO 27001 & SOC 2 compliant infrastructure

STANDARD

First user $26, every other

$12

/ user / month

Everything in BASIC +

10 Products

100k AI Tokens - Reset Each Month

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

150k AI Tokens - Reset Each Month

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:

Unlimited story maps

Unlimited story Cards

Unlimited guests For Free

50k AI tokens - Reset Each Month

User personas

Release management

Brainstorming mode

Assignees

Kanban Board

Status reports

Bulk edit story cards

Slack integration

Support & Business Continuity

Chat Support

ISO 27001 & SOC 2 compliant infrastructure

STANDARD

First user $26, every other

$12

/ user / month

Everything in BASIC +

10 Products

100k AI Tokens - Reset Each Month

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

150k AI Tokens - Reset Each Month

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

Unleash the power of
user story mapping

StoriesOnBoard transforms your team’s collaborative workflow.
No more sticky notes, just a seamless planning process at your fingertips.

98.000

teams

160.000

story maps

200.000

satisfied users

Story mapping FAQ

Story mapping
FAQ

What is user story mapping

Story mapping is a collaborative and visual technique in which agile teams work together to plan new products or new product features.

How do you conduct a user story mapping session?

A story mapping session is typically a workshop where all Agile team members contribute to the creation of a story map by creating and discussing the user stories in the map and can see the general direction of feature development in the near future.

What does a story map consist of?

The story map consists of the backbone of the product, user activities, user tasks, user stories and releases, represented in a two-dimensional visual format.

Who created story mapping? What is the history of user story mapping?

Jeff Patton started using story mapping as a concept that complements the traditional backlog of user stories, providing a visual overview of the product in development through a simple two-dimensional structure.

What is the story mapping process?

The user story mapping process usually consists of the following steps:

1. Discovering project goals

2. User persona creation

3. User journey mapping

4. Coming up with solutions

5. Prioritizing

6. Slicing out the MVP and the release structure


What is a user story workshop?

The user stories workshop is the same as the story mapping session, where all members of the agile team contribute to the development of the story map, the prioritization of stories, and the discussion of the detailed functionality of each user story. The user story workshop also gives the agile teams the opportunity to clarify doubts and resolve conflicting views.

Why is story mapping important?

Mapping the story is important because it is extremely useful in providing a visual and two-dimensional picture of the full range of product features while allowing team members to see which features are being worked on in which release.

How do you make a physical story map?

To physically create the history map, start by drawing a horizontal line on a whiteboard or large piece of paper, on which you first write the most important user goals/activities from left to right.


What is the user story in Agile?

A user story in Agile is an elementary piece of a feature or product requirement that development teams can efficiently prioritize and estimate.

How to write a good user story?

A good user story is easy to read, written from the user's perspective, with a clear purpose and benefits, and clear acceptance criteria.

What are the acceptance criteria for a user story?

User story acceptance criteria describe what exactly qualifies or marks a user story as successfully implemented. In turn, it is the testing criteria that will ultimately result in the acceptance (or failure) of the implemented user story by the end users.

What can story mapping be used for?

The story map is used in conjunction with traditional agile development tools and as a tool to increase their effectiveness.


A traditional backlog is a linear tool that contains linearly defined epics, user stories that are difficult to create, especially as the product evolves or becomes more complex.


Story mapping is very effective because it is visual and gives all stakeholders an easy way to understand the big picture as quickly as possible.

Who writes the user stories?

The user story is written collaboratively by the agile team as it is developed to serve the needs of the end users, with different agile roles such as Product Manager, Product Owner, development teams, QA teams, and Scrum Master contributing in their own way to complete the story.

Who should attend a story mapping session?

Typically, a story mapping session is attended by all agile teams or roles, including but not limited to end users, Product Managers, Product Owners, Business Analysts, Architects, Developers, QA teams, Design teams, Project Managers or Scrum Masters.

What is the user persona on the story map?

User personas are fictional and generalised characters that represent the target user group of the product or solution being built. They share common characteristics/patterns/beliefs. Typically associated with an image of a representative persona. For example, the target user of a given product is a working professional who is in a certain age range, has a certain salary range, and has a certain hobby.

What are releases?

Releases are pieces of functionality, user stories that end users can use at the end of the release or at the end of the release timeline.


The process of slicing the backlog into releases is an iterative activity, where the prioritized user stories from the backlog are put into releases. It also takes into account dependencies and other limits between user stories.

How to brainstorm user stories?

The brainstorming of user stories can be carried out using the following best practice techniques, such as raising ideas, ranking ideas and then flagging the most useful ideas for further reflection.


Why is prioritization important when working with user stories on the story map?

Prioritization is key when working with the user stories in the story map, as it helps stakeholders reach a consensus on which requirements are more valuable and feasible than others.


What is the purpose of creating a product backbone?

The goal of creating the backbone of the product is to design the core features or user activities of the product being built in such a way that it represents the customer experience/journey of the product on the horizontal axis.

How to convert a story map into a conventional product backlog?

Typically, the history map can be converted into a traditional product list by integrating the right tools such as Jira, Trello, Azure DevOps.


Such integration supports the mapping of user activities and epics to the epics of the traditional product map, while user stories are mapped to the corresponding user activities/epics.

What is the MVP release?

The MVP (Minimum Viable Product) or MVP release is a combination of user stories from different epics that give customers a marketable slice of product minimalism. MVP also facilitates the collection of early feedback from users.

What is the difference between epics and user stories?

In agile software development, epics are a summary of a feature of the product. User stories are often part of the epic and describe specific user actions that need to happen to achieve a larger goal.

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.

Start story mapping today

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