Enhancing Feedback Loops with User Stories
The goal is to create user stories that lead to behavior changes. When evaluating each item, stakeholders should ask two questions: Is it mission-critical for the business to function? Does it provide a market differentiating advantage, like attracting customers or providing a competitive edge? For user stories, the value statement (“To…”) is more beneficial for purpose alignment than the deliverable (“I want…”). Prioritize delivering a user interface on a simple architecture first, without any back-end components that could slow delivery. Iterate on the interface until you’re sure it delivers value, and then replace the back end with as few changes to the UI as possible. If you need to change the UI, consider multi-versioning to ensure uninterrupted usage. Starting a new project or rewriting an old one may require a partial underlying infrastructure to provide value.
The backlog should be organized hierarchically, with significant items broken down into smaller ones only when necessary. This reduces the number of items while providing a big-picture view. When creating a map, focus on the problem to be solved for the milestone level, consider who can impact the outcome for the actors level, and think about the behavior changes to be influenced for the impacts level. Impacts should be described as behavior changes rather than product features and treated as options rather than commitments.
To create effective story maps:
- Focus on user activities rather than software solutions.
- Consider activities such as buying a book, booking a venue, or attending a concert while avoiding lower-level activities like posting to social media. The backbone of the story map should be identified as the first step or the horizontal axis.
- Break down activities into high-level steps that do not depend on a particular technology or solution.
