User Story Mapping by Basia Coulter

This was a lightning talk presented on August, 28 2017 as part of the “Tools n Techniques” series. The event theme was Discovery and featured 3 talks and a lab from local UX practitioners on their favorite UX tool or technique used to streamline their process, communicate more effectively, and help understand our users better during the Discovery process. For more details on the event, check out the recap:

Basia Coulter from Caktus Group presented a talk + lab on user story mapping, a visualization technique popularized by Jeff Patton, that allows product teams to map out an entire application with respect to the different user roles the application must support.

Each month, we'll be hosting Tools n Technique evenings based around focused and broad themes (e.g., the Sketch app, user research, etc.) If you're in the Triangle (Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, North Carolina) area, come join us (http://www.meetup.com/exploreUX-raleigh)! We're also looking for people to present and share their favorite UX tool or technique.

If you can't join us in person, join us online. We'll be posting event recaps as well as additional articles on tools and techniques on our Medium publication (http://www.medium.com/exploreux). We’d love to hear your thoughts and let us know if you’d like to contribute an article on your favorite tool or technique!

Transcript

1. User Story Mapping Basia Coulter, UX Designer at Caktus Group @BasiaCoulter | in/basiacoulter
2. Meet Caktus Group And we’re an agile shop….
3. Getting a Project Started with Discovery 1. What is the problem we’re trying to solve? 2. For whom are we solving this problem? 3. How are we going to solve the problem?
4. Getting a Project Started with Discovery 1. What is the problem we’re trying to solve? ◦ What are we doing? ◦ Why are we doing this work? ◦ What are the business goals? ◦ What are the project goals? ◦ What constraints and risks do we need to be aware of? ◦ How will we know the project has been successful? (See blog post, Product Discovery Part 1: Getting Started on www.caktusgroup.com)
5. Getting a Project Started with Discovery 2. For whom are we solving this problem? ◦ Who are the users? ◦ Where do users come from? ◦ What are their goals? ◦ What outcomes do they seek? ◦ What pain points do they have? ◦ What user roles does the application have to support? (See post, Product Discovery Part 1: Getting Started on www.caktusgroup.com)
6. Getting a Project Started with Discovery 3. How are we going to solve the problem? ◦ What user flows, tasks, subtasks, and alternative actions do we need to support within the application. (See blog post, From User Story Mapping to High Level Release Plan on www.caktusgroup.com)
7. User Story Mapping Image source: User Story Mapping, Jeff Patton
8. The Backbone (Narrative Flow)
9. Examples of high level user tasks Manage an order Process payment Define number of receipts Divide order between patrons Add tip to separate receipts Waiter Patron(s)
10. User Tasks, Subtasks, Alternative Actions
11. Examples of high level user tasks Manage an order Process payment Define number of receipts Divide order between patrons Add tip to separate receipts Waiter Patron(s) Create order Edit order Add / delete order items Charge credit card Refund charge Specify number of patrons Edit number of patrons Divide the receipt by number of patrons View total per patron Divide the receipt by order items Based on the receipt value divided by # patrons Based on itemized order values
12. Defining the Most Valuable Feature Set
13. Examples of high level user tasks Manage an order Process payment Define number of receipts Divide order between patrons Add tip to separate receipts Waiter Patron(s) Create order Edit order Charge credit card Refund charge Specify number of patrons Edit number of patrons Divide the receipt by number of patrons View total per patron Divide the receipt by order items Based on the receipt value divided by # patrons Based on itemized order values Add / delete order items
14. What’s the Point? Image source: User Story Mapping by Jeff Patton
15. User Story Map for Real
16. Contexts for Applying User Story Mapping • As part of the discovery workshop • On its own, as an internal team activity • To map out an entire application • To map out a subset of features
17. Writing User Stories • Front of the card: As a [user type], I want 
 to [feature, functionality], so that [benefit] • Back of the card: Acceptance criteria
18. Estimating User Stories • Story points! Modified Fibonacci sequence
19. High Level Release Plan Release plan by PO, Daryl Riethof
20. “Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” General Dwight David Eisenhower
21. What Works User story mapping • Understand what the required tasks are, how they break down, how they relate to each other, and which ones are higher priority. • See the entirety of the project in one physical representation. It makes it easy to keep discussions at the right level (rather than too high-level or too detailed).
 Writing user stories • Share knowledge about the project across team members. • Get the first iteration of a backlog done in 1-2 hrs. Release plan • See project milestones at the onset of the project.
22. Lessons Learned User story mapping • Need to spend more time during the mapping activity updating the stories in the map as the group's understanding of the project evolves. 
 Writing user stories • Need to get together with the entire dev team, including people who did not attend the workshop, and talk through the workshop outcomes prior to writing user stories. Release plan • Need to strengthen the understanding of a release plan as a transient tool rather than a commitment to doing certain things in certain sprints.
23. THANK YOU Basia Coulter @BasiaCoulter in/basiacoulter