20. Start with the users
▣ Who are the core users?
▣ What are they like?
▣ What do they need?
▣ What are their pain points?
▣ What is their goal?
@francessss
21. Focus on the core journey
What does the user need to
achieve to get to their goal?
Start
Goal
@francessss
22. User tasks // Features
Activities // Epics
Sub-tasks // User stories
The User Story Map
@francessss
23. What are the steps the user takes to
reach their goal?
@francessss
37. My MVP Morning
What are all the things you do
between waking up and getting to
work?
Wake
up
Get
to
work
@francessss
38. Morning
Team One
Quick Example
Getting Clean
Shower Clean teeth Style hair
Wash
hair
Adjust
temp
Wash
body
Brush
teeth
Floss
Blow
dry
Add gel
Brush
THEN THEN
AND/OR
AND/OR
AND/OR AND/OR
AND/OR
@francessss
39. Identify tasks
What are all the things
you do between first
waking up and arriving
at work?
Silent
Brainstorm
5 minutes
@francessss
40. ▣ Silent share and de-dupe
▣ Sort into tasks
▣ Group into activities
Group & de-dupe
@francessss
41. Tell the story
Arrange the tasks and activities along
the wall telling the story of the user to
your group
@francessss
49. Test with users
▣ Get them into the process
▣ Review with them the findings
@francessss
50. Document stories
▣ Put the stories into your PM tool
▣ Recommend storiesonboard.com
□ Online, living map
□ Downloadable
□ Integrates with Jira
@francessss
51. Revisit the map
▣ Get it up on the wall in your office
▣ Use it as a review tool
@francessss
52. “For the first time I can see the shape
of the whole product in front of me”
@francessss
We’re a digital agency based in Oxford
A lot of what I talk about will be from an agency point of view - I’ll talk about working with clients and different stakeholders, but it is just as applicable to internal product teams
10.05 (10 mins)
First I like to do an icebreaker in my workshops - they seem cheesy but they are very effective!
You’ll be in 3 groups of 10 today and interacting a lot. [check in groups]
So for this one you have 1 minute to write your name on a label and draw an alarm clock
Now 5 mins to go round your table introducing yourself and your alarm clock.
Great! The reason for the alarm clock will become clear later
----- Meeting Notes (23/10/15 11:58) -----
One guy drew his baby!
10.15 (5 mins)
Aims and principles
Background, what is it and what’s it for?
Step by step guide
We’ll have a go
A couple of tips for using it IRL
Aiming for half speaking, half doing roughly
I use these principles when we do this with clients
Lots of these principles work today too
We are all users
I hope everyone will be up for actively taking part
One conversation - in each group
This is so no knowledge is lost
No devices - this is so we concentrate and helps with the last one (keep to time) but obviously I won’t be strict on this today
10.20 (10 mins)
Just before we get going - hands up if you know the principle - keep hands up if you’ve done it before
We started doing USM in early 2014
It originated with Jeff Patton and we came to it through a blog post by Winnipeg Agile
Jeff Patton released a book explaining the process in Sept 2014 which I wholly recommend
At its simplest, this is what user story mapping does.
I’m going to talk about how we use it to outline scope for product development, but it could be used for anything that has tasks, activities and stories that need to be prioritised
I can’t stress enough how valuable the exercise is for the whole team - including the client.
It uncovers misunderstandings around terms and concepts - if the whole team can’t tell the user journey at the beginning they certainly will at the end!
Everyone does every activity - so all ideas are captured
Time
2 four hour sessions over two days
Overnight break helpful to let things sink in
Lots of breaks
Space
Wall space
Off site
Don’t make it too easy to sit down - mostly want people up and walking around
Sharpies not biros - much easier to see from afar and focuses people to be more concise
Different size and coloured index cards - they mean different things
You don’t want your masterpiece to fall down over night (this happened to us!)
13.25 (10/15 mins)
Just before we get going - hands up if you know the principle - keep hands up if you’ve done it before
This is not solution design - you should be adding tasks based on user goals rather than technical solution
We’re going to prioritise based on user goals
If you try and put only the essential tasks up into version one without a goal you’ll be debating based on no clear understanding
Setting a goal gives criteria to prioritise against
The product owner is in charge of prioritisation - they have final say.
For those not familiar, The Product Owner is nominated by the client they own the vision for the product and maintain the product backlog
We let the product owner do the first pass at prioritisation uninterrupted, then review as a team
Start with Version One
We then review the prioritisation. Is it really the minimum?
Always check each task with
You may not be able to set a goal for version 3 - it may be too far away
You should get the product owner at this point to run through the backlog again
Is there anything that is never going to happen or doesn’t seem right?
By the nature of the process, you’re bound to have some tasks that you don’t need because everyone has put up all their ideas
10.30 (10 mins overall)
Jeff Patton uses this scenario in his book which I’ve extended for us today.
Rather than try and imagine a piece of software, we’re going to use our experiences to design a day - from essential through to the best day ever.
In this scenario we are the users so shouldn’t struggle to remain user centred!
Holly and I will circulate during the exercises if you have questions and to join in
Brainstorm tasks on white index cards
10 mins
Pink cards for activities
10 mins
Time for break? 10.45
----- Meeting Notes (23/10/15 11:58) -----
These are great these post-its! - can easily move them around on the map
5 mins
1 nominee from each group to tell their part
15 mins
Remember we had the activity ‘getting clean’
the task ‘clean teeth’
and now adding the user story
We write them as user stories to add clarity - and if you can’t write why the user wants to do the task they’re probably not thinking from the user’s point of view
11.00
Normally we would take time reviewing the map and checking nothing was missed.
Then sleep on it
But today we’ll press on to prioritisation
Adding in the goals
Prioritise = 10 mins
----- Meeting Notes (23/10/15 11:58) -----
Work xmas party
Let’s see what we’ve got! Our MVP day consists of…
1 person from each section to read out
For each task - can we reach the goal without it?
I hope you’ve had some interesting conversations - often the conversations that happen around the map are as valuable as the map itself - they give you great insight into the product owner and the users
14.45 (5 mins)
Jeff Patton uses this scenario in his book which I’ve extended for us today.
Rather than try and imagine a piece of software, we’re going to use our experiences to design a day - from essential through to the best day ever.
In this scenario we are the users so shouldn’t struggle to remain user centred!
Leave you with a quote from a client
It’s powerful technique.
Thank you so much
Hope it was helpful
I’d love to hear how you get on if you use it - tweet me or email me