Product Development
User Story Mapping
Lay out the user journey as the backbone, put stories underneath and slice releases across.
- Time: 60 to 120 min
- With: Product, design and engineering together
- You get: A story map and a first release slice
How to use this worksheet
- Name the activities a user goes through from left to right: this is the backbone. Rename the column headers.
- Under each activity, write the stories that help the user do it. Use one line per story and start with "- ".
- Order stories from most essential at the top to nice-to-have at the bottom, then cut horizontal slices into releases: MVP first.
- Add more releases (rows) when you need them. Check that the MVP slice is complete enough to be used end to end.
Story map
Columns are activities, rows are releases. One story per line.
Prompts
Ask yourself
- Can a user complete the whole journey in the MVP slice?
- Which story would you cut if you had half the time?
Stories per release
Before you finish
- The backbone describes what users do, not features.
- The MVP slice runs across all activities.
- Every story is small enough for one iteration.
About story mapping
Jeff Patton introduced story mapping in his book "User Story Mapping". It arranges stories along the user journey so the team sees the whole product instead of a flat backlog.
The horizontal slices turn the map into a release plan: each slice should deliver something usable end to end.
Recommended reading
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- User Story MappingJeff Patton
The book that defined story mapping — building shared understanding of the whole product.
- User Stories AppliedMike Cohn
A practical guide to writing and managing user stories for agile delivery.