Product Management: Where do user stories come from?
Feb 14, 2022
Following the user story template is simple: As a <type user>, I want <some goal> so that <some reason>. However, as product managers, we all know it takes more than following a template to create effective user stories that deliver value to customers. Fortunately, in this article, I share a simple framework I have developed in the past decade of my technology consulting career. Applying this framework during the ideation phase of my projects has saved me from running all day marathon workshops that span over weeks or exceeding my Tim Horton's budget to keep my stakeholders awake.
Identify your 'Product Vision' and keep refining it
The product vision is the motivation behind your product.
1) Start with your organization's vision or strategic objectives then narrow it down to the product level.
For Example, Google's organization vision is “To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” Google map's product vision may be "to organize and make accessible an experience that highlights what matters most to each user who wants to find geographical information and make journeys with maximum ease". Notice how the product vision is more specific but helps achieve the overall company's vision.
Image Source found here
2) Identify your personas aka your target customers and derive a pattern of needs through discovery sessions.
I often like to keep each discovery session limited to a single category of target customers and use a Day in the Life or customer journey approach. Clients will walk me through the current steps they take to accomplish their needs in the absence of the product. By doing so, they organically speak to their pain point and after the third or fourth interview, a common overarching product goal emerges.
Stay tuned for my article on "Creating Effective Discovery Sessions Using Lean Six Sigma"
3) Consolidate your findings and tell your product's story using a User Story Map
This is where the magic happens. You can use post-it notes or a fancy tool like StoriesOnBoard to convert your interview outcomes into a high-level backlog that confirms your product vision.
There are many templates you can refer to but my favorite is from StoriesOnBoard. I have leveraged their process and added my own "tricks of the trade" to help you.
Create a User Story Map That Illustrates Your Product Vision
Steps for Creating User Story Map:
1) Convert Client Paint Points Obtained Through Discovery Sessions Into Goals
The image below depicts one of the pain points I had gathered during a discovery session. As the client, walked me through her journey of producing a product quote, she revealed some inaccuracies that causes processing delays. As we dug deeper we realized that some of the part pricing were inputted into a manual calculator by the parts department because the software they were using did not have a built-in calculator. Therefore, we derived that one of the goals is to automate the calculation of the parts pricing.
2) After Collecting the Goals, Map the Journey of Steps that Accomplish Each Goal
For example, in order to calculate the price, some of the steps can include:
- Visit the product page
- Search for parts
- Adding parts
3) Breakdown Each User Step into User Stories
Within Search for Parts, several user stories can be identified:
- Search by Part Name
- Search by Part ID
- Search by Part Category
Here is a great example from StoriesOnBoard of a user story map:
Image Source found here
And there you have it: a process that takes you from product vision creation to user story identification! Thanks for reading. Please feel free to comment below with your thoughts.
Article References
Storiesonboard.com. (2019). User Story Mapping For Beginners. [online] Available at: https://storiesonboard.com/user-story-mapping-intro.html [Accessed 13 Jan. 2019].
Malley, P. (2019). Discover the First Element of Effective Roadmaps: Product Vision Statements. [online] OpenClassrooms.Com. Available at: https://openclassrooms.com/en/courses/4544601-build-a-product-roadmap/4964121-discover-the-first-element-of-effective-roadmaps-product-vision-statements [Accessed 13 Jan. 2019].
