Talking Code

How to Do User Story Mapping

Episode Summary

Jeff Patton, author of User Story Mapping, teaches us how to map user stories by focusing on the user's journey to an outcome. He shares his opinion on the notorious "MVP" and how he helped Gary Levitt build his MVP with Mad Mimi.

Episode Notes

Jeff Patton, author of User Story Mapping, teaches us how to map user stories by focusing on the user's journey to an outcome. He shares his opinion on the notorious "MVP" and how he helped Gary Levitt build his MVP with Mad Mimi.

Here's what to listen for:

• 00:49 What is a user story?
• 02:07 What does a user story look like?
• 02:57 When people refer to user stories do they mean the documentation around the conversations they’ve had?
• 03:44 Why is just having stories written down in a document not sufficient?
• 05:47 What is a good user story template?
• 09:17 What was the motivation for writing User Story Mapping?
• 11:44 Is the concept of a “map” about the narrative of a user’s journey?
• 17:36 How did Jeff help Gary from Mad Mimi get clarity on what he was doing?
• 20:54 Why were things taking longer for Gary when he came to you?
• 23:31 What does Jeff’s road mapping process look like?
• 26:47 What was it about Jeff and Gary’s conversation that took him from having a giant backlog to organizing user stories?
• 29:36 What is your definition of a “minimum viable product” (MVP)?
• 34:41 Why do you want to build something “less than minimal” before building the MVP?
• 39:34 Why is so difficult to put a time estimate on when software will be done?
• 44:53 What is meant by “scope doesn’t creep, understanding grows”?