“The purpose of Story Mapping is to communicate a shared understanding of the direction of the product.” -Jeff Patton
Story Mapping is an Agile development technique that allows you to define a new product or improve an existing product. This method was introduced in 2005 by Jeff Patton, and it allows you to visualize the needs of end users by telling their story through the product (on the horizontal axis, in the form of a skeleton). The end-user experience can be deepened by adding features and functionality (on the vertical axis).
How to create a Story Mapping?
- Tell the story of the product journey for end users (at the top of the map).
- Make sure the story follows a logical order, as defined by the end user.
- Break the story into logical steps in the end-to-end process.
- The entire team reviews, organizes, removes duplicates, and identifies story gaps.
- Prioritize delivery, for example by identifying the most important deliverables and those that will be delivered later.
- Keep Story Mapping alive and review it regularly as a team.
Why should you start visual Story Mapping now?
- Encourages collaboration between the development team and end users.
- Provides an overview, the component parts and a clear vision of the outcome.
- Allows prioritization from an end-user perspective (especially when combined with Moscow).
- Accelerates decision-making, quickly identifies the most important deliverables and highlights defects.
- Motivates with a visible, engaging story that the whole team can invest in.
Practical tips for visual Story Mapping:
- Draw user/customer personas to bring the customer experience to life.
- Use images as abbreviation for activities or user needs.
- Annotate the story – bring the story to life with visuals, such as depicting the end user using the product.
Story Mapping is an Agile development technique increasingly used to define a product or improve an existing product. It’s a powerful method for understanding end-user needs and getting a clear picture of the outcome.
It also helps promote collaboration between the development team and the end user, which accelerates decision-making and improves the quality of the final product.
Example application of story mapping
A company wants to create a mobile application for travelers. Using story mapping, the development team can understand the needs of travelers, such as searching for accommodation, booking transport tickets, and searching for tourist activities.
They can also visualize how users interact with the app, step by step, from their first search to booking and actual use of the accommodation, identifying friction points and possible improvements.
This allows the development team to design an application that meets end-user needs efficiently and intuitively, thereby improving user satisfaction and increasing the likelihood of product success in the market.