Abstract: Story maps are great tools for visualizing story relationships and promoting richer product design discussions. They are also great tools for fostering collaboration across skills and roles. UX people mapping with developers and testers can share skills around user centered thinking and other design concepts. If you would like to get quickly into story mapping, example driven mapping is simple, powerful and quick to learn.
You need to show up ready to work. You’ll quickly see that driving a mapping session with examples is a great way to get started but also a great tool for connecting people with different perspectives. Examples being another form of speaking in testable language draws in testers and more quickly surface deeper challenges that arise from testing that cuts across stories (regression testing). Examples also challenge us to keep a user context that spans stories which is of interest to UX people. Last, but not least, example provide a vehicle for the cross cutting thinking needed to create an architectural road map that is product focused and frame customer journeys that replace getting things done iteratively with customer experience validations.
If you are sick of backlogs that are merely to do list, or you want to cast a wider net for your product thinking, show up with one or more examples to explore. If you are not sure what I mean by example, think about someone trying to do something specific with your product (or system) and you’ll be on your way.
Learning Outcomes: - - Introduction to story mapping
- - Using examples to create maps adds context and helps write fewer of the wrong stories
- - Examples cut across stories and connect regression testing that also spans stories / iterations
- - Example help infuse user context into story mapping
- - Examples ask for value up front, promoting sort of a test driven product value
- - Attendees will leave with maps they can take back to their team / company
