5 steps to run a User Story Mapping Workshop- Experience Sharing
User Story Mapping is one of many ways to map a journey.
In this article, I’ll share my insights and experiences on running a successful User Story Mapping workshop, breaking down the process into five key steps.
0. Be well prepared! :)
We are all aware of what being prepared means to us but when it comes to facilitation day we may have some reservations. Being ready means more than just having materials; it’s about ensuring your team is primed for a collaborative and productive session.
Running a User Story Mapping workshop is a pivotal moment in any product development journey. Organizing user’s stories in a visual format. It’s a technique that keeps the team focused on the user experience and results in better dialogue and conversation.
User story mapping is not about creating a set of written requirements, but a way of thinking. Telling stories through words and pictures builds understanding and helps solve problems for organizations, customers, and users.
It is a technique used to tell “user stories” through words and pictures, with the goal of building a common understanding. The idea is NOT to gather a set of written requirements, but rather help teams build consensus, a common understanding of user problems, to ultimately help build a better product.
- Establish a common GOAL for the workshop:
For a productive workshop, align your team with a common goal.
- Mission, vision, strategy, goals of the product clear to everyone.
- Create a story map with the activities we would like to do this year (2024 why not:))
- Prioritize and create a release plan.
- Update the backlog.
- Split the epics from release to user stories.
2. Develop a clear agenda (an agenda that I brought for my team below):
- Introduction of the process of story mapping
- Morning Routine mapping as a warm-up
- Reviewing of the product mission, vision, strategy and goals
- Identifying User Personas (choosing the important ones at the end)
- Creating User Journey (from first touchpoint to the end)
- Generating User Stories ( for each step of the journey)
- Prioritizing User Stories based on business value and user impact
- Identifying Dependencies and Risks
Timeboxing the workshop over two days or several half-days helps maintain focus and productivity.
3. Don’t skip warm-up :)
After giving a brief intro about user story mapping, run the warm-up activity called “Morning Routine”. It helps to familiarize the team with the User Story Mapping tool and create a collaborative atmosphere. Ask them what they did in the morning till they start working. Each yellow sticky should contain an activity. I created the whiteboard as below.
It’s like a magic. Taking something people intuitively understand. Some differences matter, some differences don’t. Going through the process creates familiarity with the tool, which then helps you use the tool to explore something unfamiliar.
→ Collaboratively work together to cluster stories: Fit everyone’s routine in to see the differences. Exploring which sequences matter, and which don’t. Any order doesn’t matter. Some sequences don’t matter.
4. Choosing right user personas
Identifying user personas is a crucial step in developing a successful product. Try using lightweight persona sketches to describe your users. As a team, come up with potential user personas then determine the most significant and influential user segments for your product. Prioritize personas based on their potential impact on the success of your product.
5. Create User Journey (from first touchpoint to the end)
Visualize the user journey, such as a timeline or flowchart, to illustrate the user’s journey.
This visualization helps the team and stakeholders understand the user’s experience from start to finish.
In the book, Jeff Patton emphasizes the importance of understanding the user’s journey through the product. The user journey represents the various steps or interactions a user has with the product to achieve their goals. Creating a user journey is closely tied to the user stories that describe specific functionality or features within the product.
User story mapping helps the team see all the user stories organized by how a user experiences them, and then the team is more easily able to see any missing scope.
→ Identify key touchpoints where the user interacts with the product and potential pain points where users might face challenges.
→ Prioritize user stories within the journey based on their importance and impact on the overall goal.
→ Refine the user journey as you gather more insights or when the product evolves.
Remember that the user journey is a dynamic aspect of user story mapping that evolves as the team learns more about the users and the product. It’s a collaborative process that involves ongoing iteration and refinement.
By following these five steps, you’ll not only run a successful User Story Mapping workshop but also foster a shared understanding of your product and enhance collaboration among your team members. Good luck with that!
Feel free to share your thoughts in the comment below :)
Resources:
User Story Mapping by Jeff Patton: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product, by Jeff Patton details story-mapping techniques and explains why they are important for teams that create products.
