User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product

A must read for technical, ux, business and product specialists!
This book is a gem. Full of details about how to discover and build digital products right.Still relevant and updated today!

Story Mapping as a Simple Frame for Better Product Development
“It was at that moment that I learned that the word ‘requirements’ actually means ‘shut up’.”This is one of a great number of simple Jeff quotations that speak volumes and make this book one of the most value-packed, practical books about software product development that I know of. I believe that the book is a must-read for any practitioner of agile/lean software development methods, and potentially anyone involved in software product development.A great thing that separates Jeff’s writing from others is his use of storytelling – he chooses simple tales from his real-world experience that many people can relate to. Jeff’s mastery of storytelling and vast experience give him the ability to get fairly complex ideas across in a way that makes them seem so simple and practical, I feel like I’ve always known them.I could go on about Jeff, but enough about him…back to the content of his book.I wouldn’t have thought that a book focused on story mapping – one single practice amongst the myriad of available practices that sprung (in one way or another) from the agile community – would be one of the 3 core books I (as an experienced agile/lean coach/consultant for over 15 years) recommend to my clients seeking to become more lean or agile (whether or not they are introducing or using agile or lean process specifics). This book is exactly that, because the book is about much more than story mapping, though it uses this simple practice as a frame to:• explore some of the core problems with software product development over the past decades• establish a more powerful language of product management planning, strategy, and execution with “Impact, Outcome, and Output”, opportunity thinking, and product discovery teams• really identify better ways to deliver product incrementally and iteratively• collaborate and discover together – product development teams and customers -• introduce lean thinking as we “minimize output, maximize outcome and impact”• incorporate design thinking into product discovery• correct many of the frighteningly-common misinterpretations of agile methodsAn example of the most important core problems in software development is that of “requirements”. The quote above summarizes the essence of this problem – that traditional software development has sought to reduce a complex, dynamic, and continuously evolving concept (learning and understanding what users will need in their products) to a simple set of written instructions, or “requirements”. After reading this book, anyone may feel empowered to discard the word “requirements” completely and replace it with a simple yet powerful approach to “achieving shared understanding”. Making this fundamental, yet simple change to how we approach product development has a host of benefits – from higher quality, to faster delivery, to better estimation, to better products and more successful, happier customers.And this is just one of many powerful learnings from the book…

Bien recu

Jeff’s writing is entertaining. If there is one criticism than that the last few chapters could have been omitted. Thus I thought about giving only 4 stars. But the rest of the book is so exciting and helpful that this book deserves five stars.One could think that explaining what a User Story Map is and how to develop one could be done within a few minutes. Well, that’s true. But in his book Jeff goes some steps further. He also describes the why, the how, next steps, and gives some very helpful agile hints.Jeff starts with some very enlightening background information about user stories, shared understanding, collaboration, and much more. Then he explains some basics about User Story Mapping with regard on how to deal with a flat product backlog. In the following chapters he describes how the method User Story Mapping can be used to solve different purposes. After that he provides a step-by-step guidance using an everyday example to explain how to create a Story Map – an example he uses himself in training workshops. In the following chapters Jeff gives some very helpful hints about storytelling, that there is more than just user stories, and how to break down big stories. He closes with some chapters how the Story Map will be used further on in the project and how it evolves over time.A valuable add-on are the impressive visualizations throughout the book, especially the ones of some basic agile concepts, like shared understanding, workshops instead of meetings, iterative and incremental development – I love those pictures.I read some short articles in the internet about User Story Mapping beforehand. But this book was an eye-opener and prepared me to use the method myself. After reading the book I used the concept of User Story Mapping in my own projects to create product roadmaps. I was able to apply the method quite simply. The challenge using the concept of User Story Mapping is not the method itself but the moderation – you need good moderation skills to keep the workshop and discussions up and running.I recommend this book to everyone who wants to learn what User Story Mapping is about and how it can be used. Excellent book!