The magic of User Story Maps
Map your way to product backlog clarity
User Story Mapping is a key tool in the Product Toolbox. This is a quick summary guide.
In this article:
- What is it
- Why use it
- How to use it
- When to use it
- Challenges & watch outs
- Further reading to drill deeper
1. What is User Story Mapping?
At its simplest, User Story Mapping is the process of mapping out the journey of a user as they use a product, using user stories.
Sometimes it’s referred to as User Journey Mapping or just Journey Mapping, and it’s closely related to Service Design and Service Design Mapping. These are all types of journey maps. They all use common layouts and have a similar purpose, just a slightly different perspective. User Story Mapping tends to be the version of a journey map used for agile product development.
All versions of journey maps tend to use a similar layout, with a horizontal left to right journey and a vertical breakdown of detail. The top of the map is high level, big journey phases or steps, and as we work through the process, the detail is populated in the lower levels:
