The Five Ws: A Fool Proof Model for Writing User Stories
“Successful people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answers.”
— Tony Robbins
As a product manager, I have seen the frustration of customers when the product does not match their expectations. Often, there is a mismatch between the customer’s aspirations from the product and the actual product provided to them. In my extensive experience of working on various products, I realized that the mismatch between customer expectations and engineer’s execution stems from the lack of a clear definition of product requirements during the planning phase of the product life cycle. To this end, I began to work on a framework to bridge the missing link to guide the engineering team during the product development phase
Over the years, I adopted a simple framework: the 5W’S model, that I have used on various projects to guide the engineers from the initial planning to the beta testing of the product.
The 5W’s model is the result of years of insights that I gained from working through various problems during product development. The model ensures that the final product will meet market requirements and the customer’s needs. It does so by constructing user stories with the answers to a set of questions which identify details of the proposed product. The 5Ws model can be applied to gather product requirements both at the product level and at the granular level, ie. single feature of product. I demonstrate the application of the 5W model at a granular level with the user story for a single feature product.
1. Why is this feature needed in the market?
The answer to the question “Why is this feature needed?” provides a good understanding of the purpose of this feature.
It helps the product manager articulate what the user is trying to achieve with this feature. This will set the basis for defining the details of the feature and how the feature should function along with the rest of the product.
2. Who are the people who will use this feature?
The users of the feature are the customers who will be using the product. Writing the user story for a feature calls for a clear understanding of the personas of the users who are going to use the feature of the product.
Understanding the user personas involves factors like the demographics and the motivations with which users will engage with this feature.
3. What are the basic actions this feature should perform?
What are the basic actions that the feature should perform for the users (WHO) to satisfy a specific need (WHY) provides the answer to this question. This step involves articulating the distinct steps that the feature should provide to meet the user’s requirements.
4. Where is this feature going to be used by the users?
The answers to WHERE helps in understanding the ecosystem of the user personas. A thorough understanding of the user’s ecosystem and WHERE will they be using the product and its features gives more depth to the feature definition which will conform to the user’s needs.
5. When are the people going to use this feature and then what should happen?
The answers to WHEN is the feature going to be used defines the trigger which will activate the feature and the sequence of actions that should happen till the user achieves the purpose (WHY) of the feature.
A recommended loop for the WHEN and THEN questions is:
WHEN the feature is triggered THEN step 1:
WHEN step 1 happens THEN step 2….
ELSE…..step 3
This question and answer loop builds the acceptance criteria for a user story.
Below is a picture which displays the 5Ws in a hierarchical model.
Sample User Story Template:
Here is a sample user story template with all the 5Ws in place
As a WHO, I want to do WHAT WHERE so I can achieve WHY
Acceptance Criteria:
WHEN satisfies WHY, WHO, WHAT, and WHERE THEN ship it
ELSE don’t ship it
Summary
Bringing it all together, a diligent usage of the 5Ws model explained above ensures that the user stories and product requirements in its entirety can be built in such a way that the market need is met.
This is a simple yet comprehensive tool that will product managers build a strong communication of the market needs to the engineering team. I will provide an example for writing a user story using this model, in a following article.
Have a need to fill in Product Management roles and define product requirements? Please visit my website: www.pmconsultsvcs.com for more details or contact me at info@pmconsultsvcs.com.
