Using names for things in your project

In a spreadsheet of 1000 user stories, it’s pretty easy for things to become blurry.

Use names to group features, label themes, releases and your products. Instead of “workflow automation across calendar and mailbox”, how about “smart-mail?”.

Once something has a name you can pick it up, hold it, give it to someone. Without that, it’s hard to know what it is we’re talking about and who’s responsible for it.

In workshops, I give each feature a nice name, then an icon and put an effort number against it. It kind of now looks like those cards we’d trade as kids.

Something with a name you can choose over something else, you can do something with it.

A blur of user stories is unmanageable. A name isn’t, and is also kind of fun.