From Outcome Roadmaps to User Stories

Tackling the gap between desired outcomes and Agile development

From Outcome Roadmaps to User Stories

Most business and product leaders get the concept of Outcome Roadmaps and how they help connect Product Strategy to a plan to execute. However, they have difficulty shifting to this approach in practice.

One reason for this is that it is unclear how to translate a roadmap filled with outcomes into an Agile development process. After all, when code gets ultimately written, it must be guided by some definition. Right?

Note: I leverage some terminology and practices from Scrum in this article. However, concepts from this approach should not be viewed as Scrum specific.

Sprint Planning

Taking a look at the typical Spring Planning process, the team contemplates which items in the Product Backlog should be placed into the Sprint Backlog. The Product Backlog is comprised of a prioritized list of outcomes to be achieved by the team. While the Sprint Backlog contains a forecast of functionality to be built, commonly described in terms of User Stories.

How to get from Outcome Roadmap to User Stories?