The Fundamentals of User Stories and Product Backlogs
A practical guide for product managers and product owners in an increasingly scrum world
Recently, I convinced several high performers from other areas of my company to join the Product Management team. We needed people who understood our product well to help prioritize the next generation of features. There was one big catch: They weren’t product managers and didn’t know anything about the scrum methodology or being a product owner. What follows is the guide I created for my new team to teach the basics of user stories, backlogs, and more.
When a product succeeds, it’s because everyone on the team did what they needed to do. But, when a product fails, it’s the product manager’s fault.
— Marty Cagan, Inspired
This quote from the quintessential product management book, Inspired, by Marty Cagan, is a really concise summary of the product manager dichotomy. Writing quality user stories organized into epics and building a solid backlog are the best ways to set your team up for successful software launches while avoiding catastrophic failures.
