UX Prototyping
Story Mapping

Mick McQuaid

2/1/23

WEEK FOUR

Story Mapping

Cover of Jeff Patton's 2014 book, User Story Mapping, depicting a bird

A basic story map

People stand in front of a story map, a series of steps with details underneath

Giving instructions doesn’t always go well

A cake decorated with the actual instructions to decorate the cake

Here are some instructions

  • Customer: Hello, I’d like to order a cake.
  • Employee: Sure, what would you like written on it?
  • Customer: Could you write “So long, Alicia” in purple?
  • Employee: Sure.
  • Customer: And put stars around it?
  • Employee: No problem. I’ve written this up, and will hand it to my cake decorator right away. We’ll have it for you in the morning.

And here is the result

A cake decorated with the instructions instead of the result of the instructions

We need some way to get on the same page

A cartoon depicts people with different ideas converging after blackboarding

A productive conversation with supporting artifacts

A conversation where people share an idea and have notes and pictures on the wall, supporting the conversation

A basic change-the-world model

Patton's diagram of current state and outcome state

A more refined change-the-world model

Patton's refined diagram of current state and outcome state

A yet more refined change-the-world model

Patton's more refined diagram of current state and outcome state

An early story map by the author and a collaborator

A person kneels on the floor behind an enormous number of post-its, arranged in rows and columns

Flow of the early story map

Same photo as before but annotated with story flow from left to right

One branch of the early story map

Same photo as before but annotated with one story branch

Annotated early story map

Same photo as before but fully annotated

THINK - WRITE - EXPLAIN - PLACE

Another story map

A story map depicting different users at different stages

Organizing details into three product release slices

Two designers organize detail post-its into three layers corresponding to three product releases

Story maps support a conversation that builds shared understanding

  • The map is a prop, not an outcome
  • Maximize outcomes, minimize output
  • Prioritize outcomes, not features

References

Patton, Jeff. 2014. User Story Mapping. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Media.

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