Story maps and personas an intro

Mapping your Minimal Viable Product through StoryMaps

Mark KilbyJuly 22, 2014

Agile Orlando & Lean Startup Practitioners of Central Florida

Mark Kilby

Agile Coach

Mark@markkilby.com

@mkilby– twitter

http://markkilby.com

Linkedin.com/in/mkilby

AgileOrlando.com(founder)

Lean Coffee Orlando(founder)

speaker

Software since 1990; Coaching since 2003

3 QUESTIONS FOR YOU…

#1 HOW MANY ARE INVOLVED IN A STARTUP

TODAY?

(OR AN AGILE PROJECT)?

3 QUESTIONS FOR YOU…

#2 HOW MANY OF YOU HAVE IDENTIFIED

YOUR KEY USERS?

Does your product look like this to potential customers?

How do we

identify the

right users?

How do we

identify the

right users?

How do we identify the right features?

How do we

identify the

right users?

How do we identify the right features?

How do we determine what is the absolute minimum to build so we

can release the product and generate revenue?

Our Goal

• Deep Dive– Personas and Storymaps

• As time permits:– Sizing Storymaps to answer “when”– Real Options: another way to prioritize

Story Mapping

• An approach to organize and prioritize user stories (?)

• A tool to help in defining a roadmap• A way to define your Minimum Viable Product

(MVP) (?) for the next release

How does story mapping help?

• Provides visibility of the workflow across the system

• Shows how different users/roles will be served• Points out relationships between stories• Helps to spotlight missing stories• Provides a prioritization mechanism• Release planning is improved by focusing on

valuable slices

Story Mapping - Preparation

• Understand the users/roles using the system

• The major activities performed by the users of the system

• Arrange activities in the order they are performed

• Define stories required to complete activities

Understand Users and Roles

As a user, I want XYZ so that I can (get some value)

Goal 1

Goal 2

Goal 3

Epic – big user story

Role: Admin

Understand Users and Roles

As a user, I want XYZ so that I can (get some value)

Goal 1

Goal 2

Goal 3

Epic – big user story

Role: Admin

Somewhat

better

Pragmatic Personas

Personas – fictional character representing the market segment we want to address

Helps us empathize with our users

Even better …

Why should I care? EMPATHY

From http://copywritercollective.com/howtobeacopywriter/abcs-of-copywriting-empathy/

EXAMPLE?

Story Mapping - Preparation

• Understand the users/roles using the system

• The major activities performed by the users of the system

• Arrange activities in the order they are performed

• Define stories required to complete activities

Back to …

Story Maps visualize the scope

Activity 1

User’s Sequence in Time

Activity 2 Activity 3 Activity 4

User Story

Functional activities the user

performs, while using the product

Capabilities needed in

the product, so

the user can

perform the

activities

• Story Maps organize product capabilities by user activity• Story Maps communicate the “big picture” to delivery teams

Courtesy of LeadingAgile.com

Story Maps visualize the scope

Activity 1

User Story

WHAT YOUR USERS NEED

(not what they ask

ELEMENTS YOUR TEAM CAN BUILD

• Story Maps organize product capabilities by user activity• Story Maps communicate the “big picture” to delivery teams

EXAMPLE?

Story Maps work with roles/personas

Activity 1

User Story

• Walk each persona through the user sequence• Discover gaps in the user stories & how they support the

user activities

Reg. User

Power User

Minimum Marketable Feature (MMF)

Activity 1

User Story

These two stories represent the MMF for Activity 1. The others would be nice, but this is the minimum.

Adapted from LeadingAgile.com

Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

Activity 1

User Story

The MVP might consist of these two MMFs, which are needed for the product to be “just barely sufficient”

MMF a MMF b

Activity 1

User Story

The MVP (with these two MMFs) will address some of the needs of Guest and Reg. User and a little of Power User -> “just barely sufficient”?

Will they buy it?

MMF a MMF b

Reg. User

Power User

AND THEN YOUR STAKEHOLDERS ASK …

WHEN CAN WE HAVE IT?

THEN YOU ASK YOUR TEAM…

WHEN CAN WE HAVE IT?

Story Map ExampleGoals or

Product Areas

Specific Actions

Higher PriorityUser Stories

(next release)

Lower PriorityUser Stories

(future releases)

From http://winnipegagilist.blogspot.com/2012/03/how-to-create-user-story-map.html

Team Estimation Game(aka “Bucketing”)

• Create a “deck of cards” from your user stories • Have the team pick a “simple story” first

(more later)

Created by:Steve Bockman

Bucketed Relative Sizing

Team Estimation Game(aka “Bucketing”)

• Create a “deck of cards” from your user stories • Have the team pick a “simple story” first• (taking turns) Pick next card and place it relative to

the first based on size/complexity. Explain.• For each move thereafter,

– Pick the next card and place it, – Move a card that’s already been placed, or– Pass.– Explain your move (1-2 sentences) and let the team discuss.

• Continue until there are no more moves to be made.• Collect into stacks if not already stacked.• Assign points (sizes/estimates) to each stack.

Created by:Steve Bockman

Bucketed Relative Sizing

1 3 5 8 13

Activity 1

User Story

If our team does can complete “10 points” of work every 2 weeks, when can we be done with the MVP?

MMF a MMF b

Activity 1

User Story

If our team does can complete “10 points” of work every 2 weeks, when can we be done with the MVP? -> (18+16)/10 ~ 4 iterations or 2 months

MMF a MMF b

Summary: Preparing Story Maps

1. Gather 3-5 people who understand purpose of the product(should include product marketing, product management, engineering and any key subject matter experts)

2. Brainstorm the user tasks (1 task per sticky note)

3. Group similar tasks together & label each group (these are “user activities”)

4. Arrange groups/activities left-to-right in order users would go through system

5. Walk the map to see what’s missing. Can either walk real users through the map or “walk a persona/role” through using a user scenario/journey

6. Generate user stories under the tasks

7. Move stories up and down in map. Highest priority go near top

Summary: Using Story Maps to plan WHEN your MVP can ship

1. Draw lines through your map showing “releases” of MMFs and MVPs(Optional: show which roles/personas will be served)

2. With key engineers, size stories in next release to get a sense of risk or where slicing may be needed

3. Determine velocity of development team

4. Optional: Use Real Options to determine what might need to be pushed to next release or brought in earlier

What are Real Options?(briefly)

• 3 Concepts:– Options have Value– Options expire– Never commit early unless you know why

(commit at “last responsible moment”)

• How do you measure the Last Responsible Moment (LRM)?

– LRM reached when 0 = Cost of Delay – Benefit of Delay

For more info(Personas)

• Jeff Patton - http://www.stickyminds.com/article/pragmatic-personas

• Roman Pichler’ Template - http://www.romanpichler.com/blog/persona-template-for-agile-product-management/

• UX perspective on Personas: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2064754/Roles-vs.-Personas-vs.-Cognitive-Styles

• David Hussman’s videos on Pragmatic Personas (1hr) – https://vimeo.com/70214000

For more info(Storymaps)

• Jeff Patton’s original writings on storymaps (2009-2010)• Jeff Patton’s upcoming book on Storymapping• David Hussman’s videos on Storymaps• Storymapping session at Agile Open Florida (June 27, 2014)

• http://winnipegagilist.blogspot.com/2012/03/how-to-create-user-story-map.html

• http://www.cio.com/article/750968/How_Story_Mapping_Complements_Agile_Development?page=1&taxonomyId=3040

• http://blog.caplin.com/2012/02/07/issues-with-story-maps-story-maps-part-2/

For more info(Real Options & Planning Game)

• Real Options– http://www.leadingagile.com/2008/07/understanding-real-options/

– http://availagility.co.uk/2010/04/06/defining-the-last-responsible-moment/

• Team Estimation Game– http

://www.agilelearninglabs.com/2012/05/how-to-play-the-team-estimation-game/

Mark Kilby

Agile Coach

Mark@markkilby.com

@mkilby– twitter

Linkedin.com/in/mkilby

http://markkilby.com

http://about.me/mckilby

Learn more at AgileOrlando.com

THANKS!Questions?

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Morning Lean Coffee Q&A bi-weekly to dive deeper on topics you want to learn.

Story maps and personas an intro

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