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User Stories for Agile Teams

A User Story is a promise to talk about a need.
And every need has many solutions.

The short answer

The User Story is the hammer. The goal is the picture on the wall.

A means to an end, never a solution. Agreeing on the need, whose need it is and why it matters, is half the job. Writing more stories is not the goal, just as swinging a hammer is not.

The needA home that shows we belong together

Family photos on the wall

One big dinner table

Drawings on the fridge

Our name at the door

One need, many solutions. The order matters.

Agree on the need

Whose need, and what is true once it is met.

Agree on the solution

One of many. Chosen together, not called in.

Check it

Does the solution really meet the need?

Makes sense, right?

But …

We learned to speak in solutions

From early on, we ask for things, not for what we need.
The same request can stand for very different needs, and only asking tells them apart.

Chart Nº 04

“I want a coffee.”

Tired?Fresh air, or the coffee after all.

A break?Any reason to stand up for a moment.

Thirsty?Water would do.

Company?Five minutes with the team.

Away from the desk?Talk about the task that waits.

Same request, five needs. Each one has a different good answer.

Kinds of wrong deliveries

Five ways the cart goes before the horse

When the conversation about the need is skipped, the wrong solution is not far away.

Need invented afterwardsThe solution comes first. A need is made up to match.

Solutions called inA stakeholder names the feature. It goes straight into production.

Every need at onceFruit, half a chicken, candy and salami. All valid. No longer a good pizza.

Guessed, never agreedEveryone has a different need in mind.

Delivered, not needed“Nice feature. It just does not solve my problem.”

How wrong deliveries show

Typical indicators. Not a complete list, but the ones that show up most often.

Sign 1“Can you just quickly …”Sign 2Solutions without an agreed need or customer valueSign 3High production, low impactSign 4Everything is “urgent and important”Sign 5“We know what the user wants”Sign 6Every stakeholder’s wish is our commandSign 7User Stories have the solution written insideSign 8Stuck in revision loopsSign 9New features come in, nobody challenges the value they add

What makes a good User Story

A User Story describes a need from the view of the person who has it.
It is short on purpose: a reminder to talk, not a specification.

Anatomy of a User Story

As a customer waiting for a parcel,

WhoFor whom exactly: a customer, a user, as specific as it gets.

I want to know when it will arrive,

WhatWhat they want to be able to do. Not the how.

so that I can be at home.

WhyThe value behind it. The need itself.

The solution comes after the agreement on the need.

A solution could be:

By text messageLive on a mapAs a calendar entry

Three steps, one promise

Conversation

About the need: whose need it is, and why it matters.

Agreement

First on the need, then on one of its solutions.

Confirmation

Do the need and the chosen solution fit together? Does the solution really fulfil the need?

A means to an end

A User Story is a tool, just like a hammer is. The goal is to have the pictures on the walls, not to keep using the hammer.

The goal is not to have a User Story on every Product Backlog Item. It is a crew that has established the conversation about the need before it starts planning, agreeing on or building a solution. Every need has any number of solutions, and the crew can decide on one of them together, aligning on whether the solution does indeed fulfil the customer’s or user’s need.

Self-check: a good product?

Every User Story below is a topping. Pick the good ones.
The others land on the pizza too.

Whose need are you building for?

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