Presentation: Tweet"Getting real value out of your planning efforts with Story Mapping"
Few tools and artifacts survive more than a few years in my toolbox before I replace them with something I have found to be more effective. Story Mapping is however the exception and for the last 5-6 years it has been my weapon of choice when trying to find the most valuable things to do first and align multiple stakeholders towards a common vision. Originally inspired by Jeff Patton’s 2008 blog “The new backlog is a map”, my approach has of course changed considerably since I first started using it, but still much of the core remains the same.
In this talk I will present my experiences with Story Mapping. The cross-breed version I am using right know and why I think it is such a powerful tool to help you better understand what you are trying to achieve, prioritize your business needs and not the least get to market faster with much better alignment between the stakeholders involved. Though primarily used in the Agile world I have found it at least as effective in the world of more traditional stage gate governance models, since no matter the method it forces you to identify what is truly important to your users and the importance of alignment and prioritization.
No matter if you are a fan of traditional waterfall stage gate approaches or a true agilist this session should provide some explicit tools and practices that will make you think twice before you start planning your next project or product release.