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User Story Map Tool
Lay a release out along the user's journey, cut it into slices a user can walk end to end, and find the gaps users would hit on their first day.
This tool also runs as a stage in a playbook, which takes you through several tools in order:
- Prioritize product features Stage 5 of 5: in what order do users get it? Start at stage 1
Not following the playbook?
Which step of the user's journey does each feature support?
For each feature, write the step the user is taking when they need it, in a few words: "send the invoice", "chase late payers". Use the same words for features that belong to the same step. Then choose its release.
Musts to release 1, Shoulds and Coulds to release 2, ideas waiting on a test to Later. Only empty ones.
Add a feature or a piece of work
Split a big feature: a basic first piece in release 1, the rest later.
When does each release ship? (optional)
Your map never leaves your browser
Steps and cards stay on your computer and in your progress file. To write the diagnosis, only the number of cards in each release and where the gaps are go to our server. How it works
Put the steps in the order a user takes them
Move each step up or down until they read as the user's journey, start to finish. Merge two that mean the same thing.
Is there a step the user takes that no feature here covers? Add it, so the map can show whether a release leaves it empty. Tick "Already works today" if the product handles it well enough now.
The map so far
The release as a story map
Activities run across the top, in the order a user does them. Read left to right for the journey, top to bottom for the order.
What each release lets a user do
Save your progress
Download your progress file to continue from this point any time, on any computer: choose it under "Coming back?" at the start of the tool. Each new file includes everything so far, including the earlier stages when they are connected, so keep the latest one. Your work stays in this browser only until you close it.
Not saved yet.
Take your results with you
A PDF of the map, what each release lets a user do, and the diagnosis.
About the tool
Why it exists
A release users can walk from start to finish
A user story map lays out what the user does, step by step, as a row of activities across the top. Under each activity sit the pieces of work that support it, most necessary at the top. Lines across the map cut it into releases.
The first slice should let a user walk the whole journey, even if every step is basic. A release that perfects one step and leaves the next one missing gives users nothing they can use. This tool works on its own, and as stage 5 of our playbook for prioritizing product features, where it starts from the release scoped in stage 4. For the method, see our guide to user story mapping.
The method
How the tool works
Steps from the work. For each feature you write the step of the user's journey it supports, and its release. Features with the same words share a step. In the playbook, stage 4's Musts, Shoulds and Coulds come in as cards, along with ideas waiting on a test; you can split one into pieces, so a basic version ships first. A first guess at the release is offered for stage 4's items; the step is always yours to write.
The journey. Then you put the steps in the order a user takes them, up to eight, merge any that mean the same thing, and add steps no feature covers. A step that already works well enough today can be ticked, so a release doesn't need new work there.
The check. A release is walkable when every step has a card in it or in an earlier release, or already works today. The tool marks the gaps, a Must that isn't in release 1, and stage 4 items not yet on the map.
What leaves your computer. Steps and cards stay in your browser and your progress file. To write the diagnosis, the page sends our server only the number of cards in each release and where the gaps are, and the server keeps nothing.