user-story-mapping

SKILL.md

Hierarchical user journey visualization that breaks activities into steps and tasks, organized left-to-right as narrative flow.

Structures work across two axes: horizontal timeline of user activities (backbone, steps, tasks) and vertical priority levels (MVP to future releases)

Organizes around user goals and behaviors rather than features or engineering modules, enabling shared understanding across product, design, and engineering teams

Includes segment, persona, and narrative context to frame the journey, with quality checks and anti-patterns to avoid common pitfalls like mapping features instead of user actions

Supports release planning through horizontal "release lines" that demarcate MVP scope from future iterations, and gap identification to surface missing steps or user pain points

Purpose

Visualize the user journey by creating a hierarchical map that breaks down high-level activities into steps and tasks, organized left-to-right as a narrative flow. Use this to build shared understanding across product, design, and engineering, prioritize features based on user workflows, and identify gaps or opportunities in the user experience.

This is not a backlog—it's a strategic artifact that shows how users accomplish their goals, which then informs what to build.

Key Concepts

The Jeff Patton Story Mapping Framework

Invented by Jeff Patton, story mapping organizes work into a 2D structure:

Horizontal axis (left-to-right): User journey over time

Backbone: High-level activities the user performs

Steps: Specific actions within each activity

Tasks: Detailed work required to complete each step

Vertical axis (top-to-bottom): Priority and releases

Top rows: Essential tasks (MVP / Release 1)

Lower rows: Nice-to-have tasks (Future releases)