User Story Map Template
Visualize your consumer journey and improve your product with user story mapping. Bring a user-centric approach to your business and build products people will love.
About the User Story Map Template
First popularized by Jeff Patton in 2005, user story mapping is an agile way to manage product backlogs.
User story mapping is a framework that product teams use for release planning. The user story map template helps teams stay focused on business value and release features that customers care about.
The map consists of user stories written in the following way:
As a < type of user >, I want < some goal > so that < some outcome >.
Here is an example:
As a creative professional, I want to organize my schedule, so that I have more free time.
This framework helps teams get a shared understanding of what needs to be done to satisfy customers' needs.
How to use Miro's user story map template
Miro’s user story mapping template allows you to manage stories collaboratively online. Here’s how to create your team canvas and put it to work:
1. Add the user story map template to a Miro board
Get started by clicking “Use This Template.” The template is set up with blank cards to add user activities, tasks, and stories.
2. Identify your user persona, then describe step-by-step user tasks
Group user tasks by goals or activities of the user. Expand a card to write more text and quickly format it. Then, add valuable details by filling in due dates, assignees, tags, and links.
3. Prioritize the stories for a sprint
To edit the structure of your map, drag and drop individual cards or groups of cards, and the template will adjust automatically.
Insert sections for upcoming releases and versions. Note that user story mapping is different from feature planning.
4. Get ready for a sprint
If you work with Jira, paste an issue URL or convert cards to Jira issues right from the board. The cards will automatically sync, and can easily be moved around to ensure the template is always up-to-date for each sprint.
5. Collaborate with your team
Invite your team to contribute and work together in real-time or asynchronously. Refer to the user story map over time as you create new product iterations, update it based on new data or findings as users try the product.
When to use the user story map template
Miro's user story mapping template provides a flexible approach to product development. The template allows Product Managers and Scrum Masters to create and map user stories, connect Jira cards, and foster collaboration within the team.
There are many benefits to using the user story mapping template, including:
Identify each step in the customer journey
One of the significant benefits of user story mapping is that it walks you through each customer touchpoint and gives you a holistic view of the customer experience.
For designers and product developers, it’s easy to lose track of the backlog, so having an overview of the customer experience from early on is critical to shape a better product.
Visualize & manage product backlog
The user story mapping template also helps teams map out specific tasks that need to be completed dynamically and visually. You can identify large projects, break them into constituent tasks, and assign them to specific team members, all with the overarching customer-centric framework driving the process.
Brainstorm & prioritize tasks
Plotting out the user flow through your product via a user story map helps you identify gaps in the journey. Your team can see the map from end-to-end and brainstorm tasks and projects to fill in gaps and prioritize these tasks collaboratively.
How do you use user story maps in Agile?
Agile is about getting your product backlog organized and prioritizing delivery. User story mapping helps to prioritize the backlog. The product teams know what matters to users and what to work on first through the user story map. It’s important to note that user story mapping is about user stories, not features.
Get started with this template right now.
Backlog Refinement with Jira Template
Works best for:
Agile, Backlog Refinement
The Backlog Refinement with Jira template in Miro improves collaboration among team members. It provides a visual and interactive space for teams to review, prioritize, and clarify upcoming work items together in real time. This collaborative approach ensures alignment on priorities and details, leading to a more organized and efficient workflow. The seamless integration with Jira automatically syncs all changes, reducing the need for manual updates and keeping both platforms up-to-date.
Change Canvas
Works best for:
Kanban Boards, Agile MEthodology, Agile Workflows
Change Canvas template empowers teams to manage and visualize change initiatives effectively. By mapping out stakeholders, goals, and actions, teams can ensure alignment and transparency throughout the change process. This template fosters collaboration and communication, enabling teams to navigate change successfully and achieve desired outcomes while minimizing disruption and resistance.
Design Research Template
Works best for:
UX Design, Design Thinking, Desk Research
A design research map is a grid framework showing the relationship between two key intersections in research methodologies: mindset and approach. Design research maps encourage your team or clients to develop new business strategies using generative design thinking. Originally designed by academic Liz Sanders, the framework is meant to resolve confusion or overlap between research and design methods. Whether your team is in problem-solving or problem space definition mode, using a research design template can help you consider the collective value of many unrelated practices.
SAFe Program Board
Works best for:
Agile Methodology, Diagrams, Agile Workflows
Many organizations use the Agile model, but even companies that don’t rigorously adhere to all Agile standards have adopted Agile tools and methods like Program Increment (PI) Planning. Even if you’re not participating in a formal PI session, a program board can be a great way to establish communication across teams and stakeholders, align development objectives with business goals, clarify dependencies, and foster cross-functional collaboration. The board provides much-needed structure to planning sessions, yet is adaptable enough to accommodate brainstorming and alignment meetings.
20/80 Process Diagram - EOS Compatible
Works best for:
Diagramming
The 20/80 Process Diagram - EOS® Compatible template is a visual tool for mapping out processes and workflows aligned with the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS®) methodology. It provides a structured framework for identifying core processes and key activities that drive business outcomes. This template enables organizations to streamline operations, clarify roles and responsibilities, and enhance accountability. By promoting alignment with EOS® principles, the 20/80 Process Diagram empowers teams to achieve organizational excellence and drive sustainable growth.
Official 5-Day Design Sprint
Works best for:
Design, Desk Research, Sprint Planning
The goal of a Design Sprint is to build and test a prototype in just five days. You'll take a small team, clear the schedule for a week, and rapidly progress from problem to tested solution using a proven step-by-step checklist. Steph Cruchon of Design Sprint created this template for Miro in collaboration with design sprint gurus at Google. This Design Sprint template is designed specifically for remote sprints so you can run productive and efficient sprints with colleagues around the world.