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.
Project Tracking Template
Works best for:
Project Management, Visual Project Management, Planning
The Project Tracking Template is an all-inclusive solution to help you manage your projects more efficiently. This dynamic template allows you to easily organize, track, and collaborate on your projects. One of the key advantages of this template is its ability to provide enhanced visibility into project progress. By looking at the Kanban board, teams can quickly gain real-time insights into task statuses identify completed milestones, tasks in progress, and those requiring attention. This level of transparency facilitates informed decision-making and promotes accountability among team members, ensuring that everyone is aligned towards the project's successful completion.
Empathy Map Template
Works best for:
Market Research, User Experience, Mapping
Attracting new users, compelling them to try your product, and turning them into loyal customers—it all starts with understanding them. An empathy map is a tool that leads to that understanding, by giving you space to articulate everything you know about your customers, including their needs, expectations, and decision-making drivers. That way you’ll be able to challenge your assumptions and identify the gaps in your knowledge. Our template lets you easily create an empathy map divided into four key squares—what your customers Say, Think, Do, and Feel.
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.
Rose Thorn Bud Template
The Rose Thorn Bud Template offers a color-coded approach to examining data and structuring problems. The team is instructed to approach each situation thoroughly, methodically, and analytically. They are motivated to identify a positive experience (pink), a negative experience (purple), and a promising goal or insight (green). Identifying Roses, Thorns, and Buds helps in gaining a better understanding of one's challenges.
Crazy Eights Template
Works best for:
Design Thinking, Brainstorming, Ideation
Sometimes you just need to get the team’s creative juices flowing for a brainstorm—and get them thinking of as many ideas as they can, as fast as they can. Crazy Eights will do it in a hurry. Favoring quantity over quality, this sketch brainstorming exercise challenges them to come up with eight ideas in eight minutes, which leaves no time to second guess ideas. It’s perfect for early stages of development, and it’s a team favorite for being fast paced and fun.
Quick Retrospective Template
Works best for:
Education, Retrospectives, Meetings
A retrospective template empowers you to run insightful meetings, take stock of your work, and iterate effectively. The term “retrospective” has gained popularity over the more common “debriefing” and “post-mortem,” since it’s more value-neutral than the other terms. Some teams refer to these meetings as “sprint retrospectives” or “iteration retrospectives,” “agile retrospectives” or “iteration retrospectives.” Whether you are a scrum team, using the agile methodology, or doing a specific type of retrospective (e.g. a mad, sad, glad retrospective), the goals are generally the same: discovering what went well, identifying the root cause of problems you had, and finding ways to do better in the next iteration.