telling (user) stories

© Agilify Ltd. 2016

Telling (User) Stories

Paul Goddard CST, CEC

Agile Coach & Certified Scrum Trainer


Warm-up


Who is this guy anyway?

• BT (8 years)

• Nokia (1 year)

• Agilify (2008)

• Certified Scrum

Trainer(2006)

• Certified Enterprise

Coach (2011)

PaulKGoddard

(August 2015)


"A story represents a feature customers want in their

software, a story they would like to be able to tell their

friends about this great system they are using."

- Planning Extreme Programming (Beck, Fowler 2001)


https://dannorth.net/whats-in-a-story/


"Stories are data made human"

- Neil Mullarkey


The Power of Storytelling

Olfactory

Cortex

Activates

Increased

Empathy

Oxytocin

Hormone

We Ignore

Clichés

Primal

Understandin

g

Cortisol

Hormone

Source: echostories.com


In this workshop

• Simple structures for telling compelling

stories

• Tools and techniques to aid story creation

• Skills to increase empathy within an agile

team

• Enthusiasm for telling stories rather than

writing them


Story Spines


Story Spines (10 mins)

• In pairs, use one of the templates provided

to create a story based a popular book or

movie

• Then read it back to the rest of your group

• Try and guess the book or movie from the

story spine described!


The Story Mountain


Rory’s Story Cubes


The Story Mountain (15 mins)

• As a table, throw the story dice into the

centre of the table

• Break into pairs and use the story

mountain template to create a fictional

story

• Share the stories with the rest of the group

to finish


Personas

“fictional characters created to represent the

different user types that might use a site,

brand, or product in a similar way.”

• Based on user interviews

• Desribe the patterns, goals, skills and

environment

• Can develop empathy within development

teams


Persona Example

Name: Ted

Age: 43

Location: Milton Keynes

Occupation: Stock Broker

Likes: Sushi

“Top Gear”

His Job

Typical

Scenario:

Ted is on a delayed train home from

a day in the London office. He

opens his laptop onto the tray in

front of him, and opens his email.

He sees 67 unread emails but he

can’t identify which ones need

addressing before tomorrrow’s client

meeting,

Dislikes: Camping

Wasting Time

Reality TV


Types of Persona

• Focal – Primary users of the product who are its main focus. We will optimize design for them. At least one persona must be a focal persona.

• Secondary – Also use the product. We will satisfy them when we can.

• Unimportant – Low-priority users, including infrequent, unauthorized or unskilled users, as well as those who misuse the product.

• Affected – They don’t use the product themselves, but are affected by it

• Exclusionary – Someone we’re not designing for. It’s often useful to specify this to prevent nonusers from creeping back into product development discussions


Personas Part 1 (10 mins)

• In pairs, use the Lego people to help you

create a focal persona for a fictional

software product

• Use the paper template as a guide

• Draw a picture of that person in the top left

corner


A story in your own words


Polo (15 mins)

• As individuals, tell Polo’s story in your own

words

• The rest of the table listen as the audience

• Use the storyboards to help

• Add as much depth as you can

• Ask for feedback on your storytelling skills

• Rotate the storyteller round the table


Why bother?


Chief Storyteller


Swedish Story Telling (10 mins)

1. Pair up with someone

2. One of you is the storyteller, and the other is the word giver

3. The other table members will listen as the audience

4. Have the word giver give the storyteller a made up title of a story to tell, which includes your

persona as the main character

5. The storyteller begins telling the story. During the story, the word giver will call out random

words that have nothing to do with what the storyteller is talking about. For instance, if the story

is about a trip to the beach, the word giver avoids helpful worlds like “sand”, “waves”,

“surfboards”, etc..Instead you give completely disassociated words like “pudding”, “dinosaur”,

and “Sean Connery”

6. The storyteller has to instantly incorporate the random words into the story. The word giver must

wait until the word just given is incorporated into the story before calling out a new one. After a

while, the storyteller finds an ending to his/her story and then the players switch roles.

7. Rotate with a different story from a different pair on the table


Thank You!

telling (user) stories

Software