user-story-mapping skill

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.

Input

Works best with: The product or user workflow being mapped. Also useful: The primary user, the end-to-end narrative as you understand it, existing backlog items to place, and release goals.

Anything supplied with the invocation itself — text after the skill name, a pasted context dump, or an appended ARGUMENTS: line — counts as answers already given. Use it and skip whatever it covers; don't re-ask.

Arriving empty-handed? That works too. The skill asks whose journey you're mapping and what they're trying to get done, then builds backbone → tasks → slices.

Example invocation: Story map for our expense-reporting flow, from receipt capture to reimbursement, with an MVP slice for the pilot.

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)

Story Map Structure

Segment → Persona → Narrative (User's goal)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Activity 1] → [Activity 2] → [Activity 3] → [Activity 4] → [Activity 5]
     ↓              ↓              ↓              ↓              ↓
  [Step 1.1]     [Step 2.1]     [Step 3.1]     [Step 4.1]     [Step 5.1]
  [Step 1.2]     [Step 2.2]     [Step 3.2]     [Step 4.2]     [Step 5.2]
  [Step 1.3]     [Step 2.3]     [Step 3.3]     [Step 4.3]     [Step 5.3]
     ↓              ↓              ↓              ↓              ↓
  [Task 1.1.1]   [Task 2.1.1]   [Task 3.1.1]   [Task 4.1.1]   [Task 5.1.1]
  [Task 1.1.2]   [Task 2.1.2]   [Task 3.1.2]   [Task 4.1.2]   [Task 5.1.2]
  [Task 1.1.3]   [Task 2.1.3]   [Task 3.1.3]   [Task 4.1.3]   [Task 5.1.3]
  ...            ...            ...            ...            ...

Why This Works

• User-centric: Organizes work around user goals, not engineering modules
• Shared understanding: Product, design, engineering all see the same journey
• Prioritization clarity: Top tasks = MVP, lower tasks = future iterations
• Gap identification: Missing steps or tasks become obvious
• Release planning: Draw horizontal "release lines" to define scope

Anti-Patterns (What This Is NOT)

• Not a Gantt chart: This isn't project management—it's user journey visualization
• Not a feature list: Activities aren't features—they're user behaviors
• Not static: Story maps evolve as you learn more about users

When to Use This

• Kicking off a new product or major feature
• Aligning stakeholders on user workflow
• Prioritizing backlog based on user needs
• Identifying MVP vs. future releases
• Onboarding new team members to the product vision

When NOT to Use This

• For trivial features (don't map what you already understand)
• When user workflows are constantly changing (map stabilizes workflows)
• As a replacement for user stories (the map informs stories, doesn't replace them)

Application

Step 1: Define the Context

Use template.md for the full fill-in structure.

Segment

Who are you building for?

### Segment:
- [Specify the target segment, e.g., "Small business owners using DIY accounting software"]

Quality checks:

• Specific: Not "users" but "enterprise IT admins" or "freelance designers"

Persona

Provide details about the persona within this segment (reference skills/proto-persona/SKILL.md).

### Persona:
- [Describe the persona: demographics, behaviors, pains, goals]

Example:

• "Sarah, 35-year-old freelance graphic designer, manages 5-10 client projects at once, struggles with invoicing and payment tracking, wants to spend less time on admin and more time designing"

Step 2: Define the Narrative

What is the user trying to accomplish? Frame this as a Jobs-to-be-Done statement (reference skills/jobs-to-be-done/SKILL.md).

### Narrative:
- [Concise narrative of the persona's objective, e.g., "Complete a client project from kickoff to final payment"]

Quality checks:

• Outcome-focused: Not "use the product" but "deliver a client project on time and get paid"
• One sentence: If it takes more than one sentence, the scope may be too broad

Step 3: Identify Activities (Backbone)

List 3-5 high-level activities the persona engages in to fulfill the narrative. These form the backbone of your map.

### Activities:
1. [Activity 1, e.g., "Negotiate project scope and pricing"]
2. [Activity 2, e.g., "Execute design work"]
3. [Activity 3, e.g., "Deliver final assets to client"]
4. [Activity 4, e.g., "Send invoice and receive payment"]
5. [Activity 5, optional]

Quality checks:

• Sequential: Activities happen in order (left-to-right)
• User actions: Describe what the user does, not what the product provides
• 3-5 activities: Too few = oversimplified, too many = overwhelming

Step 4: Break Activities into Steps

For each activity, list 3-5 steps that detail how the activity is carried out.

### Steps:

**For Activity 1: [Activity Name]**
- Step 1: [Detail step 1, e.g., "Review client brief"]
- Step 2: [Detail step 2, e.g., "Draft project proposal"]
- Step 3: [Detail step 3, e.g., "Negotiate timeline and budget"]
- Step 4: [Optional step 4]
- Step 5: [Optional step 5]

**For Activity 2: [Activity Name]**
- Step 1: [Detail step 1]
- Step 2: [Detail step 2]
...

Quality checks:

• Actionable: Each step is something the user does
• Observable: You could watch someone perform this step
• Logical sequence: Steps follow a natural order

Step 5: Break Steps into Tasks

For each step, list 5-7 tasks that must be completed.

### Tasks:

**For Activity 1, Step 1: [Step Name]**
- Task 1: [Detail task 1, e.g., "Read client brief document"]
- Task 2: [Detail task 2, e.g., "Identify key deliverables"]
- Task 3: [Detail task 3, e.g., "Note budget constraints"]
- Task 4: [Detail task 4, e.g., "Clarify timeline expectations"]
- Task 5: [Detail task 5, e.g., "List open questions for client"]
- Task 6: [Optional task 6]
- Task 7: [Optional task 7]

**For Activity 1, Step 2: [Step Name]**
- Task 1: [Detail task 1]
...

Quality checks:

• Granular: Tasks are small, specific actions
• User-facing or behind-the-scenes: Include both (e.g., "Send email" and "Receive confirmation")
• Prioritizable: You'll prioritize tasks vertically (top = essential, bottom = nice-to-have)

Step 6: Prioritize Vertically

Arrange tasks top-to-bottom by priority: