The People, Process, & Progress Podcast - How to Craft Impactful User Stories for Improved Outcomes | S4Ep4

Episode Date: December 20, 2024

Today, on Framework Friday episode one, How to Craft Impactful User Stories for Improved Outcomes, we're diving into a powerful tool for defining "what done looks like": user stories.People:Users, customers, and ourselvesProcess:Crafting user storiesUsing the MoSCoW prioritization methodProgress:Defining "what done looks like." more effectivelyGodspeed y'all,Kevin

Hey everybody, welcome to this Framework Friday edition of the People Process Progress Podcast. I'm your host, Kevin Pinnell, and today we're talking about crafting impactful user stories for defined outcomes. But first, please silence your cell phones, hold all sidebar conversations to a minimum, and let's get started with the People Process Progress Podcast. One, two, three. User stories are a simple and effective way to break down complex problems, projects into smaller, more manageable tasks. They're often used and come from the Agile framework methodology, but they don't have to be just used in Agile or IT or some other iterative place, these user stories help teams, help individuals focus on the needs of the user, which is why we're doing all this work. And they ensure that the final product ensures a strong word, but they increase the likelihood that the final product delivers real value. So let's get right into what a well-crafted user story looks like in a few different fields. The basics of a user story is,

we say as a insert user role, I want to insert goal, right? We like smart goals or smart objectives so that, and what's the benefit? And it's really that simple. The hard part is how do I craft this? How do I work with the user, the customer to craft their story the right way? So I'm going to give you a public safety, a healthcare, and a carpentry idea as inspired by my oldest son who's doing some carpentry work. So in public safety, I'll say as a police captain, I want to plan with fire EMS and 911 dispatch so that our combined response is safer and more efficient. I, a police captain, want to plan with my partners, Fire EMS 911, so that we're safer and more efficient. Pretty straightforward.

And that's part of the key, which I'll touch on here later. Now, what about healthcare? Let's say as a nurse, I want to save time on documentation so that I can spend more time with patients. We all love that, right? We love it when we have doctors that pay attention to us, nurses that aren't understaffed and have too many patients and that's not on them. So this user story helps define how do we do that? And there are many systems in place. I'm in healthcare IT that help do that.

And carpentry, as a carpenter, I wanna gather accurate customer requirements efficiently so that I build the product customers truly desire. So as you can see, it's someone saying who they are in this position, what we want to do, and the benefit we want to provide, typically someone else. But you can also write your own user story. I, as a 50-year-old man, want to exercise regularly and lift weights so that I am stronger than most people or strong enough to carry my family member. Actually, that is one of my user stories, the carry family member thing.

So you can use this for yourself. Largely, it's used for external customers, other people, et cetera. So what are some tips that I'll provide in addition to what we just talked about? So one, involve your users. It's pretty obvious. This is a story for the users. Often, I have found in the history of my planning things that sometimes teams that plan things do it, and then they go to the user. That's not a good way to do it, right? Talk to them, understand their needs, their pain points. This will help you create really valuable ones. And you have that template ready, right? With really typed out as a blank, I want to blank, so that blank and talk through that with them and really get to the

bottom of it. You can take that from often their business case or what they're trying to do. The second thing is keep it simple, right? Those examples I read are simple, yet they're pretty, you know what's happening, you know who it is, you know what they want to do, you know the outcome they want. And that's really it. But it's from the user's perspective, it's not full of technical jargon or garbage words or filler fancy words. Third is prioritize these. And this is where we get into some of that agile methodology, which we call a backlog. But you don't have to call it that, you can just call it a list or whatever. And it's interesting, I looked this up on Gemini, the AI, and then another website and some prioritization strategies. And there's so many, you know, saving money, this kind of stuff.

But I like this one. And it's Moscow, it's big M, little O, big S, big C, little O, big W, which sounds like a weird way to spell it. But what it stands for is must have, should have, could have, won't have this time, right? So must haves for the worlds that I've lived in have to do with safety, regulatory things, compliance, right? Things we should have. Like we know these processes need improved, so we should probably do it. We could have, but then we have to think about we could have it, but is it too much work?

Do we have enough people? Does it cost too much? Is it a negative? All those kinds of things, right? And then won't have, meaning about we could have it, but is it too much work? Do we have enough people? Does it cost too much? Is it a negative? All those kind of things, right? And then won't have, meaning we don't have time, we don't have the money, we don't want to do it. There's a whole bunch of different factors. So it's a cool thing, cool acronym. Moscow really must, should, could, won't.

So that's a good way to prioritize things or you can keep it simple and just do that. The fourth thing is refine them, right? So our stories, just like us as humans change over time, so our story should. So if at some point my story changes as that carpenter where it's, I don't necessarily need to focus on gathering them, the requirements as efficiently. I need to gather them more accurately

or easily for the customer or something like that, right? So you can refine that to what fits your business need or your personal need, right? So let's say I hit a point where I'm strong, I hit my bench press max. Now I want to change my user story to squats or to cardio, to VO2 max, to longevity, to grip, whatever it is. Change your outcome, right, and how you get there. So using these user stories, right, and getting us to what done looks like, that's where they get us to. So what has done really look like for this project for me, for my customers, it really, really helps get us there in a more efficient, more accurate, just more straightforward

manner, we build better products and services, really meet the needs. So the goal of these stories is really create a shared understanding. So everybody's on the same page, our teams involved involved, the user's in the process, and we're more successful for ourselves and for our clients. Thank you all for helping make this podcast successful, for listening to this episode, Crafting Impactful User Stories for Defined Outcomes, which will be the first of many Framework Fridays. We'll really break down something from the larger episode in the week. You can get more, read more, go to peopleprocessprogress.com, leave me a comment, and read the write-ups that I include with these stories, with these podcast episodes. Follow me on X and Instagram at Penel KG. Visit the People Process Progress YouTube channel for fitness, cold plunge, jujitsu lessons, learn videos, ideas, cool music mixes, if you will. And remember that hope ignites us, plans will guide us,

and action will transform us and all those around us. Godspeed, y'all.