A minimal viable product is also the smallestthing you could create or do to prove or dis‐prove an assumption.

The minimum viable solution is the smallestsolution release that successfully achieves itsdesired outcomes.

The minimum viable product is the smallestproduct release that successfully achieves itsdesired outcomes.

who your customers and users are, and what they need to accomplish.What’s minimum to them?

When we use the term viable when talking about a living organism, itmeans that an organism can survive in the world on its own withoutdying. And when we talk about software, we mean the same thing.

This refers to thelonger-term objective of this product, normally 2–10 years out.It is how we as a product organization intend to deliver on thecompany’s mission.

This is the smallest possible actual product that meets the needs ofa specific market of customers.

The purpose of product delivery is to build and deliver theseproduction-quality technology products, something you can sell andrun a business on.

A prototype isnot something that’s ready for prime time and certainly not some-thing your company would try to sell and stand behind. But they’reimmensely useful, as they’re all about learning fast and cheap.

Discovery is very much about the intense collaboration of productmanagement, user experience design, and engineering. In discovery,we are tackling the various risks before we write even one line ofproduction software.The purpose of product discovery is to quickly separate the goodideas from the bad. The output of product discovery is a validatedproduct backlog.

This certainly includes the functionality—the features.But it also includes the technology that enables this functionality.It also includes the user experience design that presents thisfunctionality.And it includes how we monetize this functionality.It includes how we attract and acquire users and customers.And it can also include offline experiences as well that are essentialto delivering the product’s value.

Epistemic value is generated by a sense of curiosity or adesire to learn. This type of value emphasizes personalgrowth and the acquisition of knowledge. The KhanAcademy, for example, provides online courses that allowpeople to learn at their own pace.•Conditional value is a benefit that depends on specificsituations or contexts. For instance, the perceived value ofpumpkins and monster costumes increases conditionallyjust before Halloween in the US each year.

Functional value relates to the ability to perform a utilitar-ian purpose. Performance and reliability are key consider-ations with this type of value.•Social value refers to the interactions among people,emphasizing lifestyle and social awareness. For instance,Skype in the Classroom is a program aimed at inspiringstudents with prominent speakers who lecture fromremote locations.•Emotional value emphasizes the feelings or affectiveresponses a person has while interacting with an orga-nization’s offerings. For example, personal data securityservices tap into the fear of identity theft or data loss.

Alignment diagrams communicate an aggregate story of typicalbehavior and emotions across a similar group of people. Theway that story is told differs from diagram to diagram. A cus-tomer journey map is usefulfor improving the customerexperience by showing abreadth of touchpoints acrosstime; a service blueprintdetails the steps in a serviceepisode and is well suited to optimizing the service provisionprocess; an experience map shows a broader context to helpidentify how offerings integrate; and a mental model diagramreveals unmet needs that can serve as the impetus for com-pletely new solutions.

Concept stories operate like this (see Figure 3.1):• Exposition: The current state of things• Inciting Incident/Problem: The problem your product will solve• Rising Action: The product name and a brief description or marketcategory• Crisis: The competitionFIGURE 3.1How a concept story is structured and operates—this is how people thinkabout and see value in your product.• Climax/Resolution: The solution and value proposition orcompetitive advantage• Falling Action: The takeaway• End: The goal met

At the very least, good concept stories get people excitedabout your product. As a requirement, the stories live withinyour product and how you shape it. At their best, they getpeople talking about your product. Concept stories help youachieve three goals:• Communicate a shared vision• Align toward that shared vision• Innovate and prioritize against that shared vision

Narrative arcs are comprised ofthe following elements:• Exposition• Inciting incident or problem• Rising action

the pace of its action increases over time until ithits a high point, and the story winds down before it ends. When thestory doesn’t wind down and instead ends while the action is still risingor at a peak, the story is called a cliffhanger.

every story has a structure, similar to what you see in Figure 2.2.It’s typically called the narrative arc or story arc, which is a chronologicalseries of events.

every story has a beginning, middle, and end—with the middletypically taking up a longer period of time than the beginning or end, asshown in

Humans are sense-making creatures, and story is our most criticalsense-making tool. As humans, we’ve evolved and innovated story overmillennia as a way to understand our world.

Story, and itsunderlying architecture, powers the ability to understand whathappened in the past, what happens in the moment, or what will happenin the future. It’s a framework and a lens with which humanscomprehend everything.

a good story isn’t just a random series of events—that’s a flow chart or a terrible student film. A good story makes thingsgo boom! For your customers. And for your business.

All you need are some Post-itnotes or note cards, a marker or pen, a whiteboard or wall, data or animagination, and an understanding of how story works. Then you mapyour story. Plot point by plot point.

you’ll cast your users as the heroes of thestory so that everything you do supports them in their journey. Andwhen you help your heroes overcome their challenges, surpass theirobstacles, and make progress toward their goals, you’ll also take stepstoward your own.

Why stories? Because they’re our oldest, best tools for communicating,teaching, and engaging with people. Because they help us understandthe landscape of how people interact with our products. And becausethey help us understand the people themselves.

Storymapping is as simple as it sounds: literally mapping out anintended experience of use just as you would a story—plot point by plotpoint. Agile user story mapping is a method that Agile developers use toorganize and chart the course for large bodies of work comprised ofsmaller “user stories (for more on incorporating story development intoAgile development,

It won’t teach you how to tell astory. Rather, it will teach you how to use story and its underlyingstructure to craft intended experiences of use that are optimized foraudience engagement, similar to what screenwriters and TV writers dowith short- and long-form movies and TV shows. Plot point by plotpoint.

your customers need to feel like heroes whenthey find, use, and recommend your product to their friends and family.When you map stories, you’re mapping the story you want someone tohave with your product

If you want to engage someone using your product, you wantto design for the human experience, not the system. Systems arecomplex. Human experiences are linear. That’s because experienceshappen as a series of moments in time. Until flux capacitors and time-shifting Delorians are a reality, time is unfortunately linear.

While complex products have much in common with complexentertainment media like novelty books and video games, definingcomplexity as branching rather than linear is taking a system-centricapproach.

tomake things better.A × B = CA represents forward momentum, which is the force that a characterexerts to meet his or her goal with your product or service. B is theforce or forces that act against your character and get in the way of thatperson using your product to meet his goal. If you multiply the forces,you get C—and that’s what will ultimately help the climax or the way

Designing stories for conflict helps you determine what should happennext as you strive for balance between a character trying to attain a goal(or set of goals) and running into obstacles along the way. Whenbuilding products around stories, it is not your job to place obstacles inthe way, but instead to consider them and plan around them as you helpyour protagonist jump hurdles, have a smooth ride, and ultimately meethis and your business goals.

Goals in the stories you create can and should bemeasured, both for your characters and your business. You can do thisby measuring qualitatively (in-person conversations and observationalstudies) and quantitatively (surveys and analytics)—or using acombination of the two. Y

asking “why” as many times asyou can until you uncover the real goal at the core of your story.

That said, what you want and what you need aren’talways obvious in the moment and that’s OK.

There is nothing worse than astory with no purpose, whether it is for people in an audience watchinga movie or for the people using your product. When crafting your story,make sure to move your character forward and to help him (and yourbusiness) meet some kind of goal.

Everything you wantthat person to experience must drive the story forward. If it doesn’t, youcut it out. Also remember that the characters in your stories are notfictional or hypothetical dream customers who don’t exist in real life.They are based on real people, real goals, real behaviors, and realstories. If you don’t have access to real people or real data, you can makeit up—as long as you validate it later.

Stories are not just for building and communicating. They mustresonate with your audience. Every step of the way, you must test yourstories to make sure that you’re on track. Diagrams, storyboards,written words, pitches, improv, prototypes, demos, presentations—theseare all artifacts and activities you can use to test your stories with yourtarget audience to make sure that you’re on the right track.

pitches are not just marketing or sales tools—they are a strategic toolyou can use to make sure you are clear on a product or project’sobjectives, market, and value to an intended audience. If you break theformat of an elevator pitch down and consider it within the frameworkof a narrative, it is essentially a very short story.

For [target customer] who has [customer need], [product name] is a[market category] that [one key benefit]. Unlike [competition], theproduct [unique differentiator].

Writingscenarios works much like journey mapping, except that it’s a writingexercise rather than a visual exercise. Scenarios help you use words touncover how someone might interact with your product or service, aswell as what will be required to support the story.

An elevator pitch is a short statement, sentence, or a few sentences youuse to briefly describe a concept, product, or business. It’s called an“elevator pitch” because it should be short enough that you can give thepitch in the time it takes to ride in an elevator with someone. Elevator

Agile user stories typically are written out in this format:As a [type of user], I want to/can [do something] so that [result].

Use cases and, more specifically, Agile user stories are a tool thattechnology teams, especially Agile development teams, use to organize,make sense of, and phrase requirements. Outlining use cases and userstories helps give context to what you build, why, and how.

a short phraseor sentence can help you remember what your story is about as youfind, explore, develop, and test it.

When you write astory with words, you don’t need to spell out every single thing thathappens. Sometimes, you only need a few words to allude to something,and you can let your reader fill in the blanks. In fact, sometimes less ismore—more engaging, in this case, as your brain starts parsing meaningand completing the picture.

Behavior analysis: Sometimes, you want to know what the story isfor different types of users. In this case, you might map out yourstory using different color Post-it notes on an arc (see Figure 7.5).Each color would be for a different user type. Or maybe you wantto analyze a more complex set of data so that you can figure outwhat the story is. In this case, you might map out lots of data pointsas a narrative

You might want to figure out how toget more customers to sign up or get through a flow. Mapping thestory as a gap analysis exercise is a great way to visualize the gapbetween the current state of a journey and the future state that youwill build.

. No matter what you call it or how you doit, if you want to engage your audience, start with a story map as yourframework. Then build on (and under) that map to determine what youneed to support your story for your user and your business. Literally,map out the story first and then flesh it out and fill it all in afterwardwith Post-it notes or cards

You canuse storyboards to visualize the big picture of how someone thinksabout or uses your product (see Figure 7.1) or how to get more detailedand map out specific steps in a flow or interface.It’s best to keep your storyboards as short as possible—ideally, no morethan nine panels. Doing so helps you ensure that your story is there,because it’s easy to lose your storyline when your scope gets too big oryour details too plentiful.

buildaround your “happy path” or ideal storyline of how you want someoneto experience something. Then, if need be, consider branching paths,edge cases, and alternate scenarios. Systems are branching, and time andexperience are linear. Always plan for how you want things to work outand then deviate accordingly

One way to bring your storylines to life is to explore them visually. Itmight start as a squiggle and then grow into something much biggerand more complex.

I map stories out on a narrative arc because it’s my preferred (read:simple) story diagram of choice and the one that most of my clients andteam members grasp most quickly. The narrative arc also models howhumans interact with products as moments in time with its linearity andpeak near the end. Mapping concepts and flows onto a narrative archelps you see the flow of ideas and interactions as your users mightemotionally experience them.

as you explore your stories in differentmediums and fidelities, expect that story to change. Your story maps aremore like guides than skeletons—they are loose paths for how youintend for people to experience something. As such, they can and shouldevolve as you explore, as you plan, as you build, and as people interactwith what you put out into the world.

When you’re finding stories in the real world, whether they are inmovies or your customers’ lives, remember to first see and hear yourstories; then build them. Think like a storyteller and learn from andborrow from what other creative people—filmmakers and even yourcustomers—out there are doing before you chart your course anew. Orif you must, chart your course anew. You might call this paving the cowpath, building empathy, or being creative. I call this storymapping.

If you’re working on an entirely new product or feature, you don’t haveto get stuck imagining storylines from scratch. Learn from what camebefore you.

Storylines should be data-driven, but they can also be magical,fantastical, or simply delightful.When interviewing users, I often ask this question: “What if thisproduct worked like magic?”

Sometimes, all you need to do is find the story in your data andcommunicate and amplify it for your customers.

Stories can be found in qualitative data you gather from your customersas well as the quantitative data that you collect from your businessintelligence and analytics tools. Consider funnel analytics that you findin typical software like Google Analytics. When do people drop off?Those are your cliffhangers.When you see a cliffhanger in your analytics, you see the what: data.Stories tell you the why.

What we found during each round of testingwas that we would see customers grin at the right point, validatingour hunch that we were not just solving a problem but also providingvalue. Sometimes, the smile was accompanied by a statement like,“Oh, that was neat” or “Ah, I get it.”

If you uncover your storylines from existingcustomers or by mapping out real behavior that real people do, thissmile might be something that you observed doing field research,usability testing, or customer interviews. Once you’ve got a workingprototype at any level of fidelity, you can test out your story to ensurethat your climax is something that really makes your customers smile.

Stories for products come from data—data that your business alreadyhas or data that you seek through qualitative and quantitative research.Mapping stories isn’t a creative endeavor—it’s a strategic business tooland activity tied not just to real data but also to real results, metrics, andKPIs. Mapping stories helps you figure out what is and what can be foryour product, your customers, and your business.

the first session isyour best and often only chance to engage new users. Once you grabthem the first time and get them to see the value in using your productor service, it’s easier to get them to return in the future

Something as simple as a calendar app, with a core task that you wantusers to repeat and repeat, can benefit from this structure. Otherwise,your core task flow falls flat, just like the built-in iOS Calendar app did.Is Apple in trouble? Not at all. Unless calendaring becomes core totheir business and engagement strategies.

No flow or task is too small to be treated like a narrative. If you’redesigning a core task for a system and want to make sure it’s memorableand wows your user, thinking in a narrative fashion is a great way to adda layer of complexity and excitement to an interaction—even a simple,seemingly trivial one like adding a calendar event.

Sometimes, you will explore your stories in serial. What treating storiesin this fashion helps you do is see the relationship between singleinteractions with a product as a series of stories (see Figure 5.10), ratherthan just an epic. Doing so will help you figure out how or why to hookpeople in, get them invested, and stay invested over time as they want tofind out what comes next or see what they missed since the last time

Epic journeys take place over a long period of time. That timeline canbe a day, a week, months, or many years. These journeys are epicbecause they traverse single sittings or interactions with a product.Maybe you want to map out the lifelong journey from when someonestarts using your product to infinity.

Humans like closure. You don’t want to just leavethem at a high point and suddenly end the story. Now that herproblem is solved, how will you wrap this episode up as quickly aspossible so that the user is that much closer to meeting her goal?

Usage stories can be broad or compact. I recommend starting out withthe broadest first and working your way down until you’ve uncovered allyou need. In my experience, each usage storyline you develop should beas simple and straightforward as possible. At the point that you’remapping out many subplot points and getting complex, you should askyourself if you can break your storyline into smaller stories. Then youshould address each separately, starting with the largest first.

It is essential to consider usage stories within theirbroader context of who, what, when, where, and why someone is doingsomething. And, of course, it is essential to consider, assess, and plan forthe intended story of use

Usage stories are exactly what they sound like: the story of someoneusing your product or service—step by step. It’s the actual steps thatmake up the story for your user, plot point by plot point.

comprehension, utility, perception of usability, memory, and choice. Inother words, you’re more likely to understand something, see it asuseful, find it easier to comprehend or use, remember what you justexperienced, and want to repeat the experience again. Even painfulmedical procedures. Or sign-up flows.

This real-time processing is what sets apart humans from other animals.The foundation of this cognitive function is story. And story hasstructure. Story is how you make sense of the world around you—before, during, and after an experience. When you consume a story,whether it involves listening to a story or parsing life as a story in realtime, your brain is activated. If what you just experienced maps out to anarrative structure, with a beginning, hook, middle, peak, and end, itmaps out to how your brain is pre-programmed to understand theexperience. When you experience something like a story, it affects

humans remember, not duration, but rather the peak of an experienceand whatever happened closest to the end. This phenomenon is calledthe peak-end rule (see Figure 5.1). A peak can be painful, as in the case ofa colonoscopy, or it can be enjoyable as with a vacation, a film, or—gasp—the experience you have using a website, app, product, or service.Everything—even the experience you have when you use billpaythrough your bank’s website or app—is a story. It’s up to you assomeone who designs or builds things to determine if that story is goingto be a good one or not.

Outlining an origin story is only the first step toward building a path todiscovery and conversio

origin stories are where marketing, sales,business development, and advertising intersect with productdesign, and development. Uncovering and enabling a greatorigin story is not the job of one person or department, butrather an interdisciplinary, cross-functional effort.

Draft an origin story in any project where you are trying tofigure out how to acquire or convert customers. Marketing strategies,landing pages, even something as specific as naming buttons and calls toactions all benefit from a clear and structurally sound origin story.

The key to developing successful origin stories is that you callyour main character to action and determine how to measure thataction once they acquire their goal and in every step that leads to theend.

In a concept story, the climax occurs when your customer understandsthe value of a product; in an origin story, it happens when the user seesthe value of a product.

Origin stories operate much like concept stories. The biggest differenceis that where a concept story helps you define your product and its valueproposition, the origin story helps you figure out how to communicateyour value proposition, get people to take action, and get your customerto experience that value proposition for the very first time.

An origin story is the story of how someone becomes your customer forthe first time—it’s how that person goes from hearing about yourproduct to actually using it. For you, it occupies the space between howyou market a product and design the actual product itself. For yourcustomer, it occupies the space between what they think about yourproduct and what they do with your product.

“easy to use” is a pretty boring story when difficulty isn’t reallythe problem.

there is always a simple solution to every story, which can looklike a straight line. People want to communicate and collaborate? Sogive them a better communication and collaboration tool. However,while you might want to design solutions that are simply better thanwhatever else is out there, “better” isn’t always enough. Having aproduct be “simple” isn’t always the most compelling or motivatingstory.

before you gotdeep in the weeds, you would first map out a concept story so that youand your team fully understood what your product was, as well as itscore value proposition. Doing so would help you ensure that thoseelements were incorporated and communicated in each and every storyyou mapped out thereafter.

concept stories don’t just help you figure outhow to talk about a product, but how to build the product.

Apple solved a problem that peopledidn’t know they had. As such, the 2007 keynote, as well as the deviceitself, not only had to tell the world what their problem was, but alsoshow what the problem was and highlight how the solution could lookand function.

how you can move that person from thinkingto doing.Without this falling action, the story is either not complete enough orthe target market isn’t right for the product

This problemmight be one the users know they have or one that you need to showthem they have. Both are valid

A concept story is the conceptual story model of your product: itillustrates the big picture overview of what a product is. At the highestlevel, it also outlines how your customers think about that product. It isthe foundational story and structure that you will use to identify andcommunicate your core concept and value proposition both internallyand externally, as well as weave into everything you eventually build.