1.
@JordannGross
Agile
Coachsultant
#Xebia
agileety.com
Thinking
Invoke
How
Creative
All artwork in this presentation is as it appears on the Black Stories cards and can be found on their Facebook page.
The typical red and black drawings will be immediately recognised by those familiar with the game.

2.
About
Black
Stories
50
black
stories,
31
crimes,
49
dead
bodies,
11
murderers,
12
suicides
and
one
deadly
meal.
How
could
all
this
happen?
Black
stories
are
tricky,
morbid,
sinister
riddle-­‐stories.
Above is flavour text taken from the back of the box. Black Stories are riddles about how bizarre
deaths could've happened which the players have to guess by asking closed questions.
Gave the audience some background how it seems I'm no longer a lone nut who believes in this
(Agile Coach Camp '15, Agile Testing Days '15, Play4Agile 2016).

3.
Try
One!!1!
During the presentation I moved this to the end because the time slot was quite short.
Originally it was here, where it is much more powerful. Above you see the first Black Story I used as an
example.

4.
Where
I
Got
the
Idea
• Summer
Camp
Coach
• Kids
13-­‐16
• Thinking
patterns
• Works
on
kids
>
also
on
grown-­‐ups
Facilitated way over 100 Black Stories by now, about half of them on kids during summer camp.
There I noticed how the kids who joined the game the most often, started thinking differently.
This sparked my inner German Scientist to investigate further. As lots of psychologists would say:
"If this works on ze kids, it will surely work on ze grown-ups!"

5.
The
Effects
Lateral
Thinking
"using
reasoning
that
is
not
immediately
obvious
and
involving
ideas
that
may
not
be
obtainable
by
using
only
traditional
step-­‐by-­‐step
logic"
-­‐
Wikipedia
Other
Effects
• creativity
• ask
right
questions
• think
out
o/t
box
• collaboration
"No,
but
>
Yes,
and"
Main mechanic at play here is the concept of lateral thinking.
As I found out with [or on ;)] the kids, there are multiple beneficial effects noticeable.
These effects made me decide this brainteaser would best be fit for meetings where creativity is key.

6.
But
Wait...
There's
More
• Energizer
• Clear
previous
context
• Change
mindset
• On
time
• Make
meetings
fun
Starting to bring it to work, I thought within Scrum the refinement and
sprint planning would be the meetings gaining the most from this.
By doing it, the team and I noticed some other side effects, some obvious if I would've
given it some more thought, but the last ones were things I could only dream about. :D

7.
Facilitips
• Don't
overdo
it
• ANY
brainstorm
• Planning
&
Refinement
• Timebox
• Hints
when
needed
• Social/cultural
factors
• Introduce
as
energizer
Some take-aways if you want to try this with your team. :)

8.
http://agileety.com/black-­‐stories
twitter.com/JordannGross
linkedin.com/in/jordanngross
Read the whole story on my blog if interested.
Feel free to contact me for more info. Also really interested in your experience if you start using it.
Thanks and good luck!