A product discovery agile game facilitated at Women in Tech Summit in Washington, DC. Brings together Product discovery framework, personas and user story mapping in a fun and engaging format. (uses Training from the Back of the Room framework)

1. Dana Pylayeva, Erica Indman
Discover Your Winning
Product
with User Story Mapping
A Product Discovery Game

2. Washington,DCMarch19,2016
Think About Your
Current Project…
…Take a sticker from
your table and paste it
on the handout.

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A Little Bit About Us
@DanaPylayeva
dpylayeva@gmail.com
Agile Coach,
Software
Development Manager
Erica Indman
5th Grader
(and Dana’s daughter)

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Do you know how to build
a product that’s right for
your users?

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Who Are Your Users?

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Product Discovery in a
Nutshell
Using Five Ws and One H

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Four Steps of Product
Discovery

8. 1
2
3, 4
So simple, we even used it to
plan a Halloween party!

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At Your Table Pick One Theme
for Your
Product Discovery Game
Kids
birthday
party
Family
reunion Trip to the
Moon
Music
festival
Mobile
App

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Step 1. Frame Your Idea
Why are we building this?
Why should consumers care?

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• Use your handouts to
complete the first
step.
• Share it with your
partner.
• Select one idea to
work on together.
Practice:
Step 1. Frame Your Idea
Why?

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Step 2. Know Your Customer
Who are you building this for?
Who will be using it?

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Proto-Persona:
Domain Expertise and Gut Feeling
Sketch
Name, sketch and basic
demographics
Pain
Top three pain points
Behaviors
and
beliefs of the persona
Behavior
Main Goal
and
Auxiliary goals
Goals

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Practice:
Step 2. Know your customer
Who?
• Think about a
customer persona.
• Select cards from the
discovery pack to
represent a persona.
• Work with your partner
to create at least 2
personas.

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Join another group.
Introduce your personas.
Who?

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Step 3. Envision Solution
What are we going to offer
that no one else can?
How do we plan to solve our
customers’ problem?

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Zoom Out and Think about a
Story Plot:
What happens
(user interaction with your product)
and the order it happens in.
Get Invited
Build Your Product as a Story
with User Story Mapping
Story
Plot
Play Halloween
Escape Game
Have Food

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Start Zooming In and building
“Table of contents”:
More details about
what happens within each user
activity
Get Invited
Build Your Product as a Story
with User Story Mapping
Story
Plot
Play Halloween
Escape Game
Have Food
Table
of
Contents
Receive
an
Invite
RSVP
Solve
puzzles
Find a
treasure
Eat Kids
food
Enjoy a
gourmet
dinner

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Continue zooming in and discover
all the Juicy Details:
variation and
alternative story lines.
Get Invited
Build Your Product as a Story
with User Story Mapping
Story
Plot
Play Halloween
Escape Game
Have Food
Table
of
Contents
Receive
an
invite
RSVP
Solve
puzzles
Find a
Treasure
Eat Kids
Food
Enjoy a
gourmet
dinner
Phone
call
Evite
Custom
Made
Card
Call
back
Collect
Clues
Open a
Scary
room
Pizza
Eat
catered
food
Juicy
Details

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• In your groups,
start building a
shared user
story map for
your product.
• Add details and
variations with
your personas
in mind
Practice:
Step 3. Envision Solution
What?
How?

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Step 4. Slice and Plan
When do we
need this?
Where to
focus and
where to
skim through
for now?

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Get Invited
Slice and Plan Your Product
Story
Plot
Play Halloween
Escape Game
Have Food
Table
of
Contents
Receive
an
invite
RSVP
Solve
puzzles
Find a
Treasure
Eat Kids
Food
Enjoy
gourmet
dinner
Get a
Phone
Call
Receive
Evite
Receive
Custom
Cards
Text
back to
confirm
Collect
Clues
Open
Scary
Room
Pizza
Juicy
Details
If you only had time to build
a first draft, what would be
included in your party?
Call
back to
confirm
Collect
Clues
Go
through
cobwebs
Apple
juice
Eat
catered
food
E-mail
RSVP
Solve a
Riddle
See
scary
portraits
Ice
cream
cake
Eat
home
made
dessert
Eat
catered
food
Version 0: First Draft
Version 1: Rough cut
BestsellerVersion 2:

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• First Draft: Think
about the smallest
meaningful
experience for your
users. (MVP)
• Rough Cut: What’s
next can you add to
make it better?
• Bestseller: What
would put it over
the top?
Practice:
Step 4. Slice and Plan
When?
Where?

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If You Want to Know More
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Ws
• http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/personas_em
path.html
• https://uxmag.com/articles/using-proto-
personas-for-executive-alignment
• http://adlininc.com/adhoc/
• http://www.innovationgames.com/empath
y-map/
• http://jpattonassociates.com/user-story-
mapping/
• https://agilewarrior.wordpress.com/2011/
02/06/blank-agile-inception-deck-
template/

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What Did You Learn?

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We Love Feedback!
1. Please take a
moment to
write your
feedback.
2. Paste it on this
poster on your
way out.