User Stories are a fantastic agile tool, but they are not the only way for the product owner and team to reach a mutual understanding of what needs to be delivered. This workshop explores the use of hypotheses and experiments from the Lean Startup community as an alternative to user stories. We examine ways for agile teams to reframe stories (e.g. As a traveller I want to know the weather so that I can plan my journey) as a series of hypothesis (e.g. Supplying weather information will increase ticket sales) that are validated by experiments (e.g. Does supplying hard-coded weather data for our two most popular routes increase ticket sales?). Having the whole team involved in discovering business value ensures alignment across the organisation. You will see how using hypotheses and experiments brings advantages to the development team, the customer, and the user - ensuring we only build valuable features. Stop telling stories about your product - start asking questions. (presented at Agile 2013)

1. Questions not Stories
Agile 2013, Aug 7 2013
Adrian Howard (@adrianh)
quietstars.com

2. Hello!

3. Please ask
questions

4. Disclaimer 1: Eh?

5. Disclaimer 2:
I could be confused
and stupid

6. Disclaimer 3:
Be careful if you’re
new to agile

7. Who am I?

8. I <heart> feedback

10. Swear Jar

11. (obligatory cute animal slide)

12. Who are you?

13. Exploring user
stories

14. Chatham House Rule
applies please

15. “When a meeting, or part thereof, is
held under the Chatham House Rule,
participants are free to use the
information received, but neither the
identity nor the affiliation of the
speaker(s), nor that of any other
participant, may be revealed”

16. Exercise
• Everybody write a user story
• Real (if you can) or made up

17. Exercise
• Each person explain their user
story to the group
• Card. Conversation. Confirmation.

18. Stories?

19. Relax

20. Why stories?

21. Stories are
statements

22. Stories describe
the product

23. Product owner says
“X will return
business value”

24. Splitting & Thinning

25. Stories
=
known knowns

26. What about
known unknowns?

27. What about
unknown unknowns?

28. The Lean Startup
“A true experiment
follows the scientific
method. It begins with
a clear hypothesis that
makes predictions
about what is supposed
to happen. It then tests
those predictions
empirically”

29. The Lean Startup
• Come up with hypothesis
• Design experiment
• Run experiment
• Validate/Invalidate hypothesis
• Repeat

30. The Lean Startup

31. Moving from Stories
to Hypotheses

32. As a potential user, I
want register using
twitter so that I don’t
have to fill out a
registration form.

33. Step 1

34. As a potential user, I
want register using
twitter so that I don’t
have to fill a
registration form ?

35. As a potential user, I
want register using
twitter so that I don’t
have to fill a
registration form ?

36. Step 2: Ask why?
• Increase # registrations?
• More social media penetration for
marketing?
• Allow notification features?

37. Step 3: What’s our
hypothesis?

38. Allowing users to
register with twitter
will drop abandoned
registrations by 5%

39. Exercise
• 5m
• Pair up
• Pick a story card and apply:
1. Question mark
2. Why (or “whys”) ?
3. Generate hypothesis

40. Building
Experiments

41. Experiments
produce learning
not product

42. Experiments can
get thrown away

43. Focus on cost &
feedback time

44. Allowing users to
register with twitter
will drop abandoned
registrations by 5%

45. Example
• Built fake “register with twitter”
link which led to nice error
message
• Released to segment of customers
on live site
• Measured how many new users
tried it
• <1% - hypothesis invalid

46. Not just A/B testing

47. Example
•Zappos
•Annual sales > US$1 billion
•Hypothesis: Is there a demand for
superior online shoe shopping
•Experiment: Took photos from shoe
shops, came back and bought them full
price if customer bought them online
Example from The Lean Startup, p57-58

48. Exercise
• 5m
• Pair up
• Pick a hypothesis
• Come up with as many ways to
validate the hypothesis as possible

49. Why hypothesis?

50. The Good, the Bad &
the Ugly

51. Hypotheses talk
about business
value directly

52. It’s hypotheses
before, during and
after development

53. Alignment on value

54. Helps build an
experiment culture

55. Encourages
value-oriented
infrastructure

56. Splitting/thinning
changes

57. Where’s the user?

58. Success changes

59. Where are the
running, tested
features?

60. Where’s the
delight?

61. Horde of zombie
experiments

62. What happens
when I can’t
validate cheaply?

63. What about non-
startup contexts?

64. Some folk find
reality hurts

65. Further Reading
• Lean Startup by Eric Ries
• The Startup Owner's Manual by
Steve Blank
• Running Lean by Ash Maurya
• The Four Steps to the Epiphany by
Steve Blank
• The Entrepreneur’s Guide to
Customer Development by Brant
Cooper & Patrick Vlaskovits

66. Remember your
feedback forms

67. @adrianh
quietstars.com
slideshare.net/adrianh
adrianh@quietstars.com
Questions