Persona development, user interviews and contextual inquiry are all important tools to help you understand users' wants, needs and the context in which they will be using your product, but they're only as useful as the user stories they inform. User stories are the first step in converting the ideas of Discovery into functionality, and doing them well is critical to the success of your product. In this post I'll walk you step-by-step through our approach to developing user stories, and provide an example of what they might look like for a well-known social media application. Full write-up: https://by.dialexa.com/approach-to-developing-user-stories

1. Developing User Stories -
The Dialexa Way
by Steven Ray
https://by.dialexa.com/approach-to-developing-user-stories

2. Dialexa
We are on a mission to make every
company a great technology company.
We work with organizations to define and
execute digital transformation strategies to
improve business operations and customer
experiences. Our services include:
• Multi-Year Technology Roadmap
• Platform Engineering
• User Experience Design
• Custom Software Development
• Hardware Prototyping /IoT

3. Persona development,
user interviews and
contextual inquiry are
all important tools to
help you understand
users' wants, needs
and the context in
which they will be
using your product,
but they're only as
useful as the user
stories they inform.
Get the full write up of
this slideshare HERE

4. User stories are the first step in converting the
ideas of Discovery into functionality, and doing
them well is critical to the success of your
product. In this post I'll walk you step-by-step
through our approach to developing user stories,
and provide an example of what they might look
like for a well-known social media application.
Get the full write up of
this slideshare HERE

5. PROCESS
The process is pretty straightforward:
1. Define all of the actors in the system. An actor is simply
any unique type of user in a system.
2. Write a set of stories for each actor following this format:
"As a <role>, I can/want <goal/desire>." Optionally, you can
add a "so that <benefit>."
Get the full write up of
this slideshare HERE

6. Since most people are
familiar with it, we'll use
Facebook to illustrate
the concepts of stories
and actors.
Get the full write up of
this slideshare HERE

7. ACTORS
• Consumer user: An individual who signs up for personal use.
• Business user: A business user that signs up for promotional purpose.
• Moderator: A Facebook employee who has customer service access to the
system.
• Administrator: A Facebook employee who has administrator access to the
business side of Facebook.
Get the full write up of
this slideshare HERE

8. These are just a few hypothetical
examples of the actors in the
Facebook ecosystem. Notice that
we address external users of the
Facebook platform as well as
internal employees, and you
should, too.
Get the full write up of
this slideshare HERE

9. To read more you can find the full article at
https://by.dialexa.com/approach-to-developing-user-
stories

10. For a robust platform
such as Facebook,
there would be
thousands of stories
covering all of the
system's
functionality. Here
are a few examples
of what they might
look like:
Get the full write up of
this slideshare HERE

11. USER STORIES
Consumer User
1. As a Consumer User, I can sign up for a Facebook account
with my email address and password.
2. As a Consumer User, I can submit a friend request to people I
know so that I can keep in touch with them.
3. As a Consumer User, I can accept or reject friend requests
that other users send to me.
4. As a Consumer User, I can send a private message to a
person with whom I am "friends."
Get the full write up of
this slideshare HERE

12. Business User
1. As a Business User, I can enter information on my
business page so that potential customers can learn about
what my business does.
2. As a Business User, I can enter my address that will
show up on a map so that people can locate our business.
Get the full write up of
this slideshare HERE

13. Moderator User
1. As a Moderator, I
can delete a consumer
Facebook page for violating
Facebook's policies.
2. As a Moderator, I
can remove inappropriate
material from Facebook.
3. As a Moderator, I
can approve or decline a
new Facebook game
submitted to the Facebook
platform.
Get the full write up of
this slideshare HERE

14. Administrator User
1. As an Administrator, I can see how many consumer
users are on the Facebook platform.
2. As an Administrator, I can run a report on a specified
date range so that I can see how much money Facebook
has made from all game publishers.
Get the full write up of
this slideshare HERE

15. Do you understand why design thinking is
important, and how it can improve your business
performance?
Download or free eBook:
Designing for Business Outcomes
Get the full write up of
this slideshare HERE

16. Tips for Creating
User Stories
Get the full write up of
this slideshare HERE

17. 1. It is critical to define all of the unique actors in a system.
2. There may be hundreds of unique actors in a system.
3. In most cases, stories should be just one line in length.
4. They should never be paragraphs or drawn-out scenarios. If you see this
happening, try to break the paragraph into a series of stories.
5. Once you have all of your stories well defined, you have a granular idea of
what each user can do in the system you are building in simple, non-technical
language. This is a huge part of understanding and articulating your product's
desired functionality.
Get the full write up of
this slideshare HERE

18. In addition to creating user stories, it's a good practice to
create use cases. A use case is a series of steps that a
user takes when interacting with a system to achieve a
desired goal (which could be one or more stories). In
contrast to user stories, a use case contains multiple steps
along a path to completion.
Get the full write up of
this slideshare HERE

19. This is particularly helpful when evaluating
initial screen designs. We'll share more on use
cases later, but in the meantime, you can visit
Usability.gov's "how-to" on creating use cases.
Get the full write up of
this slideshare HERE

20. PROPERTY OF DIALEXA LLC ©2018 - CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARY
Thank You
Doug Platts
VP of Marketing
marketing@dialexa.com
If you are looking to undertake a
digital transformation initiative,
contact Dialexa today and see how
we can help make your company a
great technology company.
Get the full write up of this slideshare at
Developing User Stories - The Dialexa Way