Business Case Studies & Business Publications

Facilitating Digital Development with Ag...

Cowan, Alex

Technical Note

Facilitating Digital Development with Agile User Stories

Cowan, Alex

OM-1739 | Published June 2, 2023 | 12 pages Technical Note

Collection: Darden School of Business

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Implicitly or explicitly, product-development teams in digital spaces will go through a process of gathering and employing data to help them create and iterate upon a user experience that invites high engagement. An important part of gathering this data is having actual users test the product, but in order to learn what testable criteria constitute successful user behaviors, managers and teams can employ user stories, testable micronarratives about user experience. User stories give managers and teams important tools they can use to focus their observations, bring actionable ideas, and facilitate productive work on development-ready designs. In particular, they can give general managers a focal point for their work on continuous design and a way to prioritize with purpose as they decide on a backlog for development, iteration to iteration. This technical note takes readers on a deep dive into user stories as they apply to continuous design, prototyping, usability testing, and analytics. It explores how managers and teams can create, refine, and prioritize them to help create the best possible user experience within the products they are designing.