How does this approach differ or complement design processes you’ve used before?
The story mapping process is quite different from the design processes I’ve used before. At the previous company I interned at, we followed the Agile process and engineers worked in 2-week sprints. We discussed product visions, roadmaps, and quarterly plans, but it was often easy to get bogged down in development and output, especially for the engineers.
There was not a heavy emphasis on visualization, storytelling, and using stories to communicate desired outcomes. Product Requirements Documents and Requests For Comments were often the primary modes of communicating what a product should look like and how engineers and designers should use their time.
I found Jeff Patton’s points that (1) “the goal of using stories isn’t to write better stories” and (2) “the goal of product development isn’t to make products to be very interesting takes.” I’ve often experienced people telling stories for the sake of telling stories, but they rarely turned into ideas or concrete products. I appreciated Patton’s perspective on minimizing output to maximize outcomes. By focusing on stories and outcomes rather than prioritized features, I can see how more cohesive experiences will be built.
At my previous company, there was a heavy emphasis on a writing-first culture. This may have been a product of a distributed workforce. Most of the engineers were based abroad in different time zones far from the company’s offices. The reliance on writing and requirements allowed for this structure to work, but I wonder at what cost? Patton mentions that “shared documents aren’t shared understanding,” so was there a loss of information and context on this end? Sometimes, there seemed to be a lack of vision at both the organizational and product level. However, when I was concluding my internship, the company was actually placing a heavier emphasis on storytelling, vision, and communicating needs through user stories, which was very exciting!
Story mapping is contrasts greatly with my previous work experiences, but I’m excited to try it!
