There are no perfect methodologies. This is especially true for the different styles of agile methodologies in companies. Having worked in a mid-sized company and a major IT company and started a company myself, I have experience with diverse styles of design processes. However, when I came to Stanford, I was instantly enamored by the approach that seemed to be unified in between all the entrepreneurial classes in the school — need-finding and problem-solving. I felt that the process of interviewing a lot of potential customers seemed almost like common sense — at the same time, I had not devoted much of my time to the need-finding process. So the conclusion that I had made was that before a company finds product-market fit, there needs to be a bigger emphasis placed on the need-finding process. After the PMF, a bigger picture understanding of the user and where our product would fit into the users’ lives would be important. I will delve into each case.
First, before the company achieves product-market fit, a bigger emphasis on need-finding is great. From the reading, I was under the impression that User Story Mapping was a tool to help with the needs-finding. Trying to ideate as much as possible with different layers is very tricky, but with the User Story Mapping tool, very convenient. Since the objective of the tool is to arrange user stories into a flow that makes sense, the idea seems to be able to capture the essence of the target customer. This can be a very helpful tool/methodology in the needs-finding process.
Second, after the company has discovered a key PMF, it is likely that the company becomes much bigger. In this phase of the company, User Story Mapping can be useful for creating and arranging user stories into a big, macro-level dialogue. This can be very helpful to all stakeholders as they can gain an understanding of how what they are doing fits into the bigger picture. The team’s unified understanding of a customer persona is also critical. If one cannot understand what the qualitative north star of the company is, or how this product fits into a user’s life, it is much harder to suggest new ideas or even have a meeting. This is where User Story Mapping can come in.
All in all, I believe that User Story Mapping can be used both when searching for product-market fit, and post product-market fit. In each case, I believe it can fit into both the needs-finding methodology or the agile methodology. This tool is not to disrupt an existing framework, but to offer an extra tool to work with when needed.
