My Process

This is just a way to document my process for my own use. However, feel free to use it if it benefits you in any way.

The first thing I usually do when working on a new product is to write epics. Starting out with epics helps me quickly sketch the new product functionality, and it keeps the product backlog concise and manageable.

3 Planning Levels
Vision Define the goal - what is or are the benefits we want to achieve?
Vision Statement What is the motivation behide the product
Product Strategy The strategy is a path to the vision - choose strategies based on: Choose the path to realize the vision: having a proper strategy helps to keep from getting lost in the details.
A change in strategy (which can happen often when building new projects is refered to as a "Pivit").
Product Vision Board Helps you describe, visualise, and validate your product vision and strategy. It captures the target group, user needs, key product features, and business goals. The extended Vision Board also describes key elements of your business model including competitors, revenue sources, cost factors, and channels.
Tactics: Product Details The tactics describe the product details: Write the Epics > Select the goal of the next sprint > Derive the ready stories > Update the planning board and repeat the process:
After exposing the outcome of the iteration and insights are gained Techniques used to capture these details:
Epics and Ready Stories
Epics - Sketches a feature or bigger piece of functionality
  • acts as a placeholder for more detailed stories
  • allows you to sketch the functionality without committing to the details
Ready stories: small detailed stories that can be implemented
  • Must be [clear, feasible and testable]
  • Ready stories are created from epics when you identify a sprint goal for the next iteration.
  • Stories must contain:
    • a narrative
    • a list of acceptance criteria
Scenarios and Storyboards
Scenario: describe the steps a user would take to achieve a goal
  1. It's Monday evening, and Joe is surfing the web. He wants to buy a gift for his wife.
  2. Joe visits gifts.com and adds a set of earrings that resemble a pair he remembers his wife mentioning to his cart and proceeds to checkout.
  3. He enter his information including first name, last name, email, shipping address, billing address, and special instructions. Then chooses a payment method and enters payment details.
  4. Joe sees that payment was successful and is presented with a receipt. After a short while, He receives an email with the order details and another copy of the receipt.
  5. When the item is shipped Joe receives an additional email letting him know the order is on the way.
Storyboards: Shows the steps of a scenario as more of a comic book Boxes are shown describing the steps and interactions without a focus on design elements (closer to a wire frame).
Design Sketches and Mock-ups
  • Hight Level Design: Rough mockup. develop the essence of what you think the product should look like - the concept - more of a loose style guide for developing detailed designs
  • Detailed Design: With the design concept in place, develop the design for each user story you want to implement - this should be done collaboratively and involve developers and testers.
  • Implement the design and expose the results to users to acquire feedback
**Resist the temptation to create a perfect design straight away: An unpolished implementation tends to generate more valuable user feedback than a super slick design
Constraint Stories (Non functional requirments) Constraint Stories describe requirements that must be weighed against other stories for example:
  • must update DOM without page refresh
  • Page loads in < 2 seconds
  • Clickable items provide user feedback when hovered
These are often performance measures and/or acquired via user feedback and testing
Sprint Goals: A sprint goal describes the purpose of a sprint Sprint Goals follow the acronym SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound
  • Provides a shared objective
  • Why it is worthwhile
An example: Make it easier to capture analytic data, it will help determine what is working and what should be changed.

A sprint Goal:
  • Supports Prioritisation
  • Creates focus and facilitates teamwork
  • Helps obtain relevant feedback
  • Makes it easier to analyse the feedback
  • Supports Stakeholder Communication