Soon after this exercise, story maps became our preferred way to communicate an experience, prioritize user stories, and schedule iterations and releases. It had entered the company’s vernacular and the development culture, and continues through the present day. One lesson I learned, having run this same exercise now for multiple teams in our organization, is to use an icebreaker to prime the mindset of the participants. Start the session by having each person write just one thing he or she did between waking up and getting to work. Then ask each person to answer the question: “Why did you
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