User Story Mapping Quotes

“At the end of the day, your job is to minimize output, and maximize outcome and impact.”
― Jeff Patton, User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product

“There’s always more to build than we have time or resources to build — always.”
― Jeff Patton, User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product

“Design by community is not design by committee…design is never democratic.”[”
― Jeff Patton, User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product

“Your job isn’t to build more software faster: it’s to maximize the outcome and impact you get from what you choose to build.”
― Jeff Patton, User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product

“Globo.com is good at it. That’s not because the company is faster than everyone else — sure, it’s fast, but it’s not that fast. It’s because it’s smart about doing less.”
― Jeff Patton, User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product

“Half a baked cake may not be enough to feed a wedding party, but it’s enough to taste and leave everyone looking forward to the rest of the cake.”
― Jeff Patton, User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product

“For every story you write, you need to put three into your backlog of stories.” I asked him why, and he said, “You just do.” I asked, “What should I write on the other two?” “It doesn’t matter what you write.” “What do you mean?” I asked, “I have to write something on them!” Alistair replied, “Well, if you have to write something on them, then write what you want on the first card, and on the second card write ‘Fix the first card.’ Then on the third card, write ‘Fix the second one.’ If you aren’t going around this cycle three times for each story, you’re not learning.”
― Jeff Patton, User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product

“meeting” is often the euphemism we use for unproductive collaboration.”
― Jeff Patton, User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product

“The best solutions come from collaboration between the people with the problems to solve and the people who can solve them.”
― Jeff Patton, User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product

“Shared documents aren’t shared understanding.”
― Jeff Patton, User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product

“I had to work hard to figure out the least I could build to make people happy.”
― Jeff Patton, User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product

“Prioritize specific business goals, customers, and users, and then their goals, before prioritizing features.”
― Jeff Patton, User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product

“Great art is never finished, only abandoned. — Leonardo da Vinci”
― Jeff Patton, User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product

“Story maps are for breaking down big stories as you tell them.”
― Jeff Patton, User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product

“Focus on outcomes—what users need to do and see when the system comes out—and slice out releases that will get you those outcomes.”
― Jeff Patton, User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product

“Remember, our goal is to minimize the amount we build (our output) and maximize the benefit we get from doing it (the outcomes and impact).”
― Jeff Patton, User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product

“Just tell me a bit about who they’re for, and how they’re going to use this, and where it fits into the way they work.”
― Jeff Patton, User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product

“Story mapping keeps us focused on users and their experience, and the result is a better conversation, and ultimately a better product.”
― Jeff Patton, User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product

“Stories get their name from how they should be used, not what should be written.”
― Jeff Patton, User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product

“Template Zombie: The project team allows its work to be driven by templates instead of by the thought process necessary to deliver products.”
― Jeff Patton, User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product

“Focusing on specific target outcomes is the secret to prioritizing development work.”
― Jeff Patton, User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product

“to make”
― Jeff Patton, User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product

“to get something built; rather, it is to learn if we’re building”
― Jeff Patton, User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product

“scope doesn’t creep; understanding grows. And”
― Jeff Patton, User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product

“If your goal in reading this book is to learn to write better stories, you’ve got the wrong goal.”
― Jeff Patton, User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product

“This is a workshop, not in a meeting. Meeting is the word that has become a euphemism for unproductive collaboration.”
― Jeff Patton, User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product

“And, of course, as savvy readers can appreciate, when software developers say it’s going to take a year to get something done, they really mean two years. It’s not because they’re incompetent, or that they are calendar-challenged, it’s just that estimating the time to do something we’ve never done before is something we suck at. And, by nature, we’re often optimistic animals.”
― Jeff Patton, User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product

“Good teams have a compelling product vision that they pursue with a missionary-like passion. Bad teams are mercenaries.”
― Jeff Patton, User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product

“If you’re not cutting away more ideas than you keep, you’re probably not doing discovery work right.”
― Jeff Patton, User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product

“When I walk into environments where the walls are clear, or even covered with pleasant artwork — or worst of all, motivational posters — it makes me sad.”
― Jeff Patton, User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product