User story mapping allows teams to depict a user’s journey through the product visually. It helps product teams better understand customers and identify journey friction points, prioritizing better plans to improve the user experience.
User story mapping provides a brief description of a feature from an end user’s perspective. For example, “As a user, I can add products that I’m not ready to purchase yet.” This forces product teams to think about the user when designing. The user narrative map has mapping features showcasing the user’s progress from beginning a task to completion.
So how can your business maximize user story mapping to implement resources that efficiently provide the best user experience? This article will give you everything you and your team need to start that conversation. We’ll answer the question, “What is user story mapping?” and explain why user story mapping can be a great way to improve your digital marketing strategies. We will share the steps required to create a user story map.
Why Digital Story Mapping is Important
User story mapping is a holistic, customer-focused approach to digital marketing strategies. It can be used to develop software, but it can also be used in other areas. Your team can adopt user story mapping to help them understand the larger picture, the why, as well as the customer journey.
These are the core reasons user story mapping is so important in building a product and a website that users love.
- Create a better understanding of the customer. Digital story mapping is a way to see the product or service through the eyes of the customer. It helps to identify the various aspects that can improve the user’s experience.
- Better planning. Team members must understand and organize the work required to deliver a satisfying and valuable product experience. The user story map is a guide that provides insight and guidance to help you prioritize and organize your project. It’s easier for teams to view the whole picture and identify dependencies and potential blocks.
- More efficient prioritization. Team members often struggle to identify and develop strong user stories, expectations, and requirements. User story mapping can be used to visualize how difficult tasks are broken down into smaller tasks. Divide work into releases according to what is most important to users and what will provide a complete user experience.
- Solve problems and deliver more value faster. Various user story examples can help you gain valuable insight into the user experience with your product. Understanding your users’ perspectives will help you identify potential obstacles and risks that could hinder the process. It is often easier to deliver new value to users when you can organize the stories based upon the value and map them into iterations or releases.
- Makes collaboration easier. Digital story mapping provides a visual representation of customer experience that gives everyone a common point of view. This encourages everyone to join the fray and create consistent strategies. Sales, marketing, and other departments can see when you plan to release new features and updates. This schedule allows them to adjust their sales communications without asking for daily updates.
How To Gather User Insights for Story Mapping
Interactions with customers provide a deeper insight into their motivations. User insights can help you identify common characteristics among users. These trends can be used as a basis for the marketing strategy that social media agencies may use.
Businesses that understand their users’ needs better have a greater chance of creating a memorable experience for their customers from the first contact with them.
Here are ways how to gather customer insight to improve user experience:
Online Reviews
Many users believe that online reviews have an influence on their purchasing decisions. There is a 9/10 chance that users will purchase a product or service if it has received reviews.
A business that doesn’t track reviews misses an opportunity to sell products and ignores customer insights that could damage its reputation.
Feedback Questionnaires
Feedback from customers can provide valuable insights that will help make a better customer experience. Managers can create a picture of the customer journey to identify areas that are working well and those that need improvement.
You can also use feedback questionnaires to get in touch with users and to start a conversation to learn more and resolve issues.
User Sentiment Reviews
Managers can use sentiment reviews to understand the general feeling of their users. There are several formats for sentiment reviews, including star ratings, emoji faces, and “like or dislike” buttons. A Net Promoter Scoring (NPS) system is another option that asks users how likely they are to recommend the product.
A/B Testing
A/B testing can be useful in collecting user data and deciding which features are most effective. This is the case when you are trying to determine which version of a map is most appealing. A/B testing permits simultaneous release of both versions, so that some users can use the first version while others may prefer the second.
It is easy to identify which one is the most attractive by using data about which story map results in the highest conversions.
Social Listening
Social listening refers to the act of identifying key conversations that are related to a brand. A business can track brand mentions and keywords in the industry. It can also track competitor tags and product names.
This allows for better customization to match current trends. This is also useful for businesses who need quick information about their niche.
How Do You Make a User Story Map?
These are the steps you need to take to create a user story map.
1. Create the framework.
Before you begin planning, it is important to limit the plot’s scope. You’ll quickly become overwhelmed and be unable to start if you don’t.
Here are some questions you might want to consider:
Which issues are we trying to solve?
What does this feature do for the product’s overall value?
Who are the customer segments or target audience for which we create? (If applicable)
2. Draw a diagram of the story’s activities and steps.
This step will help you create a plan for how the user will access this feature. These are your main pursuits.
This section will explain the important steps required to get from A to B. These steps will be laid out for you:
- You can enter a search term into the search bar to go to the results page.
- For specific information, look through the search results.
- To limit the options you have, use the pricing filtering tool.
- The new options will require you to reexamine the search results page.
- Select an item you like and add it to the cart.
- Complete the transaction.
Story mapping features require a shift from micro to macro, as you can see. These elements will be planned out with the assistance of your participants.
3. Tasks should be grouped and defined.
After you have mapped out all the important details, this is where cooperation begins. You should highlight the key steps in each activity at each stage.
You can rank features based on priority by adding must-haves, could-have, and should-have options to your map. Here are some things to consider:
- Is there a smaller task your end-user could do in the middle of any of these tasks?
- What are the possible obstacles to their progress? What are their chances of getting stranded?
- Is there another way to get around this page?
It will be necessary to work together with your teams to establish what is feasible and realistic.
Creating a User Story Map for Digital Marketing
A story map can be a powerful tool to ensure that all members of your digital marketing team are on the same page from beginning to end.
More than 60% of story mappers are new to the technique, and they are seeking resources on how to create a user-story map.
This section will explain how to create a digital story map. You can create user story examples using physical resources like whiteboards and sticky notes, or you can use a tool to create virtual maps.
No matter what medium is used, all teams must follow these steps:
1. Identify the problem in the user journey.
First, identify and define the problems and concerns that your product or service can address.
To ensure that your digital marketing map is successful, it is important to be customer-focused. This will help you to meet your customers’ expectations and needs.
If you are improving or reviving an existing offering, you can also refer to this step.
2. Understand the user’s needs.
It is essential to identify your customers and their expectations to create a user story map.
Visualize your target audience and the problems you want to solve when creating your digital marketing map. It is the key to understanding how your project team views this aspect. It eliminates the need to interact with users who don’t fit your user persona.
3. Keep track of your activities.
Your user story mapping is built around the user touchpoints. Visitors interact with your brand when they visit your store, website, or social media. This interaction could lead to further research or purchase.
An e-commerce user may, for example, search for items, filter them by type, add the goods to a cart, and then complete the purchase.
This is part of the user journey from awareness to decision. It is crucial to have a complete overview of all touchpoints to create compelling user story examples.
4. Focus on key factors.
Once you have detailed user stories, it is time to rank these activities vertically and prioritize them. This step will allow you to identify the most valuable and most effective.
If your user journey highlights a poor checkout page, it is possible to improve conversion. Allow this step to help you determine which stories and activities are important and which ones need less attention.
5. Plan sprints and releases.
The team will be able to efficiently deliver the most valuable work if the stories and activities are prioritized from the top. This step will allow you to categorize the stories and activities into development sprints or product releases.
Next, draw horizontal slices across your story map. Group these features according to priority for each user activity. This process will help you streamline your digital marketing efforts because it is all done online.
User Story Mapping Tools
There are many ways to map user stories. A conference room, a whiteboard, and lots of sticky notes are the best way to go. These can be considered the traditional user story mapping tools still around today. These tools allow you to easily swap pieces as you work, making it more collaborative.
Remote teams will need to use online user story mapping tools to aid them. Atlassian’s Jira is one example of an agile project management software that has story mapping features.
Additional online tools include Featmap and Miro for user story mapping.
A user story map is a way to help your product team decide where to start on a new or ongoing project. Although it can be time-consuming, it will pay off in the long run.
Kickstart Your Story Mapping Journey With ADVDMS
User story mapping allows you to align your experience with your key customers’ needs. This strategy is crucial when planning your product launch. You can understand your market and create prototypes for your product, as well as your website’s early stages, and then code your first product.
The creation of user story maps is always a work in progress. Once the above steps are complete, new steps can be identified, leading to priority changes and additional steps.
Learn how to use user story mapping to discover new opportunities and requirements for your digital marketing team with Advanced Digital Media Services (ADVDMS). ADVDMS is a Denver SEO company that believes users feel valued and inspired by brands when they can direct the product’s direction.
Our team of SEO experts employs user story mapping to show that a brand’s product strategy is customer-centric and considers the needs of its customers instead of its own. Allow us to be with you every step of the way. Start your user story mapping journey and design your digital marketing map with us today. Contact us.
