Fantastic breakdown on the performative aspect of user stories. The observation about teams never actually talkingto users while writing "As a user" templates is painfully accurate from my experience working with cross functional squads. Once saw an entire sprint devoted to reformatting backlog items into proper story syntax while actual customer feedback sat unaddressed in our Slack channel, felt absurd in retrospect.
Oooh I love this. I used to hate user stories because of exactly what you talk about.
I believe what you’re saying it true but I’ll offer an alternative (because I love holding two conflicting truths at the same time 🌶️)
When we work with global teams, having structure (constraint optimisation) to reduce inaccuracies or misunderstandings can be useful. Templated formatted language reduces margin for error.
We have to balance understanding with efficiency - and in product, that’s often the hardest battle to fight.
Fantastic breakdown on the performative aspect of user stories. The observation about teams never actually talkingto users while writing "As a user" templates is painfully accurate from my experience working with cross functional squads. Once saw an entire sprint devoted to reformatting backlog items into proper story syntax while actual customer feedback sat unaddressed in our Slack channel, felt absurd in retrospect.
Oooh I love this. I used to hate user stories because of exactly what you talk about.
I believe what you’re saying it true but I’ll offer an alternative (because I love holding two conflicting truths at the same time 🌶️)
When we work with global teams, having structure (constraint optimisation) to reduce inaccuracies or misunderstandings can be useful. Templated formatted language reduces margin for error.
We have to balance understanding with efficiency - and in product, that’s often the hardest battle to fight.
Thank you!
I don’t advocate for abandoning the structure. I advocate for filling it with real insights 🙂 (yes, I’m aware you got this)
I think it’s time to rewrite the user story structure 🎉
😄