User Story is one of the core and essential elements in Agile software development. It uses non-technical language and provides a user-focused framework for the development team and their efforts, which helps to drive team collaboration, creativity, and a better product overall.In this post, we will explore what exactly a user story is, why you need it, and also share the 20 best templates to get your work started easily.
What is a user story?
A user story is a short and informal description of a product or a software feature written from the perspective of the end user. It defines who the users are, and what they will do with the product or service and also contains a user type, that user’s desired action, and the value the user gets when the action is complete.
In Agile software development, user stories are often written by developers, designers and product managers on index cards or sticky notes to be passed around the design team and spark conversation. It helps the product team focus on the users and makes developers get a better understanding of what, for whom and why they’re building.In short,
using user stories forces the design team to see the user’s point of view and create a product focused on their needs and wants.Why do you need a user story?
User stories are becoming increasingly popular in Agile software development because it helps product development teams work toward the goal of creating functionality that really meets user needs.Here are some of the benefits of a user story:
It keeps the focus on the end user. The use of user stories clearly tells the development team the tasks that need to be checked off and puts the users at the center of the conversation, so the team can focus on solving problems for real users and build a product that really meets their needs.
It boosts team collaboration. As user stories use non-technical words instead of technical jargon, each member of the product team can easily comprehend the purpose of the writing and communicate the functionality of the product. With the end goal defined in user stories, the team can work together with a better understanding to decide how best to serve the user and meet that goal.
It prioritizes your business value. User stories are written in a way that allows them to be easily prioritized. With the value that a certain feature brings, you can rank your user stories in order of importance using techniques like card sorting to ensure that you are delivering the most value as soon as possible.
It minimizes potential risks. Most conventional product teams don’t take any proactive course of action for risk reduction. While an effective user story pays attention to customer requirements so that all possible risks like financial, technical, and risk of communication gap, commercial, and many more can be eliminated.
It drives creative solutions. As user stories clearly define what to build, for whom, why, and when, the product team can easily highlight and define end-users' behavior and then be encouraged to think critically and creatively about how to best solve for an end goal.
20 best free user story examples and templates
Here we’ve lined up the 20 best user story templates for you to download for free. Let’s dive in.
1. Epic user story template
This epic user story template allows agile teams to group related user stories into a larger category and also helps to capture epics and user stories in one place.
Format: Excel
Free download2. Thematic user story template
This template places themes at the top of the agile work hierarchy, above epics and user stories. Withi this template, you can associate your user stories with different themes and also add a column to include your epics if you need.
Format: Excel
Free download3. PowerPoint user story template
This template shows us a neat way that we can organize our user stories.
Team leaders might choose this template when developing new software products or mobile applications. The slides in this template can also be used as you prepare for your weekly sprints with team members.
Format: PowerPoint
Free download4. Simple user story template
This template is quite simple and clean. You can use it to write user stories and acceptance criteria and organize them in one easy-to-read view. Adding details like priority and estimated effort is also possible with this template.
Format: Word
Free download5. Product plan user story template
This template has four important sections, which clearly define what to build, for whom and why. It can help you to draft up a story quickly for a product feature or gives a quick overview of features.
Format: Word, Google.doc
Free download6. Standard user story template
With this template, you can think of the story from the business angle, such as “Who are we building it for?”, “Who is the user?”, “What is the intention?” and "Why to solve?", which could be incredibly useful and serve as an easy prompt to get started writing user stories.
Format: Word
Free download7. Business analysis user story template
This template can definitely save time when writing out multiple user stories and can help you get straight to the point. You can clearly understand who wants to do what and what goal needs to be achieved with the following story:“As an employee, I want to improve my productivity so that I can stay employeed and be a better employee to my employers.”
Format: Word, Google.doc
Free download8. Product development user story template
This template is complete and useful to the product development team. It shows exactly what the user wants and can also help come up with a better and more rigid acceptance criteria.
Format: Word, Google.doc
Free download9. Effective user story template
This template is remarkably easy on the eyes. Each row is alternated among different colors, to easily separate the concepts and facilitate scanning.
Format: Word, Google.doc
Free download10. Featured user story card
This template helps your team to give priority to specific features that are going to provide real value and meaning to your users. Happy users means a successful product and a happy business.
Format: Word
Free download11. SAFe User Story Template
Some creative teams prefer to include additional details when writing user stories. This template helps those teams to add benefit hypothesis, nonfunctional requirements, and cost of delay when they write user stories.
Format: Excel
Free download12. Elaborate user story template
This template contains a lot of detailed information such as rationale, required information, digital view and more. Some teams may find it extra helpful to have everything included on the same page.
Format: Excel
Free download13. Product backlog user story template
This template has a column to present user stories for different roles, so we can note the different reasons for each different feature.
Format: Word, Google.doc
Free download14. Sticky note user story template
This sticky note user story template is rather simple. It shows vital information to guide the design and development team to work for an end goal on a simple sticky note.
Format: JPG
Free download15. Neat and clean user story template
This simple and clean template allows you to align with your teammates on what you are building, who they are building it for, why it’s important, and what’s on the initial product backlog. Use this template and fill in the blanks, and you’ll be able to clearly communicate the who, what, and why of your product’s requirements.
Format: Word
Free download16. Front-and-back user story template
This traditional front-and-back user story template reflects how one might go about writing up a user story on an index card. The front of card shows clearly what the user wants to achieve and why they want to achieve it. On the back of the card, the acceptance criteria are also clearly listed out.
Format: PDF
Free download17. Easy-to-use user story template
This template allows you to follow a simple formula for writing them up, which is very necessary when it comes to creativity. You can use it to quickly crank out a story for any scenario.
Format: Word
Free download18. Agile user story template
This template can be used in an Agile development team. It helps the development team to clearly understand what a user needs, what a team role needs and why they need it.
Format: Word
Free download19. Practical user story template
With this template, you can assign a priority from low to medium or high and also set the status for each user story, helping you easily check and track the design process.
Format: Excel
Free download20. Index card user story template
This good old-fashioned index card user story is rather simple and brings things back to basics. It shows exactly how easy it can be to draft up a story quickly for a product feature or a quick overview of features like an epic.
Format: PDF
Free downloadWrap up
A user story provides a general description of a specific software feature and it is a great way to keep everyone focused on delivering value for your users. Conducting collaborative conversations around user stories helps you create better and more valuable solutions that your users need exactly. With the help of all the templates shown in this post, you should be well on your way to writing an excellent user story and keep focused on the value of your business.
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