User story mapping templates
Last updated: April 2024
Creating a story map is a familiar exercise for most product teams. It gives you a way to visualize and organize your work based on the tasks your users are trying to complete. Grouping user stories or the new functionality that you are going to build into a user story map can help clarify which features will provide the most value to your customers — so you can prioritize accordingly.
In this guide, we have pulled together user story mapping templates — either in Aha! software or as a downloadable PowerPoint format. If you are new to this exercise, we suggest reading our guide to user story mapping first. If offers a comprehensive overview of the benefits, challenges, and steps of the user story mapping process.
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What is a user story map?
A user story map represents a user's interactions with your product — each card on the map is a user story. By visually mapping out multiple user stories, you can display a user journey and break it into parts. Ultimately this helps you design and build functionality that is focused on desired customer outcomes, instead of solely on development output or feature specifications.
3 user story mapping templates
Regardless of how detailed you go or how you choose to represent your user stories, templates make this process simpler. Think deeply about what your customers need and how you can best serve them.
Whiteboard template
The first template below is a whiteboard template in Aha! software. The sample content shows a flow for purchasing on an e-commerce site. At the top are themes that describe the key steps in this user journey. Each theme is then broken down into smaller epics and user stories.
User stories are ranked vertically by importance — that way, you can map the ideal path users should take from theme to theme (or left to right). Colorful frames and sticky notes help you organize, mark up, and show the thinking behind your work.
Once everything is mapped out, prioritized stories are grouped into releases. This helps you plan for what comes next — building and delivering this optimized experience for your customers.
Get this user story map template — with a free trial.
User story map in Aha! Roadmaps
This next example is not really a template — rather, it is a dynamic user story map built into the features section of Aha! Roadmaps. You can customize the map, associate its cards with user personas, link to other records in your Aha! account, and share the map in a presentation.
PowerPoint template
This last example is a user story map in PowerPoint that you can download and customize.
Writing and mapping user stories is an important piece of the agile software development process that continues throughout the product development lifecycle. With these templates, you can easily move through the exercise of defining the work that will create the most delightful user experience — plus, improve your understanding of what your customers really need.
