Product Story: Sustainable Writing And Converting The Story To Journey Map

Product Story: Sustainable Writing With AI And Converting The Story To Journey Map

Guide for analysts, managers and associates. Published January 4, 2024

If you are a Product Manager, Business Analyst or into such a role, chances are that you have come across or you're currently writing Business Requirement Document or  Product Requirement Documents (PRDs). Or perhaps you've already written dozens of requirement documents and you're just looking to fine-tune your skills with new AI capability.

Our product story guide aims to take you from idea to action. We'll tell you what a product story is and should include, a step-by-step guide for writing your own, and provide you with tools to get you started.

So what does it take to write the perfect product story? Let's get right in.

What is a product story?

When it comes to a product story, it is essential to understand and cater to the needs and wants of various users. This involves incorporating their unique perspectives and insights into the product's development process. The resulting story should delve deeply into its purpose, which ought to be clearly communicated and easily understood by all parties. Beyond that, it should also provide a comprehensive overview of all product features, noting their respective functionalities and behaviors. Ultimately, only by actively engaging with and sensitively evaluating user feedback, can developers hope to produce a product that meets the exacting standards of their intended audience. In short, a thorough and well-constructed product story is essential to the successful development, marketing, and sales of any product.

This document is generally written by the user side analysts or Product Manager to communicate how the product works for all the user types, for what they are building, who it is for, and how it benefits the end-user. It also serves as a guide for business and technical teams to help develop, launch, and market the product.

According to Minal Mehta, Head of Product at YouTube, a PRD is a living document that should be continuously updated according to the product's lifecycle. On similar lines, a product story is the living heart of PRD.

Content of a product story

A product story is simply a story from the narrator, the user. For example, a product used by an user and a notary to notarize documents online will have stories of both these as narrator. The story shall be like, The user uploads the document for notarization. The notary reviews the document and if everything is fine, the notary signs the document.

How to use AI to write product stories?

Now-a-days, a lot of blue-sky thinking can be overcome by having a template of draft document using generative AI tools, like ChatGPT or Claude. You can enter a prompt for generative tool to help you create a draft story. For example, you can enter a prompt for the above case of online notary as " a system for users to get their document notarized using remote online notary services.

Here is a Youtube video of Prab(Founder of Cyberium), showcasing rapid story generation and map generation using the NLP AI: https://youtu.be/N6IrVFbDXfw

 

Sample product stories from FastBuilder.AI

Building a Product Story: step-by-step

Now, its time to build the story in real life.

Step 1 - First draft

 To start, write the first version of the story in your collaborative platform of choice.

1. It's a good idea to start your story draft somewhere private.

2. People talk and sometimes get the wrong ideas, and you don't want them to find a draft with language/features you realized were wrong.

3. It's fine to put TBD in spots (maybe success metrics).

4. In general, you want the background, objectives, maybe metrics, and maybe key user scenarios/epics focused on the high-level features.

Step 2 - Get approval

Get any needed approvals from your boss with the first version. Your teammates and your boss are an asset, and use them as such.

1. Get their thoughts/feedback.

2. People who have been there longer might have insights you don't know about or can suggest ways to approach potential sticky points.

3. Plus you don't want to blind-side your manager!

Step 3 - Create the workspace in FastBuilder

By creating a collaborative workspace in FastBuilder, you can build the story and versions in an organized way which is often times not possible in shared drives.

1. Add team members on the platform.

2. Track changes in the story and evolution of journey maps.

Step 4 - Share with design

Share the story and journey maps with the design project leader and incorporate feedback.

1. Design is close to the user too, therefore it would be smart to engage them before approaching engineering, because their feedback might affect the project's technical scope.       

2. Discuss the spec with them and incorporate their ideas/feedback. You're not telling them what to do.

Step 5 - Share with engineering

Share the story, journey maps along with prompt list with the engineering project leader (don't forget the design lead!) and incorporate feedback.

1. With the design lead (ideally), engage the engineering lead and get feedback.

2. The prompts derived from the story(using NLP AI) helps in rapid design of the codebase and project integration.

Step 6 - Share with project team 

Share with the project team!

1. Share the product story workspace with the project team so that they can see the holistic picture in one place.

2. Make sure to get your team's questions, input, etc. and those sections in a new version of the story.

3. Ensure to lock the finalized version so that no one can make unwanted changes to the approved story and project plans.

Step 7 - Share with company

Possibly share it with the company.

1. You can also share the whole journey maps rather than sharing the story board.

2. This doesn't necessarily mean publishing the large complex diagrams of the maps on the wall but instead, assemble a well-structured presentation and share it with your stakeholders.

Start now!

What are you waiting for? Access your free account of FastBuilder.AI can get started.

Main takeaways

 

• Product Stories are living Documents:

  As you build the product, you need to constantly update the story. 

• They must be flexible:

  As you write your first drafts, it's ok to leave TBD and placeholder comments for unknowns.  

• A good story is detailed:

  Note key decisions, add relevant links, and don't leave anything up for interpretation.

• Stories are a product of teamwork:

  Even though the Product Manager is ultimately responsible for owning the product/defining what to do. It's much better to have a collaboration/soft power approach when it comes to creating the product story.

• They are not just excellent communication tools but also an execution framework:

  Use the stories to communicate what you're building and why.

Check out our other templates:

Still, looking for some great templates? See our collection of Product Story Templates!