{"id":3998,"date":"2016-04-27T11:47:47","date_gmt":"2016-04-27T10:47:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/?p=3998"},"modified":"2026-01-23T16:16:05","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T16:16:05","slug":"how-to-write-great-user-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/blog\/how-to-write-great-user-stories\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Write Great User Stories"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Are you asking yourself how to write great user stories?

Firstly, don’t skimp on user stories as you spec out ideas<\/a> for your next release.

You might hate them (everyone does), but they\u2019re here for a reason. A good user story distills down the problem a user is trying to solve to the following question:<\/span>

What does the user want to achieve? What is their motivation?<\/b>

A spec<\/a> tells you what an idea or feature should look like. A good user story tells you what\u2019s motivating the user and what problem they want to solve. If a spec tells you to make a button blue, the user story will tell you what that\u2019s meant to help the user do. <\/span>

What does the user want to see after you click on the button? Where do they go? What happens for different types of users or users with different permissions?<\/span>

User stories<\/a> force you to think from your user’s POV, and that\u2019s a good thing. When you spend all day working on your product, it\u2019s hard to imagine how your customers interact with your product. Certainly not with as much finesse as the ones building it! You have to dumb yourself down a little bit.<\/span>

User stories are useful to everyone, but especially for devs, who often execute releases without knowing why or who they’re even building for. Shouldn’t the people who are actually building the product be working with more than just a laundry list of tasks?<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What’s in a user story?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The good news is you don\u2019t have to make your user stories from scratch. Weed through customer feedback<\/a> and user personas to help you slip into your customers’ shoes. <\/span>You probably already have them sitting around, so refer back to them early and often.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Title<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Well, you do want to name it something, don\u2019t you?<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

User Story<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The key is to impart this information:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n