Product 2015

Example Mapping

Four colours of index card that turn a vague user story into rules, examples, and the questions nobody can answer yet.

What it is

A yellow card carries the story. Blue cards are the rules that constrain it. Green cards are concrete examples of each rule. Red cards are the questions the room cannot settle. Twenty-five minutes of this on a story tells you more about its readiness than an hour of estimation, because the red cards are visible.

Reach for it when

• A story keeps coming back from development with questions
• Refinement sessions run long and still leave the team unsure what to build
• Three people describe the same acceptance criterion three different ways

Running it

1. Write the story on a yellow card and put it at the top. One story per session.
2. Blue for each rule, and under each blue card, green cards with concrete examples. Real values, not placeholders — "a 17-year-old with no account", not "an ineligible user".
3. Any question that stalls the room goes on a red card and the conversation moves on. Do not try to resolve red cards in the session.
4. Stop at 25 minutes. Count the cards: many blue cards means the story is too big; many red cards means it is not ready.