No items found.
3.5/4

8,960 installs on Atlassian Marketplace

Jira apps for agile teams

Visualize workflows and help teams collaborate anywhere. Trusted by more than 160,000 users from leading companies worldwide.

 

Join the 10,000 product teams already using Easy Agile

Features

See Jira like never before

  • Align and unblock teams at scale

    Know when team A is going to impact team B before it becomes a problem with dependency markers that reach across team boards. Maintain alignment and foster collaboration to keep everyone on track.

    UI of Easy Agile Programs showing dependency lines
  • Build a Shared Understanding of Goals and Work Better Together

    Create a shared understanding of customer priorities. Drive collaborative planning to keep deliverables on track and aligned with user stories.

    UI of Easy Agile TeamRhythm user story map
  • Be ready to rock with retrospective templates

    Keep your retrospectives relevant and work your way with customizable retrospective templates.

    Focussed view of retrospective template in Easy Agile TeamRhythm
  • Run smoother PI planning sessions

    Bring distributed teams together to plan your next increment. Prioritise, and create high-context visual dependency maps and reporting.

    Focussed view of dependency map in Easy Agile programs
  • Make sense of the flat Jira backlog

    Level up backlog refinement and make sense of the flat Jira backlog with visual representations directly in Jira.

    Focussed view of the user story map in Easy Agile TeamRhythm

Testimonials

Don't just take our word for it...

Hear from some of our amazing customers who are making agile easier.

  • You get smart, sexy and colourful displays of workstreams: for us, that was hugely impactful when dealing with an industry that had never seen this type of professional delivery.

    Andrew Ross
    Bluey Merino
  • We’ve improved our communication and team alignment, which has helped give us faster results.

    Casey Flynn
    Adidas
  • Easy Agile apps are intuitive and easy to use. The features perfectly complement the Jira experience and provide our teams with easy ways to organize and scale work.

    Christopher Heritage
    NextEra Energy

Built for teams who work in Jira

All Easy Agile apps sit inside Jira, visualizing and enhancing your Jira data with new views and functionality

Use Cases

We’re making agile easier…

Tools that help people shine in their most important agile ceremonies.

  • PI Planning

    PI Planning is the heartbeat of your agile release train. Take care of it with Easy Agile.

    Learn more
  • SAFe

    SAFe promises much, but also asks much of teams. Reduce the burden of SAFe with Easy Agile's simple, flexible tools.

    Learn more
  • Dependency Management

    Know exactly what’s coming, and how to master dependency management with high-context visual flags at every stage.

    Learn more
  • User Story Mapping

    Know your user’s journey and ensure alignment with business objectives through User Story Maps

    Learn more
  • Sprint Planning

    Work the way you want with native scrum sprint planning in Jira. Just made faster, smoother, better

    Learn more
  • Retrospectives

    Give remote and on-site teams the structure to reflect on their latest sprint and the processes to identify what worked, and what didn’t with retrospectives

    Learn more
  • Backlog Refinement

    Be ready for your next sprint with intuitive tools to make your review and prioritization of the product backlog a breeze

    Learn more
  • Roadmapping

    Connect teams, groups and your whole organization under one vision for your product future

    Learn more

Webinar

Customer-Centric Product Development in Jira

How to put customers at the heart of every sprint, story, and feature.

Our Blog

Latest blog posts

Tool and strategies modern teams need to help their companies grow.

  • Agile Best Practice

    Agile in 2025: Expert Predictions and Industry Trends

    The days of 'doing Agile' are over. As we enter 2025, organizations’ relationship with agility continues to evolve.

    Economic pressures, technological advances, and hard-learned lessons are pushing organizations to rethink their approach to agility. While many companies still struggle with meaningful transformation, clear patterns are emerging that signal where agile practices are headed this year.

    Drawing on insights from Agile experts and practitioners, here are eight key trends that we see defining how we work this year.

    1. The Return to Agile Fundamentals

    Key Highlights:

    • Movement away from heavyweight frameworks back to core Agile principles and values
    • Emphasis on simplicity and delivering customer value rather than ceremonial processes
    • Integration of Agile practices into daily work without drawing attention to them

    While large organizations continue to rely on structured frameworks to drive consistency across teams, we're seeing a growing groundswell of support for getting back to basics. This isn't about abandoning structure entirely - it's about finding the right balance. 

    Teams are increasingly focused on streamlining processes, embracing continuous improvement, and maintaining an unwavering focus on delivering real customer value.

    The pendulum is swinging back from scaled frameworks to fundamental engineering practices. Teams are incorporating agile practices into their daily workflows without the overhead of excessive ceremonies. Delivering with feature toggles, continuous integration, and trunk-based development are becoming more important than analysing burndown charts and a calendar full of unproductive ceremonies.

    Expert take:

    “Rather than telling people how to do their jobs, work with them to set the goals for a process that would make them and the company more successful. Measure success based on improved team behavior rather than adherence to a set of rules. Instead of Agile, push for agility. In that sense, Agile is never really over. It’s just transforming into what it should have always been.” 

    - Jeff Gothelf, Product Management Author, Speaker, Trainer, and Coach

    2. The Evolution of Agile Roles

    Key Highlights:

    • More emphasis on technical leadership within teams rather than process-focused roles
    • Shift from dedicated Scrum Master positions to embedded agile leadership
    • Product management roles evolving to incorporate stronger business analysis capabilities

    The job market for Agile roles is undergoing a significant transformation. Pure Scrum Master positions are evolving into hybrid roles that combine technical expertise with process leadership. This isn't just semantics - it reflects a deeper understanding that effective agile leadership requires both technical context and facilitation skills.

    Engineering managers are expected to understand both system architecture and team dynamics. Instead of relying on external agile coaches, they're building these capabilities within their technical leadership. The focus has shifted from process adherence to technical mentorship and delivery optimization.

    Product managers are also adapting to this new reality. They're becoming what some call "super ICs" - professionals who blend product thinking with solid business analysis skills. It's no longer enough to just manage a backlog; today's product leaders need to speak the language of both business and technology.

    Expert take:

    “First of all, I think it needs to be said, we should not panic. You do not need to abandon your career as a Scrum Master, Agile Coach, or Agilist of any kind. But we do need to think about it differently. Some suggest broadening your skills, which can certainly make you more valuable. Become a ‘technologist who is a Scrum Master’ or a ‘manager with agile coaching skills’. 

    Keep in mind, this also may not require you to actually learn new skills, but to be smarter about how you position yourself and your existing capabilities. Know that organizations are looking for agile to be ‘baked in’ to the people they hire. You should broaden the scope of the types of roles you are searching for as well, because you might be surprised. I like to find companies that mention agile skills on job boards, then go and scour all of their open postings to see where else I might be able to apply.” 

    - Brian Link, Business Agility Coach, Author, and Speaker 

    3. Cross-Functional Teams Become Truly Cross-Functional

    Key Highlights:

    • Teams capable of handling end-to-end delivery from discovery to implementation
    • Breaking down traditional specializations in favor of full-stack capabilities
    • Reducing dependencies between teams through better cross-functional team structure

    The definition of "cross-functional" has evolved significantly. Modern engineering teams aren't just mixing developers and testers - they're creating truly autonomous units capable of handling the entire software lifecycle.

    In effect, forward-thinking organizations are breaking down the remaining silos between frontend, backend, and DevOps specialists in favor of truly full-stack capabilities. Teams are increasingly taking ownership of the entire delivery pipeline, from initial discovery through to production deployment.

    The most exciting part? Teams that embrace this approach are discovering they can deliver features faster and with better quality than ever before. When you own the entire process, you naturally make better decisions at every step. Plus, this approach not only avoids handovers and dependencies but also helps those teams develop into Product teams over time - armed with both domain knowledge as well as technical expertise.

    Expert take:

    “The nature of work is evolving. As challenges grow more complex and the pace of innovation accelerates, cross-functional collaboration is no longer a luxury — it’s a necessity. By embracing fluid roles, shared ownership, and open input, teams can unlock their full potential and deliver solutions that stand out in an increasingly competitive landscape.

    So, the next time you hear someone talk about cross-functional collaboration, challenge them to think beyond meetings and updates. True collaboration means breaking down walls, embracing diverse contributions, and working together in ways that transcend traditional boundaries. Only then can we tap into the collective intelligence of our teams and achieve greatness together.” 

    - Shubham Sharma, Senior Software Quality Engineer, Qantas

    4. Lean Takes Center Stage

    Key Highlights:

    • Growing adoption of "NoEstimates" and forecasting approaches over traditional estimation
    • Emphasis on smaller, more frequent releases with clear business context
    • Increased focus on flow efficiency and waste reduction in processes

    The shift toward leaner practices is revolutionizing how teams approach delivery. Organizations are moving beyond story points and velocity metrics to focus on flow efficiency and cycle time. The "NoEstimates" movement isn't about abandoning predictability - it's about finding more reliable ways to forecast and deliver value with less overhead.

    This shift toward leaner practices is complemented by a focus on smaller, frequent releases that tie directly to business outcomes.

    Organizations are getting better at lean principles to identify and eliminate unnecessary steps in their processes, with a singular focus on value delivery. 

    Expert take:

    “Asking whether Lean is still relevant in 2025 is akin to questioning the relevance of continuous improvement itself. The answer is, of course, a resounding "YES!" However, the challenge lies not in Lean’s principles but in how effectively organizations implement and sustain their improvement efforts.

    While many organizations adopt Lean methodologies, a significant gap remains between intention and execution. Common pitfalls include inadequate leadership commitment, failure to integrate Lean with organizational strategy, and lack of workforce engagement. Lean’s relevance hinges on addressing these challenges head-on by embedding continuous improvement into the DNA of an organization.”

    - Patrick Adams, CEO and Executive Lean Coach, Lean Solutions

    5. Quality and Technical Excellence Make A Resurgence

    Key Highlights:

    • Renewed emphasis on XP practices and technical craftsmanship
    • Greater focus on sustainable testing strategies combining automated and human testing
    • Continuous refactoring and technical excellence becoming primary concerns

    Technical excellence is back in focus. While the past decade saw many organizations chase velocity at the expense of quality, engineering teams are rediscovering that there's no sustainable agility without solid technical practices.

    Extreme Programming (XP) practices, once considered too rigorous for many organizations, are seeing renewed adoption. And modern tooling has made these practices more accessible, but they still require disciplined engineering culture to implement effectively.

    Testing strategies are evolving too, blending automated and manual strategies to ensure robust and adaptive systems. Advancements in testing technology—including AI-assisted tools—are enabling faster and more accurate testing processes, so quality remains a priority even in accelerated delivery cycles. 

    Continuous refactoring has become a primary concern, especially as organizations deal with the technical debt accumulated during rapid pandemic-era digital transformations. Teams are finding that regular system evolution isn't just about clean code - it's about maintaining the ability to respond quickly to business needs without sacrificing stability.

    Expert take:

    “For me, XP is at the core of Continuous Delivery, which is also the foundation on which DevOps is built.

    I don't think that you can achieve Continuous Delivery without the kind of polyglot collaboration between all of the parties involved in creating software. How can you Continuously Deliver if the Ops team, security team, testing team, dev team, or product team is in a silo? You can't.

    I think that both of those approaches represent a genuine paradigm shift - it's a complete change in focus, not only about how to practice software development but really what software development is. I think of it much more in terms of it being this exploratory process of discovery and part of the way in which we organize our work is to enable that - to allow ourselves the freedom to discover things, learn new things, change direction, and discard the bad things.” 

    - Dave Farley, Independent Software Developer and Consultant, Founder and Director of Continuous Delivery Ltd.

    6. Business Agility Extends Beyond IT

    Key Highlights:

    • Expansion of Agile principles beyond software development into broader business operations
    • Integration of product-oriented thinking across organizations
    • Focus on measurable business outcomes and value metrics

    The walls between IT and business are finally crumbling. While software teams have been practicing Agile for years, we're now seeing these principles take root across entire organizations. A significant milestone in this evolution is the recent acquisition of Agile Alliance by Product Management Institute - a clear signal of the broadening demand for agile skills and expertise across different business functions.

    Teams are adopting product-oriented thinking throughout the organization and focusing on measurable business outcomes rather than just project deliverables.

    The data backs this up: while IT teams lead with 70% Agile adoption, product and R&D teams aren't far behind. Even traditional business operations and marketing teams are embracing agile practices, with adoption rates of 28% and 20% respectively. This shift is driven by necessity - in a world where market conditions change rapidly, no department can afford to operate in quarterly planning cycles anymore.

    Consider Unilever's experience: By applying agile practices beyond their tech departments into marketing and product development teams, they've reduced time-to-market for new products by nearly 30%. This agility has enabled them to respond more effectively to changing consumer demands, particularly during times of economic uncertainty.

    Expert take:

    “Agile innovation has revolutionized the software industry, which has arguably undergone more rapid and profound change than any other area of business over the past 30 years. Now it is poised to transform nearly every other function in every industry. At this point, the greatest impediment is not the need for better methodologies, empirical evidence of significant benefits, or proof that agile can work outside IT. It is the behavior of executives. Those who learn to lead agile’s extension into a broader range of business activities will accelerate profitable growth.” 

    - Darrell Rigby, Jeff Sutherland, Hirotaka Takeuchi for Harvard Business Review

    7. Agile Adapts to Remote and Hybrid Work

    Key Highlights:

    • Evolution of Agile practices to better support distributed and hybrid teams
    • Development of new collaboration patterns for remote work
    • Focus on asynchronous communication and documentation

    Remote work has forced a fundamental rethinking of agile practices. The tools have evolved - Jira, Trello, and Slack are table stakes now - but the real innovation is happening in how teams structure their work and communication patterns to maintain the same level of engagement, communication, and velocity as in-person teams.

    Distributed teams are developing new approaches to traditional ceremonies. Asynchronous standup updates combined with focused synchronous discussion time. Sprint planning split into async preparation and live refinement sessions. Retrospectives that blend individual reflection time with group synthesis.

    Documentation, once seen as anti-agile, has found its place in the remote world. But it's not your grandfather's documentation - teams are using tools like Notion and Confluence to create living documents that evolve with their products. Architecture decision records (ADRs) and technical RFCs have become crucial tools for maintaining alignment across distributed teams.

    Expert take:

    “At one point, in-person face-to-face communication was the most effective way to communicate. This was still very true back in 2001 when Agile was defined, and this is why it was essential to document that in the Agile principles. However, the state of technology back then lacked the conductivity or capabilities to make remote possible, leaving workers desk-bound. The hardwired phone, desktop system, and limited email were what we had. So Agile worked to collocate teams and promoted in-person face-to-face meetings whenever possible in its first decade of existence. But that was 20 years ago.

    For Agile, with today’s technology, we are not going against the intent of how we framed effective communications. On the contrary, the technology has helped remove the impediment that most large multinational and distributed teams were dealing with when adopting Agile — we can now have everybody face-to-face regardless of where they are in the world. Furthermore, Agile helps to give the hybrid workplace a set of values and principles to help the hybrid work environment prosper.”

    • Ray Arell, Founder and Executive Director, nuAgility

    8. Economic Influences Shape Practice

    Key Highlights:

    • Greater emphasis on cost-effectiveness and demonstrable ROI
    • Focus on T-shaped people and efficient team structures
    • Renewed attention to productivity and outcome-based metrics

    Economic realities are pushing organizations to rethink their agile implementations. The focus has shifted from process purity to practical outcomes. Teams are being asked not just to deliver features, but to demonstrate their impact on business metrics - aka cost-effectiveness and return on investment.

    Value stream mapping has moved from theory to practice, as organizations work to understand and optimize their delivery pipelines. The most effective teams are those that can connect their technical metrics (lead time, deployment frequency, MTTR) to business outcomes (revenue impact, customer satisfaction, market share).

    The investment in T-shaped individuals - those who combine deep expertise with broad capabilities - is proving particularly valuable in this environment. These team members can adapt to changing needs and help reduce the coordination overhead that often plagues specialized teams.

    Expert take:

    “Looking ahead, I foresee a renewed focus on certainty, optimization, and individual performance metrics. I see this because developing self-management is extremely hard, too slow for some and it'll be easier to revert back to old habits of command and control.  This shift could divert attention away from user-centric goals and outcome-based measures, a trend that could undermine the very principles that have made Agile successful. To counteract this, I believe the Agile community must remain vigilant, using tools like Evidence-Based Management to ensure that we stay aligned with our core values while providing the metrics and proof of progress for those who need it.” 

    - Simon Bourk, Professional Scrum Trainer, Master Integral Coach TM

    Looking Ahead

    As we move into 2025, we're seeing the emergence of a more mature, nuanced approach to agility. Organizations are moving beyond the framework debates and certification chases to focus on what truly matters: building high-quality software that delivers business value efficiently.

    The most successful teams will be those that can:

    • Maintain technical excellence while adapting to changing business needs
    • Balance autonomy with accountability through clear outcome metrics
    • Leverage automation and AI without losing sight of craftsmanship
    • Scale agile practices through organization-wide adoption
    • Adapt their practices to support distributed, async-first work patterns

    The future of Agile isn't about choosing between SAFe and Scrum, or debating the merits of estimation. It's about building engineering organizations that can consistently deliver value while maintaining the technical excellence needed for long-term sustainability. The teams that get this right won't just survive the next wave of change - they'll lead it.

    Exciting times indeed.

  • Agile Best Practice

    Foundations of Customer-Centric Agile

    Picture this all-too-common scenario: Your teams have been working diligently across multiple departments. They've successfully developed an MVP following perfect agile practices. The burndown charts are beautiful. The collaboration was seamless. The code is clean, tested, and ready to ship.

    There's just one small problem – when you release it to your users... crickets. No one uses it. No one cares.

    Sound familiar? You're not alone.

    The Build Trap: A Silent Killer of Agile Success

    Many agile teams find themselves trapped in a cycle of building features that don't deliver real value to their customers. They've fallen into what product strategy expert Melissa Perri calls "the build trap" – focusing on outputs (like features shipped) rather than outcomes (like solving real customer problems).

    As Charlie Hill, VP of Strategic Design at IBM, explains:

    "The most important question for you to ask is, can you accomplish an outcome that a user would recognize as better than the other options available? And can you get it to that user before your competition does? Because if you can't, it's going to be a struggle. If you spend too much time measuring internal velocity, you risk falling in love with a very efficient process but losing sight of the market."

    Understanding the Value Exchange System

    At the heart of successful agile development lies a fundamental concept: the Value Exchange System.

    Customer value exchange system

    It works like this:

    1. On one side, customers have specific problems, wants, and needs
    2. On the other side, businesses create products or services to resolve these problems
    3. Customers realize value only when their problems are genuinely solved
    4. Only then do they provide value back to the business through loyalty, revenue, and advocacy

    This reciprocal relationship forms the foundation of customer-centric agile. When teams focus on solving real customer problems rather than just shipping features, they create a virtuous cycle benefiting both the customer and the business.

    Why Traditional Agile Often Misses the Mark

    Agile methodologies were born from a desire to be more responsive to change and deliver value faster. But somewhere along the way, many teams lost sight of the ultimate goal – delighting customers. They became more focused on:

    • Sprint velocity over customer impact
    • Story points over solved problems
    • Feature completion over user satisfaction
    • Process efficiency over market success

    Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, puts it perfectly:

    "There are many ways to center a business. You can be competitor focused, you can be product focused, you can be technology focused, you can be business model focused... But in my view, obsessive customer focus is by far the most protective of day one vitality."

    The Six Pillars of Customer-Centric Agile

    To embrace truly customer-centric agile development, teams need to adopt these fundamental principles:

    1. Empathy First

    • Get out from behind your desk and observe customers in their natural environment
    • Listen to their frustrations and celebrate their wins
    • See the world through their eyes before attempting solutions

    2. Outcomes Over Outputs

    • Focus on the impact your features create, not just their completion
    • Measure success by customer problems solved
    • Ask "How does this improve our users' lives?" before "How fast can we ship it?"

    3. Continuous Discovery

    • Make learning about customers an ongoing process, not a one-time event
    • Regularly conduct user interviews and analyze usage data
    • Keep testing assumptions and validating decisions

    4. Experimentation Mindset

    • Embrace uncertainty and be willing to test assumptions
    • Use prototypes and MVPs to validate ideas before full commitment
    • Learn from failures as much as successes

    5. Cross-Functional Collaboration

    • Ensure everyone on the team has access to customer insights
    • Break down silos between product, development, and user research
    • Make customer understanding everyone's responsibility

    6. Rapid Iteration

    • Be prepared to pivot quickly based on customer feedback
    • Maintain technical practices that enable fast response to learning
    • Value adaptation over following a plan

    Getting Started with Customer-Centric Agile

    While the principles are straightforward, implementing them requires careful thought and systematic approach.

    Begin by assessing your current state. Take time to understand how your team currently gathers customer insights. Look at your feature adoption rates and usage patterns. Most importantly, examine how you measure success - are you tracking outputs like velocity, or outcomes like customer impact?

    Next, focus on building customer empathy across your entire team. Schedule regular customer conversations - aim for at least one per sprint. Create opportunities for team members from all functions to observe customers using your product in their natural environment. Make sharing customer insights a regular part of your agile ceremonies, not just something that happens in product meetings.

    Finally, start adjusting your metrics to reflect your customer-centric focus. While velocity and story points have their place, they shouldn't be your primary measures of success. Begin tracking customer outcomes and impact. Monitor feature adoption and engagement. Pay attention to how your work affects customer satisfaction and retention.

    Want to dive deeper into implementing these principles?

    We've written a comprehensive guide that does just that and provides detailed frameworks for implementation.

    In "Understanding Customer Value in Agile," you'll find practical techniques, real-world case studies, and step-by-step guides for transforming your agile practice. Each chapter builds on these foundational principles to help you create truly customer-centric development processes.

    Get your free copy today.

  • Agile Best Practice

    Mastering User Story Mapping for Customer-Centric Product Development

    Picture yourself trying to assemble a complex piece of furniture without the visual instruction manual - just a long list of steps. Frustrating, right? That's exactly how many teams feel when working from a flat product backlog. They have lists of features and requirements, but they've lost sight of the complete customer journey.

    That's where user story mapping comes in. It helps us see the forest before getting lost in the trees.

    The Power of Narrative Flow in Product Discovery

    Flat Backlog vs. User Story Map

    User story mapping transforms how teams approach product discovery. Rather than diving straight into features, it helps you visualize the complete journey a customer takes with your product, from beginning to end. This focus on customer centricity ensures you're building features that truly matter.

    As Jeff Patton, who pioneered user story mapping, explains, traditional flat backlogs are like trying to understand a book by reading a list of sentences in random order. Sure, all the content is there, but the story—the user's journey—gets lost.

    "User story mapping is a facilitated, curated conversation that brings everyone along for the journey. It's an opportunity for the product manager to brain dump their insights (who is deep in this stuff day in, day out) and get it into the minds of the team who are about to deliver on it." - Nicholas Muldoon, Co-Founder and CEO, Easy Agile

    Creating Your First User Story Map

    Let's walk through creating a user story map for a streaming service like Netflix or Apple TV. We'll see how their teams might map out the user experience of watching a movie.

    Step 1 - Start with the Big Picture

    Begin by identifying the major activities your users go through - what Jeff Patton calls the "backbone" or "narrative flow" of your story map. Think of these as the chapter titles in your user's story.

    For our streaming service example, the backbone might look like this:

    • Select movie
    • Purchase movie
    • Watch movie
    • Review/recommend movie
    Backbone of User Story Map

    🎯 Team Exercise: Gather your team and ask, "What are the major steps our users take to accomplish their goal?" Write each step on a card or sticky note, arranging them left to right in chronological order.

    Step 2 - Add User Tasks

    Now comes the rich detail. Under each major activity, add the specific tasks users need to complete. These become your user stories.  The key is to maintain focus on user value rather than technical implementation.

    In the above example, these could be your user stories for the "Select movie" activity:

    • Free text search
    • Browse by genre
    • Browse by recent addition
    • Browse by most popular
    • Browse by most popular by genre
    • Browse by recent addition by genre
    User Stories and Tasks in User Story Map

    💡 Pro Tip: Write these tasks from the user's perspective. Instead of "implement search functionality," write "search for specific movies."

    Step 3 - Master Backlog Prioritization

    Here's where user story mapping truly shines compared to flat backlogs. You'll organize your stories both horizontally (in sequence) and vertically (by priority). This approach helps with both feature prioritization and sprint planning.

    Horizontal: Organize stories left to right in the sequence users would naturally perform them. 

    Vertical: Arrange stories from top to bottom in order of priority, by value to the user. You can identify the value through conversations with users, analytics on usage patterns, or another form of insight appropriate for your product.

    User Story Map Horizontal Prioritization
    User Story Map Vertical Prioritization

    Think of it like building a house. The foundation (must-haves) comes first, then the walls (should-haves), and finally the decorative touches (nice-to-haves).

    Priority Framework: 

    HIGH (Must have)

    • Core functionality essential for basic user journey
    • Critical user needs identified from research
    • Example: Basic search, Movie playback, Payment processing

    MEDIUM (Should have)

    • Important features that enhance user experience
    • Validated user desires from feedback
    • Example: Genre filtering, Recommendations, Ratings display

    LOW (Nice to have)

    • Additional features for delight
    • Potential future enhancements
    • Example: Social sharing, Advanced recommendations, Multiple watch lists

    Step 4 - Identify Your Releases

    With your map laid out, draw horizontal lines to slice your map into releases. Each slice should represent a complete, valuable user experience.

    User Story Map Structure and Levels - Epic, Story, Sprint

    Facilitating User Story Mapping Sessions

    Running an effective user story mapping session requires more than just following the steps above. Whether your team is co-located or distributed across time zones, here's how to make these sessions productive and engaging:

    Pre-Session Checklist

    • Invite the right people (product owner, developers, designers, subject matter experts)
    • Prepare customer research insights and data 
    • Set up physical or digital collaboration space
    • Define clear session objectives 
    • Schedule adequate time (typically 2-4 hours for initial mapping)

    During-the-Session Checklist

    • Start with customer context (share research findings, personas) 
    • Keep focus on user's perspective 
    • Document questions and assumptions 
    • Take photos/screenshots of work in progress 
    • Capture action items and decisions

    User Story Mapping For Co-Located Teams

    Make sure the physical space is well-equipped for the perfect user story mapping session.

    • Large wall space or whiteboard
    • Plenty of sticky notes in different colors
    • Markers for everyone
    • Space for team movement and discussion

    User Story Mapping For Remote Teams

    Many teams often need to conduct user story mapping sessions remotely. While the principles remain the same, the execution requires some additional consideration:

    1. Digital Workspace:
      • Choose collaborative tools like Easy Agile TeamRhythm
      • Set up template beforehand
      • Ensure everyone has access and basic tool familiarity
    2. Engagement Techniques:
      • Use smaller breakout rooms for detailed discussions
      • Leverage digital voting for prioritization
      • Use timer-based activities to maintain energy
      • Schedule shorter sessions with clear breaks
      • Record sessions for team members in different time zones

    Making Remote User Story Mapping Work for You


    During the pandemic, Lyft turned to Easy Agile TeamRhythm’s remote user story mapping to keep their teams connected and focused while working from home. This tool made it easy for their distributed teams to collaborate, visualize customer journeys, and stay on top of priorities—even with everyone apart.

    The result? A 20% boost in efficiency and smoother, more aligned teamwork. It’s a great example of how the right tool can make remote work feel a lot less remote.

    Ready to try it? Let’s map your team’s success with Easy Agile TeamRhythm!

    Common Pitfalls to Avoid

    1. "We're losing the big picture"

    Solution: Keep your backbone visible at all times. Regularly step back and walk through the complete user journey.

    1. "Technical discussions are derailing us"

    Solution: Create a "parking lot" for technical discussions. Focus first on the user's journey, then tackle implementation details in separate sessions.

    1. "Remote participants aren't engaging"

    Solution: Use round-robin techniques to ensure everyone contributes. Create explicit opportunities for input from remote team members.

    1. "Our map is becoming outdated"

    Solution: Schedule regular review sessions. Make updating the map part of your sprint ceremonies.

    Keeping Your Story Map Alive

    Your user story map shouldn't be a one-time exercise that gets filed away. It should evolve as your understanding of users deepens. Keep it alive and relevant by:

    1. Making it visible

    • Display it prominently in your team space
    • Keep it accessible in your digital tools
    • Reference it in planning sessions

    2. Updating regularly

    • Add new insights from customer feedback
    • Adjust priorities based on learnings
    • Mark completed items
    • Note changes in user needs or behavior

    3. Using it for alignment

    • Reference during sprint planning
    • Share with stakeholders
    • Use for onboarding new team members

    Measuring Success

    Finally, look for these indicators to know if your story mapping is effective. Special props to you and the team if you nail them all.

    ✓ Team members naturally reference the map during discussions 

    ✓ Customer feedback aligns with your prioritization 

    ✓ Releases deliver coherent user experiences 

    ✓ Reduced scope creep and feature bloat 

    ✓ Improved team alignment on priorities 

    ✓ Better sprint planning sessions

    Remember, user story mapping isn't about creating a perfect document - it's about fostering better conversations about user needs and ensuring we're building the right things in the right order.

    Want to dive deeper into building customer-centric products? Download our free ebook "Understanding Customer Value in Agile" to learn:

    • How to escape the "build trap" and focus on real customer outcomes
    • Practical techniques for understanding your customers deeply
    • Frameworks for capturing and acting on customer insights
    • Step-by-step guidance for creating meaningful personas and journey maps
    • A concrete 30-60-90 day plan to transform how your team understands and delivers customer value

    Download your free copy here and start your journey toward truly customer-centric agile development.

Text Link

The problem with Agile estimation

Estimation is a common challenge for agile software development teams. Story points have become the go-to measure to estimate...

Text Link

The problem with Agile estimation

Estimation is a common challenge for agile software development teams. Story points have become the go-to measure to estimate...