journey vs story

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Comparing Story Maps and Journey Maps in User Journey – Examining Their Similarities and Distinctions

It is not uncommon for individuals to become perplexed when attempting to choose the optimal map for analysing customer experience, such as a story map or journey map in the user journey. Both of these maps have recently grown popular in the corporate world, although they feature some minor distinctions. This article will provide a brief analysis of both story maps and journey maps and the advantages they provide to project teams.

An Overview of Story Maps

Story maps are a useful tool for presenting complex information in an easily understandable format for user journeys. By integrating text, images, and interactive elements like hyperlinks, audio, and video, they create a comprehensive picture. Enabling users to narrate stories, provide topic overviews, or illustrate element relationships, story maps effectively engage viewers and facilitate rapid comprehension of information.

Story mapping simplifies and streamlines the analysis of the customer experience, allowing for a comprehensive mapping process. This method entails sequencing stories to offer a detailed overview of customer interactions with a product. It involves evaluating effectiveness, pinpointing factors that influenced customer-product interaction, and identifying areas for potential future enhancement.

Mapping Out Narratives in the Form of Epics

Story maps, found on Ideascale’s blog , employ fundamental steps referred to as epics. A sequence or timeline organizes these epics, centring on the customer’s experience throughout their journey with the product.

The project team retains the flexibility to incorporate epics, be they individual or collective journeys, into the map at their discretion. Story maps serve as invaluable aids in comprehending a customer’s entire journey with a brand or product, encapsulating the ultimate objectives of their interaction.

The significance of Story Mapping remains indisputable. Employing this technique facilitates the structured arrangement of stories, offering enhanced visualization of narrative progression. This organized approach fosters a deeper understanding of the storyline and its multifaceted elements.

A story map is a useful tool for illustrating the overall experience of a product, the customer’s objectives, and the steps they have taken in order to reach their goal which also provides insight into the necessary improvements and requirements from the perspective of the customer.

Crafting a story map proves effective in pinpointing areas for the team’s focus to achieve their user engagement objectives. It also aids in aligning the team’s goals with those of the users and fosters a clearer understanding of their mutual objectives which helps to construct a story map and elucidates the entire product process hence connecting with the user and enabling quick recognition of upcoming business prospects. There are a number of benefits of selecting a story map, and now we will look at the same for journey maps.

Mapping a Course of Action

Journey maps are a great way to plot a course of action for any situation in user journey. They can help to visualize the steps to reach a desired outcome and provide a roadmap for success. Journey maps present an individual’s experience with your product, with precise data on their journey. It takes into account their initial sentiments and current feelings, unlike user mapping which just looks at the stages of the journey. It gives more room for the user’s emotional state in the process.

The components that make up a journey map include five main elements.

Involved Individuals

The focus of the journey map is the actor or subject. This may be a customer, an individual persona, or a collective of users.

Anticipated Outcomes

This section addresses the timeline within a journey map. It looks at what the individuals initially expected and what the results were. It is possible to modify expectations as market trends develop.

Different Stages or Ideological Systems

The voyage had multiple distinct legs that could be classified into distinct groups. These divisions correspond to separate phases of the journey, with each of them having numerous distinct steps.

Behaviors, Attitudes, and Feelings

The journey map highlights three intangible elements: actions, mindsets, and emotions. Actions drive the progression of stages, while mindsets influence user thoughts and expectations. Additionally, emotions are tracked using a dynamic line chart to illustrate the emotional state at each journey step.

Chances to Embark on a Trip by Mapping It Out

By using journey maps, you can gain insight into how the market reacts to your product and how users perceive it. This makes it easier to pinpoint issues in each phase and determine what caused them. You can then apply the improvements at each step. To assess the success of the changes, observe the users’ emotional state.

You will gain insight into what the future holds for your company and be able to identify the areas in which you can best meet the needs of your customers. In contrast to story maps that pay attention to specific steps and action mapping, journey maps center on the feelings and aims of users to elevate their experience.

Case Study: Enhancing a Mobile Banking App

ABC Bank, a leading financial institution, aimed to improve its mobile banking app to offer a seamless and customer-centric experience. They embarked on a project to revamp the app’s functionalities and user interface to increase user engagement and satisfaction.

Journey Mapping Approach

Objective: understand and enhance user experience.

ABC Bank initiated a Journey Mapping exercise to comprehend the entire user journey across different touch points within the mobile banking app.

The Process

Identification of Touchpoints: The team identified key touchpoints, including account login, funds transfer, bill payments, and customer support interactions.

They gathered user feedback and conducted surveys to analyze emotions at each touchpoint, pinpointing instances of frustration (like login errors), satisfaction (such as seamless fund transfers), and also confusion (like the complexity of the bill payment process).

The Outcome

The Journey Mapping exercise revealed several critical insights:

Multiple security layers during the login process caused significant frustration for users which lead to considerable issues.

Fund transfer and bill payment processes were relatively smooth, leading to positive user experiences.

Fragmented customer support interactions lacked clarity, causing confusion for users seeking assistance.

Actions Taken

ABC Bank prioritized enhancing the login process by streamlining security measures without compromising safety.

They revamped the customer support interface to provide clearer guidance and more accessible help options.

Story Mapping Approach

Objective: define product features and prioritize development.

After gaining insights from the Journey Mapping exercise, ABC Bank moved on to Story Mapping to define and structure the mobile banking app’s features.

The team successfully identified and organized user stories centred around essential functionalities crucial for a seamless user experience, including ‘User Login,’ ‘Funds Transfer,’ ‘Bill Payment,’ and ‘Customer Support.’

Prioritization: They arranged these stories in a chronological sequence or thematic structure to create a roadmap, highlighting essential features and functionalities needed for each phase.

The Story Map played a crucial role in fostering collaboration among the development, design, and marketing teams, ensuring they were aligned with the overarching product vision.

The Story Mapping exercise led to a structured plan:

The identified user frustrations prompted the immediate need for attention to the ‘User Login’ feature, highlighting its significance as a primary focus.

The improvement focus was on ‘Customer Support’ to guarantee a seamless help experience within the app.

The development team focused on revamping the login process by implementing a more user-friendly authentication method.

They redesigned the customer support feature to offer in-app assistance using chatbots and provide clearer guidance for issue resolution.

Journey Mapping and Story Mapping served different purposes

Journey Mapping provided a holistic view of user experiences, highlighting pain points and emotional responses.

Story Mapping facilitated a structured approach to prioritize and develop features aligned with the user journey insights.

ABC Bank’s use of Journey Mapping and Story Mapping exemplifies how these methodologies complement each other. Journey Mapping uncovered user pain points and emotions, guiding the prioritization and structuring of features through Story Mapping. By combining these approaches, the bank successfully enhanced its mobile banking app, delivering a more user-centric and seamless experience.

Conclusively, it’s worth noting that…

For individuals seeking deeper insights into market trends, customer feedback, and journeys, both journey maps and story maps offer valuable advantages and understanding the essential components required for crafting these maps is crucial for the user journey. Moreover, if this article proved helpful, delving into the distinctive elements of story maps is highly recommended.

Furthermore, fostering heightened communication between the involved parties is pivotal for achieving a successful resolution. Thus, facilitating enhanced dialogue between them becomes imperative to forge an agreement mutually advantageous to both sides. Ultimately, establishing an improved connection stands as a fundamental requirement for collaborative work leading to a satisfactory conclusion.

Also curious about app design, read our blog on Hybrid v/s Native apps .

Agile workflow

The Ultimate Guide to User Story Mapping [2023 Guide]

Whether you’re planning your first user story mapping session or you’ve got a few under your belt, it can be a little overwhelming 🤯

• What’s the process?
• Who do I need to get involved?
• Why are we even bothering with this when we have a perfectly good backlog? (Okay… it might be slightly dysfunctional, but you know...)
• Why are there sticky notes EVERYWHERE?

Most product managers and Agile teams could benefit from a deeper understanding of user story mapping so they can create a more customer-centered view of the work that needs to be done.

Plus, over the last 15 years (since user story maps started to become a thing thanks to Jeff Patton), some of the processes and terms have evolved and there are new tools and apps that can make your life a whooooole lot easier.

We’ve put together this ultimate guide with all the info you need to get up to speed on the latest user story mapping definitions, techniques, and tools. Let’s start with some basics 👇

What is user story mapping?

Here’s a super simple user story mapping definition:.

User story mapping is a visualization of the journey a customer takes with a product, from beginning to end. It includes all the tasks they’d typically complete as part of that journey.

To expand on that, user story mapping takes all your user stories (across all your persona types) and assigns them to epics in the order that delivers the most value to the customer. From there, stories are prioritized and mapped to releases.

“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.”

What isn’t user story mapping?

While user story mapping might have a few things in common with other methods, it’s not the same as journey mapping or event storming.

User story mapping vs journey mapping

Journey mapping is a UX tool that helps teams visualize the journey a customer needs to take so they can accomplish a goal. Journey maps focus on the journey for a single persona or customer, based on the persona’s specific scenario and expectations. This is useful for aligning the team, getting them focused on the user experience, and basing decisions. Unlike user story mapping, it’s focused on the user experience and the vision for the product.

User story mapping vs event storming

Event storming involves running a workshop with key business stakeholders present. The attendees write down business events (things that happen), commands (things that trigger the events), and reactions (things that happen as a result) on sticky notes. These notes are organized sequentially to map out the business processes. Unlike user story mapping, which is focused on refining the backlog to deliver a working product for the user, event storming is more high-level and done early in the product planning process.

User story mapping for agile teams

User story maps can be useful for all agile teams, whether they’re full SAFe or Kanban, but especially if they’re working on a complex product.

User story mapping is a useful technique for agile software development teams because it can help your team deliver working software and respond to change.

This fits right in with the Agile Manifesto.

And let’s not forget the number one agile principle:

“Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.”

User story mapping puts the focus on the user, ensuring that the backlog contains stories that add real value to the customer by helping them achieve their goals.

Plus, story mapping allows your team to plan and order their work so that it delivers the highest value to customers first.

The anatomy of a user story map

User stories, epics, the backbone and story mapping - oh my! To break down the steps and processes involved in user story mapping down further, let’s define some of its moving parts.

User stories

A user story is a goal, from the user or customer’s perspective. It’s an outcome they want. It’s also the smallest unit of work in an agile framework with the purpose of articulating how a piece of work will deliver value back to the customer.

User stories usually follow the structure:

As a [persona type], I want to [action] so that [benefit].

For example:

Tip: it’s a good idea to focus on just one type of user/persona during your user story mapping session. If it’s your first session, choose your most ideal customer type and write our user stories that will deliver value to them. You can always come back to your other users in future.

Read ➡️ How to write good user stories in agile software development.

Stories can be associated with epics.

Epics have different meanings depending on who you talk to. But for the sake of this article, we’ll define epics as bigger, overarching stories or steps in the journey that contain user stories. An epic on its own isn’t small enough to become a work item or development task, but the stories it contains probably are.

For example, the epic “Sign up” might contain the following user stories:

• As a customer, I want to read the privacy policy before I sign up for my account so I can decide whether I trust the company with my details
• As a customer, I want to see a list of features and benefits on the sign-up page to remind me about what I’m signing up for
• As a customer, I want to sign up for an account using my Facebook login so I don’t have to remember my username or password
• As a customer, I want to sign up for an account using my email address so I can control access to my information
• And in this example, the next epic might be “Set up and customize my profile”.

The backbone

The backbone is the top row of your user story map. It outlines the essential capabilities the system needs to have.

Your backbone should show the customer journey or process from beginning to end, including all the high level activities the customer will complete while using your product. Depending on how you use your backbone and story map, it could be made up of epics.

The backbone is critical because it gives your team the “why” behind the journey, even if they’re just focused on a single step. It takes away ambiguity around what might lead up to that step and what might follow it, which gives important context for creating a smooth customer journey.

More on: The Anatomy of a User Story Map

Why do user story mapping?

The purpose of user story mapping is to make sure you understand the problem the customer has, and then find a solution to that problem.

You’ll know the answer to:

• Why are we building this?
• Who are we building this for?
• What value will it provide them?
• When do we expect to deliver this?

This will help align your teams, groom the backlog, and more quickly deliver a product that your customers want and need.

John Walpole explains the value of user stories beautifully:

“[There’s] one technique and tool which time and time again I’ve gone back to when I felt like a project maybe isn’t thoroughly understood by the team, or I’m worried that we’re going to end up shipping software that isn’t going to delight customers. This is my go-to technique. I believe it’s going to help you ship software that will delight your customers.”

Without user story mapping, there’s a much greater chance that your team will come up with complicated, non-customer-focused solutions to a problem.

User story mapping helps ensure the team is aligned around what problem the customer has, and how you, as a team, are going to try and solve that problem.

It will keep you focused on delivering the highest impact and greatest value pieces first, enabling you to iterate based on feedback.

Read ➡️ Why User Story Mapping

Benefits of user story mapping

“User story mapping is the best technique I’ve come across to gain shared understanding within an agile team. Alex Hennecke at Atlassian talked about being able to see the forest - instead of just the trees, right in front of him.”

There are so many benefits to user story mapping, like:

• Plan better - Seeing the user journey mapped out makes it easier for teams to see the big picture of your product and identify any risks, dependencies, and blocks ahead of time
• Greater empathy - It forces your team to see the product from your users’ perspective
• Better prioritization - Organize work into releases based on what’s most important to users and what will deliver a new or complete experience for users
• More value sooner - Frequently delivering new value to users is easier when you can order the stories based on value and map them to iterations or releases
• Realistic requirements - By breaking user stories down and visually mapping them, it’s easier to estimate work and see how all the pieces fit together
• Better collaboration - With all the upcoming work mapped out, marketing, sales, and other teams can see when you expect to ship new features and updates so they can adjust their marketing communications and sales conversations (without asking you for daily updates)

User story mapping helps your team understand the bigger picture, the why, and the end-to-end customer journey before they dive into the what and how.

Read ➡️ Understand what your customers want with agile user story maps.

The flat backlog vs user story mapping

Before we had user story mapping, we had the flat backlog. Actually, a lot of agile teams still use the flat backlog (no judgement if this is you!). So, let’s talk about what that looks like and how user story mapping has improved this practice.

Read ➡️ DEEP: The 4 Characteristics of a Good Product Backlog

What’s a flat backlog?

Essentially, it’s a to-do list. It includes all the items your team needs to do so they can provide value to your customers, ordered from most valuable to least valuable to the customer. The backlog may be split into current and future sprints to show what outputs are likely to be delivered when.

But I like our backlog!

A simple to do list might be fine if your product is simple, your team is small, and your to-do list is very short. But most products are complex, with multiple teams working on it. And most of the time, the backlog is massive (and constantly growing and changing).

Flat backlogs are complex at scale

If you’ve got hundreds of issues (or more), a flat backlog makes it impossible to see the big picture and surrounding context - which your team needs in order to refine the backlog, find dependencies, and prioritize the work into releases. It can also get pretty overwhelming!

• Specific challenges of using the flat backlog include:
• Arranging user stories in the order you’ll build them doesn’t help you explain to others what the system does
• It provides no context or ‘big picture’ around the work a team is doing
• For a new system, the flat backlog is poor at helping you determine if you’ve identified all the stories
• Release planning is difficult with a flat backlog - how do you prioritize what to build first when you’ve got an endless list?
• It’s virtually impossible to discover the ‘backbone’ of your product

User story maps were designed to overcome these challenges and restructure the backlog to add context, make it easier to prioritize, and put the focus on the customers’ needs. It introduces the X axis, with the backbone at the top to show the customer journey, and the user stories below.

When you go from a flat backlog to multiple axes, your team (and the rest of your organization) can understand what value we intend to deliver to the customer and when.

Read ➡️ The difference between a flat product backlog and a user story map.

When is user story mapping done?

So, when do you actually run a user story mapping session?

Generally, a team will collaboratively create a story map at the start of a project or product. It might be an entirely new product, or the product manager might want to pursue a new idea or feature as part of an existing product.

This involves getting subject matter experts and team members together to run a session where you look at your personas and overarching customer journey, then brainstorm ways you can provide the most value to customers. Then you’ll write user stories for each of your persona types and each step of the journey, based on their needs.

As we’ve already mentioned, it’s best to focus on one persona type per story mapping session to avoid confusion. So, start with the persona who is the best fit for your product or likely represent the largest chunk of your audience first.

Overall, the process could take several days or even several weeks, depending on the complexity of your product (and therefore, the number of steps in the customer journey) and the number of personas.

Getting the most out of User Story Mapping

Who should be involved in user story mapping.

Some folks you might invite to your user story mapping party session include your:

• Subject matter experts (whether product owner, product manager, customer support team member, or someone else who interacts with the customer)
• Business owner
• UX designer
• Facilitator or Scrum Master (it’s useful if you can get another product manager to facilitate the session)

Tip: Try to keep your numbers below 10 participants. Diverse perspectives are useful, but any more than that and it can get tricky to manage and get input from everyone. All the people present should be able to contribute insights into the personas/product/business, or help estimate how long tasks will take to complete.

Mapping the user stories

Once the backbone is established (and your team agrees on the order), you can put the flesh on it. Under each item in the backbone, go the user stories (steps, processes, and details) that support that activity. This involves some brainstorming and creative thinking.

Encourage your team to imagine the different options available to the user, how they might want to experience each step in the backbone, and actions they might take. It can't hurt to do a paper prototyping session alongside your user story map to mock up ideas as you go. Or perhaps that step will come later, depending on the scenario and maturity of your team.

Then you can put your user stories in a sequence to deliver maximum value to the customer as quickly and consistently as possible. So, put the most important user stories at the top, and the least important ones at the bottom.

Cut lines or swimlanes

Your team will get together and discuss and estimate the work involved in each user story. After that, you can add cut lines (usually sprint or version lines) to mark out what your team will deliver and when. At this point, you might shuffle some stories around if it makes sense for the user to get them in the same release.

Read ➡️ Anatomy of an agile user story map.

Tips for successful user story mapping

Involve the right people.

It can be tricky to get your team and stakeholders together. They’re busy and probably have a plate full of commitments. But it’s always worth getting everyone to set aside time and step away from the keyboard. User story mapping is important - and you’ll need input from everyone so you can:

• Brainstorm stories then prioritize and estimate them
• Get your team to commit to implementing them

Break it up

“Typically, I’d run these things to try and get as much of the planning, personas, and backbone done on day one as possible. By that point, most people are tapped out because the cognitive load is high. Then the team can go away and sleep on it. Once they’ve had time to reflect on it, they’ll come back with other ideas for user stories and thoughts about how they’d do the work before they start sequencing.”

You don’t have to do your whole user story mapping session in one go. Depending on the size, complexity, and phase of your product, you might not be able to fit it into one day, either.

Instead, break your session up into 2-3 hour chunks and do it over several days. You might do the first session in the afternoon and the next session the following morning. This comes with a few advantages:

• It means you don’t have to get your stakeholders and teams together for an extended period
• You might find it’s a lot easier to coordinate your calendars when you split your sessions up
• It gives your team time to reflect on the initial story map (they’ll probably think of a million new things to add on day two)
• Your team can get lunch after the session is done and debrief over food and drinks 🍻🍔🍕

A single facilitator

While you DO want all your team and stakeholders at your user story mapping session, you don’t want everybody driving the discussion (too many chefs in the kitchen = not a good idea). Instead choose one person to facilitate the session. Sometimes it even works better if you can choose a product manager from another team to run things.

No phones/laptops

For in-person user story mapping sessions, only your designated facilitator is allowed their device. To avoid distractions, ask folks to leave their phones and laptops in a stack at the door. That way, your team can be fully present for all discussions.

Start with data and evidence

Before you get stuck into user story mapping, bring in relevant data and supporting evidence. All of that is great context for what's to come. And of course, you can’t do user story mapping without a clear understanding of who your users are - and what their goals, objectives, problems, and needs are.

So, create your personas before you build out your customer journeys. That way, you’ll understand how your users will engage with the product, and you’ll be able to write user stories that more accurately reflect reality.

User Story Mapping Approaches

User story mapping example.

Let’s go through an example of user story mapping to help you visualize the process for your own product.

• Identify product/outcome

In this example, our product is a free online educational kids game. The outcome is for the user to find and play the game.

• List high level activities (in chronological order):
• Navigate to games website
• Log into account (or sign up if a first-time user)
• Search for game
• Choose game
• Share with a friend or on social media
• List user stories under each activity

For example, searching for a game could include the following options:

• Free text search - As a parent, I want to search for a specific keyword so I can quickly navigate to a game
• Browse by category: age group - As a parent, I want to find an age appropriate game that my kids will easily pick up
• Browse by category: type of education - As a parent, I want to find a game that will help my child improve their knowledge and skills in a specific area
• Browse by category: game type - As a parent, I want to find a new game that’s similar to one my child already likes
• Order by top rated - As a parent, I want to find a game that’s likely to keep my kid engaged for a while so I can get some work done
• Order by newest/oldest - As a parent, I want to help my child find a game they haven’t already played, to give them a new experience
• Order by most popular - As a parent, I want to help my child find and play the most popular games
• Order stories from most to least valuable to users

Value is identified from analytics on usage patterns, customer interviews, and other insights.

Your team might check feedback forms to see what parents’ top requested features are, and prioritize these first. That way, they’ll deliver more value, more quickly.

Sequence the work so you know what to deliver and when

Your team will estimate the work involved in each user story and decide what stories you can complete for upcoming sprints or releases. They may group stories that are needed to deliver an MVP, or stories that need to get released together - for example, all the “browse by category” features might go live at the same time.

Split it up over releases or sprints

The team sets your cut lines (for the sprint or version), allowing them to distinguish what they think they can deliver in that sprint/version. This will be based on their capacity and what they need to deliver to users for a minimum viable product (MVP).

A user story mapping… story

During his time at Twitter, our Co-Founder, Nicholas Muldoon, facilitated a session for another team whose goal was to figure out how they should fix an issue with the app. This example (in Nick’s words) shows another interesting application of user story mapping, including the types of issues you might work through and how you can hone in on a particular persona or subsection of your audience.

Step 1: Kick off

We started by getting everyone in the room. Attendees included several subject matter experts - not just the immediate team who were working on the project. This included someone from the user authentication team and a UX designer who had worked on password resets in the past.

The product manager kicked off the session by explaining the situation: “A whole chunk of users are having trouble getting into the app because they can’t remember their password. But in order to get them to go through the tedious password reset process, we want to give them value first to show that it’s worth doing. How?”

Step 2: Persona identification

To figure out the next steps and do user story mapping, we needed to narrow down the audience so we could use it as a framing reference or persona. After all, we were looking at a huge audience of 30 million people, not a single persona.

So we asked: who are we not targeting? Then we were able to take out any pro users and government users, which brought the audience size down to 28 million.

Next we asked: what’s the easiest place to experiment and test this? At the time, there was a feature we couldn’t access on IOS, so we went with Android. Plus, we had great relationships with the US-based phone carrier, AT&T. So we looked at our audience of Android users on AT&T in the US, which left us with a much more reasonable audience size of 3 million people.

We used this persona to experiment with this particular feature without touching all the different use cases.

Step 3: The big steps

Once we’d outlined the persona we were going to focus on, we could talk about what’s in or what’s out. So, we talked about the big steps, like:

• They’re on the Android home screen
• They open up the app
• They see all the features
• They attempt an action (Tweet, like, or retweet)
• They perform a password reset
• These customer-facing epics form the backbone of the user story map.

Plus, in this session, we also included technical epics for stuff we needed from other teams at Twitter. For example, this team didn’t control all the authentication, so they added a technical epic to have a conversation with another team to get that piece on their backlog so they had everything they needed for the experiment.

Step 4: The stories

As we fleshed out the epics, we built out the user stories below each of them.

Step 5: Cut lines

Typically, your team would do estimation and cut lines at this point, but we didn’t need to because timing was less relevant. We had to include all the essential stories to successfully run the experiment.

We did our user story mapping physically on a whiteboard, so we used tape to separate what was in and out of sprint one, two, and three. We had the backlog on the right hand side, which consisted of anything we’d discussed that we couldn’t include this time, but we wanted to come back to later. Maybe some items weren’t applicable to this persona, or we’d come back to it for IOS.

In other scenarios, we’d order the stories based on what we understood would provide the most value, estimate with story points , and then plan the capacity for a week or fortnight of work, based on historical velocity. Then we’d sequence the stories into sprint and versions. Sequencing might involve moving up something of lower customer value because you can fit it in. You might also need to break down a bigger or riskier story and split it into two user stories.

Throughout the process, everyone had the opportunity to voice their opinions (there’s nothing more frustrating than not being heard or listened to) and we’d put it on the board. One of my roles as the facilitator was to manage everyone in the room - from the quietest person to the most outgoing person.

If someone was being quiet, I’d pull them into the discussion and ask them for their thoughts directly. It’s important to pull in from different participants to get a holistic vision or understanding. Because at the end of the day, the purpose of user story mapping is to get the team on the same page. If the team sets off and they haven’t bought into the vision, they’ll soon find that everyone has a different understanding of what’s meant to happen. It’s less about the process, and much more about the alignment of the team.

As a result of this user story mapping process, the project took a new direction where the app would use the device identifier along with the username to figure out who the user was before they log in. This would allow them to get straight into the timeline so they can get value.

But if they wanted to complete any actions (like Tweet, RT, or like a Tweet), they’d need to put in a password (and would hopefully be engaged enough to complete the process). Overall, it was a very successful user story mapping session!

Physical vs digital user story mapping

So, now that you know the steps in user story mapping, how do you actually implement them?

Traditionally, user story mapping is done physically. You get your team in a room, write out the backbone and user stories on post-it notes, arrange them on a wall, and use a string to represent the cut lines or swimlanes.

It might look a bit like this:

But this process does come with some challenges:

• You’ll have to find and book a room for a day (or longer if you need to map a complex product and user journey)
• We all know that post-it notes have a tendency to lose their stickiness and fall off the wall (even if you totally nail your peeling technique)
• Even if you involve remote team members using video conferencing, it’s tricky for them to read post-its - and of course, much harder for them to contribute
• A team member will still need to enter all the data into Jira once your user story mapping session is done (it’ll look like the below screenshot, which doesn’t resemble your physical story map too much)

“When I worked at Twitter, they tried to do physical user story mapping over video conferencing to include distributed team members. It was challenging. There’d be a lot of ‘Hey Nick, what does this say?’ and I’d need to read it out or type it out on chat.”

That’s why it’s often better to use a tool or app to do your user story mapping digitally.

While there are a couple of user story mapping apps and software options, the most efficient approach is to use a user mapping tool that integrates directly with Jira.

That way, you don’t have to transfer your work into Jira - your team can move straight into working on their top priority stories as soon as you wrap up your mapping session.

Read ➡️ User Story Mapping for Remote Teams

If the last year is anything to go by, read more on: User Story Mapping for Remote Teams

Jira + Easy Agile TeamRhythm

Jira on its own doesn’t allow you to do user story mapping. It doesn’t replicate the physical session with sticky notes and an X axis. The best it can do is a flat backlog - and hopefully by now, you know that’s not good enough for most teams.

Fortunately, you can run a digital and collaborative story mapping session right inside Jira with Easy Agile TeamRhythm, which is an add-on for Jira.

Here’s how it works:

Add user story mapping capabilities to Jira

Add Easy Agile TeamRhythm to your Jira account. You can get started with a free 30-day trial.

If you open TeamRhythm from an agile board that’s already in use, it’ll automatically get populated with your board’s data, with current issues added to the backlog panel in the right hand panel. But don’t worry - you can easily edit this data. And if it’s a new agile board, you can easily add your backbone, stories, and swimlanes from scratch.

Set up your backbone

Across the top of the board you’ll create a horizontal row of epics (if you already have epics associated with your board, this will be pre-populated). Each epic represents an activity of the users flow through the product. This is often referred to as the 'backbone' of the story map.

These epics can be dragged and dropped and the order of the epics will be reflected on the backlog using Jira ranking.

Creating new epics right inside the story map is simple with Easy Agile. Simply click the “Create Epic” button in the top right of the screen. Add the name and description, then click “Create”. Scroll to the far right of your story map to find your new epic.

Don’t worry about getting everything perfect right away. You have the ability to edit them in-line later.

Add the flesh (or stories!)

Beneath each epic on the backbone, you’ll see any linked User Stories that are ordered by rank. To add a new story, hover over the space where you want to create your story and click “new”. Enter the name of your story and select your issue type from the drop-down (e.g. task, story, or bug). You can also access the Backlog panel to add existing stories or issues - simply click “existing”, search for your issue, and add it.

You can also drag issues in from the backlog panel.

And just like epics, you can edit your stories in-line by clicking on the name of the issue.

Order your epics and stories

Now, put your epics and stories in order. Your epics should reflect your customer’s journey from beginning to end. And your stories should be ordered by the value they deliver to customers.

In Easy Agile apps, you can click and drag to rearrange your stories and epics. And if you move an epic, the associated stories underneath will move with it.

Estimate work

Hover over the estimate field (the gray number on the bottom of each story item). Click to add or edit story points .

Read ➡️ Agile Estimation Techniques

Add and arrange swimlanes (version/sprint)

Now it’s time to decide what issues your team will tackle when by horizontally slicing up the work. Click on the swimlanes button in the top right. You can choose to sequence work by sprints or versions (depending on whether you’re Scrum or Kanban*). Your sprints or versions will appear in chronological order on the story map, and there’s an “add sprint” button at the bottom of the story map where your team can add additional sprints and versions.

* With Kanban, you’d typically sequence work into versions, as there is no sprint. This can help your team whittle down the long list of stories into the 'now' and 'future' buckets.

You can easily drag and drop stories, mapping them to the appropriate swimlane.

Check team velocity to avoid over committing your team during each sprint or version. Hover over the “Not started”, “In progress”, and “Done” indicators on the far right of the sprint or version swimlane to see how your story points are tracking across all the stories and issues. If you have too many story points , you can move some stories to the next sprint or version.

Read ➡️ Agile Story Points: Measure Effort Like a Pro

Try out different views

You can search or create a Quick Filter based on a text search (e.g. contains "As a parent"). Or if you’re using our other product, Easy Agile Personas, we have a tutorial on how you can create a Quick Filter by persona. That way, you can refine your story map and narrow in on what’s really important to you.

Get to work!

All changes made inside the story mapping session are automatically reflected in Jira, so your team can leave the story mapping session ready to start their work.

Get started with Easy Agile TeamRhythm

Easy Agile TeamRhythm works out of the box with your existing backlog (so getting started is super quick and simple). But it gives you that extra dimension to help bring your backlog to life. It’s aliiiiive!

Want to check it out for yourself? We have two options:

OR play around with our demo (no installation or sign-up needed) :-)

But don’t just listen to us. Here’s what some of our customers have to say:

Jira software is great for following activities and backlogs, but it’s easy to lose the vision of your product without user story mapping. Easy Agile User Story Mapping allows the teams to communicate - not only about activity but also the vision of the product. Some of our teams regularly refer to this tool for retrospectives, and it helps them make the product their product.

We’ve found that Easy Agile User Story Maps brings the team together in one room. As a result, we find ourselves mapping more as a group, which creates a common understanding. Since using the add-on, we’ve been able to speed up planning and more efficiently conduct large story mapping exercises.

Since using Easy Agile User Story Maps, we’ve improved our communication and team alignment, which has helped give us faster results.

Easy Agile User Story Maps has helped us visualize our workload and goals, as well as speed up our meetings. We love the simplicity!

See what all the fuss is about

Start your free 30 day trial

Psst: It’s the fastest growing and highest-rated story mapping app for Jira! You’re going to love it.

6 ways to keep your story map alive

Speaking of bringing things to life, we’ve got a few final tips...

Your user story map is designed to be a living, breathing thing so that it can help your team continuously deliver value to your customers. But you’ll miss out on these benefits if your team doesn't continually use it, reflect on it, and refine it.

Here are 6 ways you can keep your backlog alive:

1. Progress tracking

As your team delivers releases, they can visually track their progress against the user story map. With Easy Agile User Story Maps, updates in Jira are reflected directly in the user story map so you can check what percentage of work has been completed. This enables you to identify problems early on and adjust your team’s workload (and future versions/sprints) if needed.

2. Backlog grooming

The purpose of backlog grooming is to maintain a healthy, up-to-date product backlog, ready for efficient sprint planning. A few days before your sprint planning meeting, your product manager will:

• Delete user stories that aren’t relevant anymore
• Create new user stories as needs become clearer
• Assign and correct estimates
• Split user stories that are too big
• Rewrite stories to make them clearer
• Ensure stories are ordered by priority
• Make sure stories at the top are ready to be delivered

It’s much easier to do this using Easy Agile User Story Maps (rather than a flat backlog) because your product manager and team can see all the contextual information. They can shuffle the order around by clicking and dragging, and can quickly update issues with in-line editing.

3. Sprint/release planning

Sprint planning is done at the beginning of every sprint. It’s designed to help your team agree on a goal for the next sprint and the set of backlog items that will help them achieve it. This involves prioritizing backlog items (this should be straightforward, thanks to backlog grooming) and agreeing on what items your team has capacity for during the sprint. Sprint planning sessions tend to run a lot more smoothly when you refer to your user story map. With Easy Agile User Story Maps, you can update your story map with backlog items as you go, and all your changes are reflected in Jira so your team can start work on the sprint straight away.

4. Sprint reviews

At the end of each sprint, your team will do a sprint review to see whether the goal was achieved and that your increment led to a working, shippable product release. Your product manager will look at the “Done” items from the backlog, and the development team will demonstrate the work they’ve done.

The team talks about what went well, any problems, and how they were solved or could be solved. They review the timeline, budget, and potential capabilities for the next planned product release, which puts the gears into motion for the next backlog grooming and sprint planning session.

In Easy Agile User Story Maps, you can easily filter your view to show “done” issues, see sprint statistics, and update story point estimates. That way, you can do a quick and collaborative sprint review meeting, right inside Jira.

5. Roadmaps

You can use your story map to communicate your roadmap with stakeholders and share the product vision. With your upcoming releases and sprints mapped out, it’s easy to see which parts of the customer journey are going to see an update or improvement, and when.

6. Retrospectives

Retrospectives are often held at the end of your sprint or release. Or you might hold them after an event, presentation, every month, or every quarter. Retros are used to help your team reflect on what’s gone well, what could have gone better, and what they’d do differently next time. Your user story map can give your team a visual point of reference during retrospectives, and help them stay focused on the user.

How to learn more about user story mapping

We’re almost at the end, but don’t stop here! There’s so much more to learn if you want to go deeper with user story mapping.

Here are some resources worth looking into:

User story mapping books

Jeff Patton wrote THE book on user story mapping, called User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product . Jeff was the original user story mapper - at least, he’s credited with inventing the concept and practice.

User story mapping articles

Here are some articles written by us over the last few years:

Story maps - A visual tool for customer focused development (this one has a great video)

How to write good user stories in agile software development

The difference between a flat product backlog and a user story map

Anatomy of an agile user story map

That’s it! You’ve finished the user story mapping ultimate guide! 👏

You have all the tools and info you need to…

• Run your first user story mapping session
• Do story mapping more effectively (and confidently)
• Get more from your story map
• Prioritize your work to deliver maximum value to customers, as quickly and as often as possible
• Work more collaboratively
• Accurately schedule your work
• Understand the why behind the work

Go forth and story map! And let us know how you go.

If you have any questions about user story maps, we’d love to hear from you. You can contact us or send us a tweet @EasyAgile. We’ll update this guide as we come across more user story mapping tips, techniques, and frequently asked questions.

Don't forget to try

Easy Agile TeamRhythm

Online user story mapping for remote teams

Story Points: definition, how-to & why they matter

How Ubisoft fosters focused creativity with Easy Agile

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User Story vs User Journey

What are the main differences between a user story and a user journey.

A user story is a brief, concise description of a task from the perspective of the user.

For example: “As a ‘type of user ‘, I want ‘ some goal’ so that ‘some reason’ .”

A user journey is a described series of steps that show how a typical user would interact with the web app that is being designed.

The main difference between the two, is that a user story is based on a specific user and caters to a particular type of user to answer a specific problem. A user journey can follow a “random user” that may using the tool. This also includes dynamic user journey scenarios.

How can User Story Mapping help integrate both a user story and a user journey?

User Story Mapping has been described as a tool that can be used for many purposes, including product development, feature definition, version improvement, and project management.

In short, you are able to create a map, highlighting the user story, as a persona, whilst building the map for a user journey. Placing cards and tasks and building out the entire epic.

You can get started straight away, and intuitively you’ll be building maps that remove the debate between user story and user journey. Just head over to FeatureMap.co to get started.

Otherwise, read on to get the steps to get started.

We are looking at the steps to create answers that fulfil both requirements for a user story, whilst also catering to the user journey .

Here, we explore how best to utilise the User Story Mapping methodology to help define your path. We also have the added bonus that the first two steps instantly reward in their own right.

The first two steps can be very rewarding. Firstly, planning the map will give you a pathway to the point where you can start writing user stories or journeys.

Secondly, the end result is a visual chart showing the structure of your stories. This will give you the steps you need to take for development.

Here is another way to approach User Story Mapping in three steps.

This is a relatively quick way of getting to a point where you can start development work.

The start of a user story map on FeatureMap

Hosting your Story Mapping Session

Because User Story Mapping can be complex, it is important to have a framework for the session. It is also important to explain what User Story Mapping is and describe the process.

Start with tasks where the team thinks about the product, users, development, and personas.

We start by brainstorming every task that users will want to address when using the product.

Silent Brainstorming.

Task each participant to write down steps in your cards, every step will need to cover from the users first engagement to the conclusion of the users interaction. Encourage the team to think of these as actions not features.

It’s okay for each individual on the team to focus on other user journeys. For example if we take an app, someone may do a customer, and another may write about a copywriter, whilst the developers may think from the perspective of the administrators.

Top Tip: Writing them so they start with a verb is a good technique.

Encourage people to be creative and try to cover tasks and steps wide, but not deep. This part of User Story Mapping is about breadth not depth.

Start posting all cards and tasks in one large map.

That’s fine if you have duplicates. Just group them together, and these should sit beside each other on the line (not above or below).

As you expand and get into the swing of it you can easily drag and drop and delete if needed.

The beauty of using digital software for large collaboration tasks such as this allows you and you and your team to easily edit, expand and develop your map all at the same time.

This first line is the user tasks, and they form the backbone of your story map.

Then we organise these tasks into wider goals, and arrange them in order of completion.

These groups are known as “epics” or “activities”.

As facilitator, you can walk along the line of tasks and ask where the team think the splits are between each group of tasks, and what each group should be called.

For example, if you were building an app for an app to arrange your movies, you might group user tasks into epics like this:

• Browse DVDs in collection – epic
• View flat list of all DVDs – user task
• View DVD cover thumbnails in results – user task
• DVD Spec Call – user task

We can then move into the Prioritisation exercise, further developing the user story map .

This is the stage where you start writing in the details, building up the tasks and redefining tasks.

This may include adding tasks, merging tasks or separating tasks.

It is important to detail the tasks enough to remember in the future. After writing all the tasks, you should have a comprehensive map by this stage. Task your team to go over each line (now defined as Epics/activities) and ensure you have everything charted. This is where the User Story Map will become easier, as you will now have a visual chart of a defined product. Here you can move to the next steps.

Now you are ready to start prioritising the user stories on your map. You can start adapting and moving your tasks to sprints, also known as versions for your product.

You can check out the Movie Buddy Public Board here at FeatureMap.

You could do an entire User Story session with Post-It notes with your in-house team, but better yet digitally, remotely or supporting your in person meeting using FeatureMap.co.

Check out FeatureMap.co and sign up to try for free.

Related Articles:

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User Journey vs User Flow: What’s the Difference and Why You Need Both?

What’s the difference between user journey vs user flow? In UX design , there’s a lot of confusion about what these terms mean—even amongst experienced designers.

After all, they both describe a similar idea: a visual representation of a user’s actions when interacting with a product.

But despite their close relationship, they differ in several ways.

In this article, we’ll take a look at why you need both, the difference between them, and when to use each to improve your entire user experience.

Let’s get started.

• User flow is a detailed representation of the path that shows the specific steps users take to complete a particular task.
• User flows focus on identifying friction points in the journey and removing them from the UI design, keeping users on a happy path.
• A happy path is the shortest path users can take to achieve their desired result without encountering any errors.
• User flows are used by designers to map out feature functionality and technical requirements when building products.
• The user journey is the representation of the overall experience a customer has while engaging with your product across their journey.

With a journey map, product teams can carry out user research, improve user flow , and design a personalized product experience.

• Create a user journey map at the initial research phase of a project to understand user behavior and communicate the entire experience to stakeholders.
• The key difference between a user flow and a user journey is that a user journey gives a macro view of a customer experience, while a user flow gives a more zoomed-in view of the actions of a user.
• The key similarity between these two tools is that they’re user-centered.

Want to build a better user experience without the stress of coding from scratch? Book a demo call with the Userpilot team and get started!

What is a user flow?

A user flow is a detailed illustration that shows the specific steps a user takes to complete a task using your product.

Think of it as a visual map of all the UI interactions the user has.

A user flow is visualized with flow charts, made up of boxes and arrows. Each box represents a step in a user’s action, like entering information or clicking a button.

Example of a user flow

Let’s say we want to get users to create an account and complete their profiles. Here’s an example of what a signup flow might look like for a social media app:

• The user launches the app and lands on the signup screen
• The user clicks on signup to create a new account.
• At the point of registration, they provide information like email and password
• After the user creates an account, they’re asked to verify their email address
• When they’ve successfully verified their email, they’re redirected to the profile page to set up their account
• When this is completed, they save the changes and go to the home screen

The example stated above is known as a happy path . This simply means the path users take to achieve their desired result without encountering friction. In real life, however, things could go differently.

For instance, a user might take other alternative paths, like providing invalid credentials. These unhappy paths can be a gold mine when you’re looking into improving the user experience.

What’s the purpose of a user flow?

A user flow describes what a user sees on the screen and how they interact with the screen to move forward. This is critical for designing good product experiences, without getting lost in the details.

In summary, user flow should answer questions like:

• What should the user see first?
• How will they navigate between screens?
• What do users want to accomplish when they use this feature?
• What actions will users take at each stage of their journey?

It is also important to note that user flow is crucial for the development phase. Developers use this tool to translate designs into physical features.

Also, during a project, it’s possible to have several user flows.

So, every user flow diagram should have a name and a well-detailed description to communicate what each of the steps is and what it is accomplishing.

When should you use a user flow?

A user flow is used by designers to map out features and technical requirements. It can be used at any stage—before or during development—but it’s most effective when introduced in the early stages of the design process.

By understanding a user flow, you can analyze where a user drops off and debug the reasons before they become costly issues.

Did they encounter a bug? How can the flow be improved to reduce drop-off? Do we reduce the steps or the number of screens?

These are questions that can be answered by mapping the user flows.

What is a user journey in UX?

A user journey , also known as a customer journey, is the experience your customers have when interacting with your product at each touchpoint.

Think of it as the “story” of all the interactions and experiences between a user and your product, starting from the awareness stage to the activation point .

A user journey is a comprehensive tool.

Unlike user flows, it takes into consideration the overall customer experience, including the customer’s emotions, pain points, and expectations across various channels.

With a user journey, you can identify gaps in the customer’s experience and how you can improve.

Example of a user journey

User journey maps can be built in different stages and for multiple user personas. For example, you can map:

• A day in the life journey to discover the activities of your users on a regular day- this helps you better understand them and how they interact with multiple products, not just yours. It also makes you more mindful when making decisions.
• The current state of your user and how the product and experience are so you can uncover friction points in their journey.
• The future state user journey map to predict what their experience will look like. This often involves assumptions.

What’s the purpose of a user journey?

A user journey tracks users’ behavior when they’re interacting with your product.

A well-designed user journey map will give you insights into your personas’ minds to see what they’re thinking, feeling, and seeing at every point of interaction.

It also identifies possible friction points and potential areas for improvement.

The bottom line is, that without “seeing” the user’s journey, it’s hard to work on improving the overall product experience.

When should you use a user journey?

Customer journey maps should be created during the research phase of a project. Using this tool, project teams can capture a complete picture of the customer’s journey and see the product from the user’s point of view.

A journey map is also a great tool to walk stakeholders through the entire user journey, irrespective of their technical background.

In addition to this, customer journey maps also serve as a way to track user interactions and obtain feedback at every touchpoint that is valuable for product improvements.

With the collected feedback, it’s easy to prioritize the features important to the users.

What is the difference between user journey and user flow?

User journeys and user flows are two different types of user experience mapping. Although they both map out the path of a user, they do so in different ways.

The key difference between a user journey and a user flow is that a user journey focuses on the overall experience of an individual user, while a user flow focuses on each step in the design process. Here are other things that make them different:

• The number of users considered

A user flow concentrates on individual micro-interactions, while user journeys examine the macro-interactions of multiple user personas at once. Because of this, it’s often easier to create and maintain a user flow than a full-blown user journey map.

• The purpose

User journey helps you understand the overall experience of your customers at different touchpoints. User flow, on the other hand, outlines the process that each user takes to achieve their goal.

• The specificity of actions

User journeys are more generic. It gives you a bird’s-eye view of customer behavior across different platforms (mobile apps, web apps, etc.). In contrast, user flows are a lot more detailed and centered around one interface, e.g. web apps, capturing one step at a time.

• The key focus

A user journey is experience-focused; it deals with the users’ experience at each stage of interaction. User flow is action-focused; it concentrates on the details of the actions a user takes.

• Time range measured

User flow details the steps taken at a specific time, whereas a user journey map concentrates on the steps taken over time—from the awareness stage to when they actually buy from you.

What are the similarities between user flows vs user journeys?

Now that we’ve covered the differences between user flow vs user journey, it’s time to focus on what they have in common. Here are some similarities:

• They both have a common end goal—the user
• Both focus on creating the best user experience
• Both monitor how a user interacts with a product during its lifecycle
• Both tools are used for identifying users’ goals and pain points
• They can also be used as a communication tool for stakeholders and developers
• They give us insight into users’ needs and which features to prioritize

What comes first, user flow or user journey? Do you need both?

The short answer is neither.

Just like it’s hard to know if UI or UX comes first, it’s hard to tell if the user flow should come before the user journey. But here’s a better way to look at it.

The user interface (UI) is mapped using user flows. This means that the user flow determines what appears on the user’s screen at different times.

Meanwhile, the user experience is mapped using user journeys. They go hand-in-hand with each other.

Start by mapping the main stages of the user journey, then add experience details with user flow maps. Also, it’s important to note that user journeys are used to map the entire journey of a user or specific interactions for a more granular view.

For example, you can map a user’s journey from trial signup to the activation point.

This will help you to understand the main steps the users go through to convert. It will also reveal points of drop-off and why. That is why it’s best practice to create multiple flows that look at the UI steps the user takes.

Both user flow and user journey are great tools for creating an enhanced user experience. While user flows describe the specific steps a user takes to complete an action, the user journey considers the emotional response to each step.

Combining both tools creates a good user experience that increases customer satisfaction.

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The Hero's Journey: 12 Steps to a Classic Story Structure

The Hero's Journey is a timeless story structure which follows a protagonist on an unforeseen quest, where they face challenges, gain insights, and return home transformed. From Theseus and the Minotaur to The Lion King , so many narratives follow this pattern that it’s become ingrained into our cultural DNA. 

In this post, we'll show you how to make this classic plot structure work for you — and if you’re pressed for time, download our cheat sheet below for everything you need to know.

FREE RESOURCE

Hero's Journey Template

Plot your character's journey with our step-by-step template.

What is the Hero’s Journey?

The Hero's Journey, also known as the monomyth, is a story structure where a hero goes on a quest or adventure to achieve a goal, and has to overcome obstacles and fears, before ultimately returning home transformed.

This narrative arc has been present in various forms across cultures for centuries, if not longer, but gained popularity through Joseph Campbell's mythology book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces . While Campbell identified 17 story beats in his monomyth definition, this post will concentrate on a 12-step framework popularized in 2007 by screenwriter Christopher Vogler in his book The Writer’s Journey .

The 12 Steps of the Hero’s Journey

The Hero's Journey is a model for both plot points and character development : as the Hero traverses the world, they'll undergo inner and outer transformation at each stage of the journey. The 12 steps of the hero's journey are: 

• The Ordinary World. We meet our hero.
• Call to Adventure. Will they meet the challenge?
• Refusal of the Call. They resist the adventure.
• Meeting the Mentor. A teacher arrives.
• Crossing the First Threshold. The hero leaves their comfort zone.
• Tests, Allies, Enemies. Making friends and facing roadblocks.
• Approach to the Inmost Cave. Getting closer to our goal.
• Ordeal. The hero’s biggest test yet!
• Reward (Seizing the Sword). Light at the end of the tunnel
• The Road Back. We aren’t safe yet.
• Resurrection. The final hurdle is reached.
• Return with the Elixir. The hero heads home, triumphant.

Believe it or not, this story structure also applies across mediums and genres (and also works when your protagonist is an anti-hero! ). Let's dive into it.

1. Ordinary World

In which we meet our Hero.

The journey has yet to start. Before our Hero discovers a strange new world, we must first understand the status quo: their ordinary, mundane reality.

It’s up to this opening leg to set the stage, introducing the Hero to readers. Importantly, it lets readers identify with the Hero as a “normal” person in a “normal” setting, before the journey begins.

2. Call to Adventure

In which an adventure starts.

The call to adventure is all about booting the Hero out of their comfort zone. In this stage, they are generally confronted with a problem or challenge they can't ignore. This catalyst can take many forms, as Campbell points out in Hero with a Thousand Faces . The Hero can, for instance:

• Decide to go forth of their own volition;
• Theseus upon arriving in Athens.
• Be sent abroad by a benign or malignant agent;
• Odysseus setting off on his ship in The Odyssey .
• Stumble upon the adventure as a result of a mere blunder;
• Dorothy when she’s swept up in a tornado in The Wizard of Oz .
• Be casually strolling when some passing phenomenon catches the wandering eye and lures one away from the frequented paths of man.
• Elliot in E.T. upon discovering a lost alien in the tool shed.

The stakes of the adventure and the Hero's goals become clear. The only question: will he rise to the challenge?

3. Refusal of the Call

In which the Hero digs in their feet.

Great, so the Hero’s received their summons. Now they’re all set to be whisked off to defeat evil, right?

Not so fast. The Hero might first refuse the call to action. It’s risky and there are perils — like spiders, trolls, or perhaps a creepy uncle waiting back at Pride Rock . It’s enough to give anyone pause.

In Star Wars , for instance, Luke Skywalker initially refuses to join Obi-Wan on his mission to rescue the princess. It’s only when he discovers that his aunt and uncle have been killed by stormtroopers that he changes his mind.

4. Meeting the Mentor

In which the Hero acquires a personal trainer.

The Hero's decided to go on the adventure — but they’re not ready to spread their wings yet. They're much too inexperienced at this point and we don't want them to do a fabulous belly-flop off the cliff.

Enter the mentor: someone who helps the Hero, so that they don't make a total fool of themselves (or get themselves killed). The mentor provides practical training, profound wisdom, a kick up the posterior, or something abstract like grit and self-confidence.

Wise old wizards seem to like being mentors. But mentors take many forms, from witches to hermits and suburban karate instructors. They might literally give weapons to prepare for the trials ahead, like Q in the James Bond series. Or perhaps the mentor is an object, such as a map. In all cases, they prepare the Hero for the next step.

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5. Crossing the First Threshold

In which the Hero enters the other world in earnest.

Now the Hero is ready — and committed — to the journey. This marks the end of the Departure stage and is when the adventure really kicks into the next gear. As Vogler writes: “This is the moment that the balloon goes up, the ship sails, the romance begins, the wagon gets rolling.”

From this point on, there’s no turning back.

Like our Hero, you should think of this stage as a checkpoint for your story. Pause and re-assess your bearings before you continue into unfamiliar territory. Have you:

• Launched the central conflict? If not, here’s a post on types of conflict to help you out.
• Established the theme of your book? If not, check out this post that’s all about creating theme and motifs .
• Made headway into your character development? If not, this character profile template may be useful:

Reedsy’s Character Profile Template

A story is only as strong as its characters. Fill this out to develop yours.

6. Tests, Allies, Enemies

In which the Hero faces new challenges and gets a squad.

When we step into the Special World, we notice a definite shift. The Hero might be discombobulated by this unfamiliar reality and its new rules. This is generally one of the longest stages in the story , as our protagonist gets to grips with this new world.

This makes a prime hunting ground for the series of tests to pass! Luckily, there are many ways for the Hero to get into trouble:

• In Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle , Spencer, Bethany, “Fridge,” and Martha get off to a bad start when they bump into a herd of bloodthirsty hippos.
• In his first few months at Hogwarts, Harry Potter manages to fight a troll, almost fall from a broomstick and die, and get horribly lost in the Forbidden Forest.
• Marlin and Dory encounter three “reformed” sharks, get shocked by jellyfish, and are swallowed by a blue whale en route to finding Nemo.

This stage often expands the cast of characters. Once the protagonist is in the Special World, he will meet allies and enemies — or foes that turn out to be friends and vice versa. He will learn a new set of rules from them. Saloons and seedy bars are popular places for these transactions, as Vogler points out (so long as the Hero survives them).

7. Approach to the Inmost Cave

In which the Hero gets closer to his goal.

This isn’t a physical cave. Instead, the “inmost cave” refers to the most dangerous spot in the other realm — whether that’s the villain’s chambers, the lair of the fearsome dragon, or the Death Star. Almost always, it is where the ultimate goal of the quest is located.

Note that the protagonist hasn’t entered the Inmost Cave just yet. This stage is all about the approach to it. It covers all the prep work that's needed in order to defeat the villain.

In which the Hero faces his biggest test of all thus far.

Of all the tests the Hero has faced, none have made them hit rock bottom — until now. Vogler describes this phase as a “black moment.” Campbell refers to it as the “belly of the whale.” Both indicate some grim news for the Hero.

The protagonist must now confront their greatest fear. If they survive it, they will emerge transformed. This is a critical moment in the story, as Vogler explains that it will “inform every decision that the Hero makes from this point forward.”

The Ordeal is sometimes not the climax of the story. There’s more to come. But you can think of it as the main event of the second act — the one in which the Hero actually earns the title of “Hero.”

9. Reward (Seizing the Sword)

In which the Hero sees light at the end of the tunnel.

Our Hero’s been through a lot. However, the fruits of their labor are now at hand — if they can just reach out and grab them! The “reward” is the object or knowledge the Hero has fought throughout the entire journey to hold.

Once the protagonist has it in their possession, it generally has greater ramifications for the story. Vogler offers a few examples of it in action:

• Luke rescues Princess Leia and captures the plans of the Death Star — keys to defeating Darth Vader.
• Dorothy escapes from the Wicked Witch’s castle with the broomstick and the ruby slippers — keys to getting back home.

10. The Road Back

In which the light at the end of the tunnel might be a little further than the Hero thought.

The story's not over just yet, as this phase marks the beginning of Act Three. Now that he's seized the reward, the Hero tries to return to the Ordinary World, but more dangers (inconveniently) arise on the road back from the Inmost Cave.

More precisely, the Hero must deal with the consequences and aftermath of the previous act: the dragon, enraged by the Hero who’s just stolen a treasure from under his nose, starts the hunt. Or perhaps the opposing army gathers to pursue the Hero across a crowded battlefield. All further obstacles for the Hero, who must face them down before they can return home.

11. Resurrection

In which the last test is met.

Here is the true climax of the story. Everything that happened prior to this stage culminates in a crowning test for the Hero, as the Dark Side gets one last chance to triumph over the Hero.

Vogler refers to this as a “final exam” for the Hero — they must be “tested once more to see if they have really learned the lessons of the Ordeal.” It’s in this Final Battle that the protagonist goes through one more “resurrection.” As a result, this is where you’ll get most of your miraculous near-death escapes, à la James Bond's dashing deliverances. If the Hero survives, they can start looking forward to a sweet ending.

12. Return with the Elixir

In which our Hero has a triumphant homecoming.

Finally, the Hero gets to return home. However, they go back a different person than when they started out: they’ve grown and matured as a result of the journey they’ve taken.

But we’ve got to see them bring home the bacon, right? That’s why the protagonist must return with the “Elixir,” or the prize won during the journey, whether that’s an object or knowledge and insight gained.

Of course, it’s possible for a story to end on an Elixir-less note — but then the Hero would be doomed to repeat the entire adventure.

Examples of The Hero’s Journey in Action

To better understand this story template beyond the typical sword-and-sorcery genre, let's analyze three examples, from both screenplay and literature, and examine how they implement each of the twelve steps. 

The 1976 film Rocky is acclaimed as one of the most iconic sports films because of Stallone’s performance and the heroic journey his character embarks on.

• Ordinary World. Rocky Balboa is a mediocre boxer and loan collector — just doing his best to live day-to-day in a poor part of Philadelphia.
• Call to Adventure. Heavyweight champ Apollo Creed decides to make a big fight interesting by giving a no-name loser a chance to challenge him. That loser: Rocky Balboa.
• Refusal of the Call. Rocky says, “Thanks, but no thanks,” given that he has no trainer and is incredibly out of shape.
• Meeting the Mentor. In steps former boxer Mickey “Mighty Mick” Goldmill, who sees potential in Rocky and starts training him physically and mentally for the fight.
• Crossing the First Threshold. Rocky crosses the threshold of no return when he accepts the fight on live TV, and 一 in parallel 一 when he crosses the threshold into his love interest Adrian’s house and asks her out on a date.
• Tests, Allies, Enemies. Rocky continues to try and win Adrian over and maintains a dubious friendship with her brother, Paulie, who provides him with raw meat to train with.
• Approach to the Inmost Cave. The Inmost Cave in Rocky is Rocky’s own mind. He fears that he’ll never amount to anything — something that he reveals when he butts heads with his trainer, Mickey, in his apartment.
• Ordeal. The start of the training montage marks the beginning of Rocky’s Ordeal. He pushes through it until he glimpses hope ahead while running up the museum steps.
• Reward (Seizing the Sword). Rocky's reward is the restoration of his self-belief, as he recognizes he can try to “go the distance” with Apollo Creed and prove he's more than "just another bum from the neighborhood."
• The Road Back. On New Year's Day, the fight takes place. Rocky capitalizes on Creed's overconfidence to start strong, yet Apollo makes a comeback, resulting in a balanced match.
• Resurrection. The fight inflicts multiple injuries and pushes both men to the brink of exhaustion, with Rocky being knocked down numerous times. But he consistently rises to his feet, enduring through 15 grueling rounds.
• Return with the Elixir. Rocky loses the fight — but it doesn’t matter. He’s won back his confidence and he’s got Adrian, who tells him that she loves him.

Moving outside of the ring, let’s see how this story structure holds on a completely different planet and with a character in complete isolation. 

The Martian 

In Andy Weir’s self-published bestseller (better known for its big screen adaptation) we follow astronaut Mark Watney as he endures the challenges of surviving on Mars and working out a way to get back home.

• The Ordinary World. Botanist Mark and other astronauts are on a mission on Mars to study the planet and gather samples. They live harmoniously in a structure known as "the Hab.”
• Call to Adventure. The mission is scrapped due to a violent dust storm. As they rush to launch, Mark is flung out of sight and the team believes him to be dead. He is, however, very much alive — stranded on Mars with no way of communicating with anyone back home.
• Refusal of the Call. With limited supplies and grim odds of survival, Mark concludes that he will likely perish on the desolate planet.
• Meeting the Mentor. Thanks to his resourcefulness and scientific knowledge he starts to figure out how to survive until the next Mars mission arrives.
• Crossing the First Threshold. Mark crosses the mental threshold of even trying to survive 一 he successfully creates a greenhouse to cultivate a potato crop, creating a food supply that will last long enough.
• Tests, Allies, Enemies. Loneliness and other difficulties test his spirit, pushing him to establish contact with Earth and the people at NASA, who devise a plan to help.  
• Approach to the Inmost Cave. Mark faces starvation once again after an explosion destroys his potato crop.
• Ordeal. A NASA rocket destined to deliver supplies to Mark disintegrates after liftoff and all hope seems lost.
• Reward (Seizing the Sword). Mark’s efforts to survive are rewarded with a new possibility to leave the planet. His team 一 now aware that he’s alive 一 defies orders from NASA and heads back to Mars to rescue their comrade.
• The Road Back. Executing the new plan is immensely difficult 一 Mark has to travel far to locate the spaceship for his escape, and almost dies along the way.
• Resurrection. Mark is unable to get close enough to his teammates' ship but finds a way to propel himself in empty space towards them, and gets aboard safely.
• Return with the Elixir. Now a survival instructor for aspiring astronauts, Mark teaches students that space is indifferent and that survival hinges on solving one problem after another, as well as the importance of other people’s help.

Coming back to Earth, let’s now examine a heroine’s journey through the wilderness of the Pacific Crest Trail and her… humanity. 

The memoir Wild narrates the three-month-long hiking adventure of Cheryl Strayed across the Pacific coast, as she grapples with her turbulent past and rediscovers her inner strength.

• The Ordinary World. Cheryl shares her strong bond with her mother who was her strength during a tough childhood with an abusive father.
• Call to Adventure. As her mother succumbs to lung cancer, Cheryl faces the heart-wrenching reality to confront life's challenges on her own.
• Refusal of the Call. Cheryl spirals down into a destructive path of substance abuse and infidelity, which leads to hit rock bottom with a divorce and unwanted pregnancy. 
• Meeting the Mentor. Her best friend Lisa supports her during her darkest time. One day she notices the Pacific Trail guidebook, which gives her hope to find her way back to her inner strength.
• Crossing the First Threshold. She quits her job, sells her belongings, and visits her mother’s grave before traveling to Mojave, where the trek begins.
• Tests, Allies, Enemies. Cheryl is tested by her heavy bag, blisters, rattlesnakes, and exhaustion, but many strangers help her along the trail with a warm meal or hiking tips. 
• Approach to the Inmost Cave. As Cheryl goes through particularly tough and snowy parts of the trail her emotional baggage starts to catch up with her.  
• Ordeal. She inadvertently drops one of her shoes off a cliff, and the incident unearths the helplessness she's been evading since her mother's passing.
• Reward (Seizing the Sword). Cheryl soldiers on, trekking an impressive 50 miles in duct-taped sandals before finally securing a new pair of shoes. This small victory amplifies her self-confidence.
• The Road Back. On the last stretch, she battles thirst, sketchy hunters, and a storm, but more importantly, she revisits her most poignant and painful memories.
• Resurrection. Cheryl forgives herself for damaging her marriage and her sense of worth, owning up to her mistakes. A pivotal moment happens at Crater Lake, where she lets go of her frustration at her mother for passing away.
• Return with the Elixir. Cheryl reaches the Bridge of the Gods and completes the trail. She has found her inner strength and determination for life's next steps.

There are countless other stories that could align with this template, but it's not always the perfect fit. So, let's look into when authors should consider it or not.

When should writers use The Hero’s Journey?

The Hero’s Journey is just one way to outline a novel and dissect a plot. For more longstanding theories on the topic, you can go this way to read about the ever-popular Three-Act Structure or here to discover Dan Harmon's Story Circle and three more prevalent structures .

So when is it best to use the Hero’s Journey? There are a couple of circumstances which might make this a good choice.

When you need more specific story guidance than simple structures can offer

Simply put, the Hero’s Journey structure is far more detailed and closely defined than other story structure theories. If you want a fairly specific framework for your work than a thee-act structure, the Hero’s Journey can be a great place to start.

Of course, rules are made to be broken . There’s plenty of room to play within the confines of the Hero’s Journey, despite it appearing fairly prescriptive at first glance. Do you want to experiment with an abbreviated “Resurrection” stage, as J.K. Rowling did in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone? Are you more interested in exploring the journey of an anti-hero? It’s all possible.

Once you understand the basics of this universal story structure, you can use and bend it in ways that disrupt reader expectations.

Need more help developing your book? Try this template on for size:

Get our Book Development Template

Use this template to go from a vague idea to a solid plan for a first draft.

When your focus is on a single protagonist

No matter how sprawling or epic the world you’re writing is, if your story is, at its core, focused on a single character’s journey, then this is a good story structure for you. It’s kind of in the name! If you’re dealing with an entire ensemble, the Hero’s Journey may not give you the scope to explore all of your characters’ plots and subplot — a broader three-act structure may give you more freedom to weave a greater number story threads. ​​

Which story structure is right for you?

Take this quiz and we'll match your story to a structure in minutes!

Whether you're a reader or writer, we hope our guide has helped you understand this universal story arc. Want to know more about story structure? We explain 6 more in our guide — read on!

6 responses

PJ Reece says:

25/07/2018 – 19:41

Nice vid, good intro to story structure. Typically, though, the 'hero's journey' misses the all-important point of the Act II crisis. There, where the hero faces his/her/its existential crisis, they must DIE. The old character is largely destroyed -- which is the absolute pre-condition to 'waking up' to what must be done. It's not more clever thinking; it's not thinking at all. Its SEEING. So many writing texts miss this point. It's tantamount to a religions experience, and nobody grows up without it. STORY STRUCTURE TO DIE FOR examines this dramatic necessity.

↪️ C.T. Cheek replied:

13/11/2019 – 21:01

Okay, but wouldn't the Act II crisis find itself in the Ordeal? The Hero is tested and arguably looses his/her/its past-self for the new one. Typically, the Hero is not fully "reborn" until the Resurrection, in which they defeat the hypothetical dragon and overcome the conflict of the story. It's kind of this process of rebirth beginning in the earlier sections of the Hero's Journey and ending in the Resurrection and affirmed in the Return with the Elixir.

Lexi Mize says:

25/07/2018 – 22:33

Great article. Odd how one can take nearly every story and somewhat plug it into such a pattern.

Bailey Koch says:

11/06/2019 – 02:16

This was totally lit fam!!!!

↪️ Bailey Koch replied:

11/09/2019 – 03:46

where is my dad?

Frank says:

12/04/2020 – 12:40

Great article, thanks! :) But Vogler didn't expand Campbell's theory. Campbell had seventeen stages, not twelve.

Comments are currently closed.

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User Journey vs User Flow

Carlos González De Villaumbrosia

Updated: May 6, 2024 - 5 min read

Design is having a moment right now, with Product Managers across the board realizing that they need to be more in touch with what their UX and UI designers are doing.

It is high time Design was involved from the beginning of the product, rather than handing it over to them at the end to ‘pretty it up.’

To do this, Product Managers need to feel more comfortable communicating with designers in their language. That means getting to grips with some key concepts.

User Flows  and  User Journeys  are two key parts of design that Product Managers should be very interested in, as they both heavily affect how the user interacts with and experiences the product…which is what it’s all about at the end of the day!

However, these two terms are sometimes used interchangeably, and at first glance, they can look incredibly similar. So let’s clear up the confusion and take a look at the difference between them.

What are User Flows?

User Flows are perhaps the easier of the two to understand. Usually depicted by flow charts,  they are a set of steps taken by a user to achieve a goal within a digital product . Rather than demonstrating how the customer’s are supposed to feel, a User Flow is the breakdown of the actual user interface.

User Flows can be very simple, or very complex, depending on how many different things you want users to be doing inside your product. Designing how a uses interacts with a product is a key step in figuring out where the issues may be in your task flows. Unless an app is  incredibly  simple, your user flow diagram is unlikely to be completely linear. Think about the different steps you can take on any one mobile app, and even without being a UX design expert you can imagine how complicated the process might be!

How should I use User Flow diagrams?

User Flows are a great tool for communicating what the product will do to non-technical people, especially stakeholders. If you’re a non-technical Product Manager they’ll be extra-useful before the  MVP stage.

Working with your design team on User Flows can be a great way to  strengthen your working relationships , and  better your understanding of your product’s design .

Many a friendship has been built over a shared whiteboard! But take care to listen,  really listen,  to your designer’s wisdom.

You’re not getting involved just so you can tell them how to do their job. Being at war with Design will do neither you nor your product any good in the long run.

Read to create your own? Check out this free User Flow Template

What are User Journeys?

You’d be forgiven for looking at a User Flow diagram and immediately thinking of the User Journey. However, User Journey Mapping is much more complex and needs a hefty dose of a Product Manager’s tip-top customer knowledge!

While User Flows depict the physical journey of the user through an app or piece of software,  User Journeys deal with the emotions, the pain points, and the motivations of the customer .

Your map is a visualization of the step by step experience the user goes through. Done right, it shows you the entirety of a customer’s relationship with a brand. It also helps the product teams take a more user-centric approach to how they build.

How should I use User Journey Maps?

User Journey Maps, or Customer Journey Maps, are particularly useful to Product Managers for a number of reasons.

Discovering pain points.  By walking in your customer’s shoes, you might find issues that you didn’t know were there.

Discovering opportunities. On the flip side, you can discover ways to go above and beyond for your customers, and find opportunities to delight.

Encouraging a customer-centric mindset . By focusing on your customer’s emotions and motivations, your teams will be more driven to build customer-focused products.

Creating a single vision.  Having User Journey maps is a great way to make sure everyone has the same understanding of who they’re building for, and what’s important to them.

Marketing your product . Top product managers recommend that we build marketing into our products from the beginning as well as design. User Journey maps can help you and the marketing team do just that.

Top tip for User Journeys: Get creative!

The best part of getting involved in Design is being able to flex your creative muscles!  Don’t be afraid to think outside of the box . Create storyboards to visualize your user narratives. Use color codes, moodboards, and anything else you can think of. Go back to your user personas, and Your User Journey Maps aren’t just for you, they’re a visual representation of your customers and how they experience your product, which is useful for everyone involved. Make them visually appealing and help them to inspire your teams.

When building anything based on users, data is critical. User research will help you to create a user journey, understand your user’s emotional state and even their point of view. User research is part of the design process across the board, and not something you can afford to ignore.

Interested in how Design and Product can collaborate? Check out this talk from Abigail Hart Grey from  ProductCon :

Updated: May 6, 2024

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World Leaders in Research-Based User Experience

User journeys vs. user flows.

April 16, 2023 2023-04-16

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User journeys and user flows are both UX tools that capture how people accomplish goals with certain products or services. They share some similar traits. Both user journeys and user flows are:

• Used during design ideation or evaluation activities for the purpose of understanding and optimizing experience.
• Structured around a user goal and examined from the perspective of the user or customer (not a company or product).
• Captured and communicated via UX- mapping methods .

Their main distinction, however, is the level of detail and focus for each: User journeys describe a user’s holistic, high-level experience across channels and over time. User flows zoom in to describe a set of specific, discrete interactions that make up a common user pathway through a product.

In This Article:

What is a user journey, what is a user flow, combining user journeys and user flows, comparison: user journeys vs. user flows.

User journey: (Or customer journey) A scenario-based sequence of the steps that a user takes in order to accomplish a high-level goal with a company or product, usually across channels and over time.

The underlying goal of a user journey is high-level. Describing the journey will involve understanding the experience of a user across many points of interaction, because, in a journey, users might use with multiple channels or sources of information.

Consider a new-patient journey as an example. For any person finding and evaluating a new doctor, there will be many touchpoints  over a long time (days, weeks, or months): researching information on the practice’s website, calling to schedule an appointment, receiving email communications, visiting the physical office, accessing information in a patient portal, and following up via phone if necessary.  

Because of the complexity of the journey, contextualizing these actions with information about users’ emotions and thoughts can be useful for analyzing and optimizing the experience.

Journey maps are a common artifact for visualizing journeys, as they are narrative and descriptive. Effective journey maps don’t just relay the steps taken to achieve a goal; they tell a user-centered story about the process.

The best research methods for journey mapping are usually context methods , such as field studies and diary studies , which uncover longer-term user goals and behaviors in the moment. These methods can be combined with user interviews to uncover first-hand frustrations and needs.

Definition: A user flow is a set of interactions that describe the typical or ideal set of steps needed to accomplish a common task performed with a product.

Compared to a user journey, the underlying goal of a user flow is much more granular, and the focus is narrowed to a specific objective within one product.

Some appropriate goals to capture in user flows might be: purchasing a tennis racket on a sporting goods site, signing up for email updates on a credit-score-monitoring application, or updating a profile picture on a company’s intranet. These goals can be accomplished in the short-term (minutes or hours, at the most), and with a relatively limited set of interactions.

User flows can be represented with artifacts such as low-fidelity wireflows , simple flow charts, or task diagrams. These maps capture key user steps and system responses; they do not contextualize the process with emotions and thoughts like a journey map does.

The best research method for obtaining the data to map user flows is usability testing , which allows us to watch users interacting directly with the product in directed scenarios. As with user journeys, tools that capture analytics (e.g., click heatmaps) are a useful secondary source of insights.

It’s often useful to capture both user journeys and user flows and combine them to understand both macro- and micro-level views of experience. User flows can be thought of as a deep dive into specific areas of the high-level user journey.

For example, let’s go back to the high-level activities that make up the new-patient journey described earlier. Some of those activities entail using digital products (e.g., researching information on the practice website, accessing results in the patient portal). By documenting the associated user flows for these goals, we could further understand the micro-level experience in context of the greater journey.

Unfortunately, most teams do not have systematic processes in place to connect these views, due to gaps in internal team structures, lack of holistic measurement programs, or plain lack of capacity and competency to do the work.

The main differences between user journeys and user flows are captured in the table below:

To determine whether a user journey or a user flow is best for your specific context, consider the following questions:

• Does your user process involve more than one channel or more than one, known product (e.g., your company’s website)? User journeys are best for capturing activities dispersed over multiple channels; user flows are well-suited for interactions within one product.
• Can users generally accomplish the goal in minutes or hours, at the most, or will they need to complete activities over days, weeks, or months? User journeys are better for communicating activities over longer periods of time; user flows are better for relatively short-term goals.
• Will it be critical to understand not only the actions but the emotions and thoughts of users across more complex decision-making? User journeys capture those; user flows are limited to sequences of steps, with no additional information about users’ emotional states.

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User Story vs Journey Map

We have developed Journey Mapping for Jira alongside Story Mapping for Jira in order to support the different needs of each practice.

Although a journey map and user story map may contain some of the same pieces, they are used at different points of the process.

A story map is for planning and implementation while a journey map let's you validate features from a user's perspective and also aims at discovery and understanding of user's requirements.

Therefore, our apps do two very different things. In practical terms:

Let's have a look at a simple example #

You are building an online shopping platform and you have two types of customers that use the site in very different ways.

Quickly scans what is on offer by directly searching for what he wants.

Likes to browse and is a bit undecided, so he will look through the categories of your shop

Journey Mapping #

In order to satisfy both users, your shop software will need to support these two different approaches as best as possible. You should write down each individual path to using the shop software in a journey map for later reference and also to capture user's expectations.

Let's quickly look at Michael's journey:

As you can see, these items are not actionable for your team. They also go into great detail about Michael's behaviour. Therefore, you may not want to represent these as Epics within your backlog.

Journey Mapping for Jira lets you link individual tickets to these steps. It does not provide planning features as it is designed for the discovery phase and planning and implementation is best done on the User Story Map.

User Story Mapping #

This is what a simple story map for your shop software could look like:

As you can see, the epics at the top only represent a generalized version of the user's actions. You can add the individual tickets to sprints or releases for planning purposes.

Conclusion #

User Story Mapping and Journey Mapping complement each other very well. The process of journey mapping forces you to look at the overarching behaviours or your users. You can easily build a shared understanding of their personas and requirements.

Story mapping on the other hand will help you implement the user journeys into your software and prioritise which features come first, by giving developers and product managers and easier overview of actionable items.

• Journey Mapping
• User Story Mapping

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Journey vs. Destination: Why Life is a Journey, Not a Destination

Personal Growth  .  7 Min. Read . By: Devon Brown

W ith your permission, I’d like to tell you a story. A story that perfectly illustrates why, when it comes to the "journey vs. destination" conversation, the journey is in fact the more important of the two. 

I heard or read this story somewhere a while back (at least I think I did).

I may have come across it in a fitness magazine several years ago, but it’s been so long that I’m going to have to make up the name of the main character and fill in some of the details as I see fit.

Think of this story like one of those “based on a true story” movies. The names and characters may not be real... but the lesson sure is.

Heck, even the picture further down in this blog post is just one I found online that illustrated the point of the story perfectly… but hell if I know who the woman in the picture actually is (LOL) .

You may be wondering why I’ve decided to tell you such a story (given that I can‘t even remember where I heard it in the first place).

Honestly, it’s because I love you and I want to get a really important point across to you about “Journey vs. Destination” .

Besides, if me telling you an “Edutaining” (educational + entertaining) story gets you to have a positive shift in the way you understand life... then I’ll take it!

Not to mention the fact that I’m willing to bet you a clean, crisp $100 bill, that not only is the essence of this story true, but it’s probably happened dozens of times.

Truth be told...

The purpose of this story is, in part, to get you to understand the importance of NOT achieving your goals.

“But, Devon” you say ... ” I thought that I was supposed to have goals and strive to achieve them.”

Yes, you are.  But you also need to understand something about the journey you take when you strive to reach your goals.

(image source: Body-Buildin.com )

Just like Mary.

She had a goal (she also had a little lamb... HA! – just playing)

But in all seriousness...

Mary hated her weight...

So she set a goal (a.k.a. “destination”) to lose 20 pounds.

She started going to the gym, working out hard, lifting weights, eating right, and all that other stuff you’re supposed to do.

Week after week, Mary stuck to her plan.

But week after week, she found that the weight just would not come off.

But she didn’t give up (because she was committed to her goal).

Every time she stepped on the scale and didn’t like what it said, that just strengthened her resolve to work harder.

But after six full weeks of doing EVERYTHING she was supposed to do, the EXACT way she was supposed to do it, Mary hadn’t lost a single pound.

She was just as far away from her goal (destination) as the day she began.  

Now, let's stop here for a moment...

Sometimes the Journey is Better Than the Destination

Mary’s goal was to lose 20 pounds, right?

She took the actions she was supposed to take, right?

But she wasn’t moving any closer to her goal.

Now, be honest. Would you, at this point, have given up on your weight loss goal?

Well, if you would have given up, then you would’ve missed the gift that would’ve been discovered had you continued the JOURNEY .

Why Human Beings Must Embrace the Journey...

You see, what Mary discovered after six weeks of working out, is that her body is able to build muscle really easily.

So, while she was in fact losing fat, she was also, simultaneously, gaining muscle (but her weight remained the same because muscle is more dense than fat) .

In essence, the scale was lying to her.

The scale kept reading 138 lbs. (63 kg)…

But her body composition was completely different. Heck, on some days she even weighed MORE than her original weight.

Her body was in fact transforming, and it was becoming clearer not just when she looked at herself in the mirror, but in the compliments and attention she was getting. 

Noticing the changes to her body, Mary decided to stop looking at the scale, and embrace how easily she put on muscle.

A few months later she entered one of those fitness/figure competitions and took home 1 st place!

Today, she regularly competes in fitness competitions and is in love with her body (as she should be).

She weighs MORE than her original body weight, and to this day she never reached her goal (destination) of losing 20 lbs.

(Image Source:  Body-Buildin.com )

Life Lessons From This Journey vs. Destination Story

The point of this story is to get you to understand the REAL reason the journey is more important than the destination, and the point of setting goals .

The point of setting goals is NOT (necessarily ) to reach the goal. This is what most other websites and “gurus” miss.

(Besides, reaching the goal itself is often anti-climactic.)

PAY ATTENTION:  Because what I'm about to share with you is the "SEXY" of this article.  (Note: The “ SEXY ” is the main point/essence/big life-changing idea that you can take an apply to other areas of your life )

The Real Point Of Goal Setting Is Two-Fold

FIRST - The point of goal setting is to go through the process of growing as a person. That growth can ONLY be achieved by working towards a goal.

SECOND - The point of goal setting is to uncover new realities, truths, and new goals along the way. In other words, the purpose of goal setting (and taking action towards said goals) is to expose the gifts found along the JOURNEY .

Let Me Put It Another Way:

It’s like starting at point “A”...

Heading towards point “B” (your initial goal)...

And along the journey, you discover point “C”,  an even awesomer destination than point B, but one that you couldn’t see when you were at point “A”.

Re-read the above statement, 2 or 3 more times… It’s the KEY to everything!! That is the SEXY!

Mary’s “goal” (her destination) was never to be a fitness competitor. It was to lose weight.

So, she started working hard towards that goal.

Along the way, she discovered a new path (one that she would’ve NEVER seen had she not embarked upon the journey toward her original goal).

Think about it…

Did Mary ever reach her original goal? Did she reach her desired outcome?

She failed miserably at it.

But in doing so she found a greater gift .

Funnily enough, that gift was found in her weighing MORE than she thought she wanted to weigh.

(Let that sink in for a moment!)

My Personal Journey vs. Destination Example...

I remember back in 2014 when I set a goal for myself of opening an office and managing a sales team that generated $300,000+ a month in sales.

I launched my company, did $100,000 in sales the first month, hired a business coach and a dozen new employees, and started marching towards my goal of $300,000 a month.

9 Months later I was broke.

I worked hard toward my goal but “failed” miserably at it.

But in my failure I discovered something.

I discovered that I had ZERO desire to run a sales team, work out of a “real” office, or do any of the other mess I was doing.

I also discovered that making six figures a month isn’t all it’s cracked up to be - if you have to exchange it for your happiness and sanity.

That failure caused me to change my entire business model.

Along the JOURNEY , I discovered what I really wanted my life and business to look like.

So, I downsized.

I sub-leased my office to another company.

I went from 12 employees to 5.

And I set it up so that everyone could work from home.

The end result…

I was 10X happier!

I hope it does.

And I hope that now when you hear people talking about "the journey vs. the destination", you understand exactly why people say the journey is the more important of the two.

Journey vs. Destination Quotes

I often like to end my blogs with a quote that inspires and motivates my readers.

In this case, the whole article is based on a famous quote. 

So, instead, I'm going to share some fun history on that very quote...

Ralph Waldo Emerson is often credited for the famous quote, "Life is a journey, not a destination."

However, an exact match to that quote in his works has not been found. 

The Actual Ralph Waldo Emerson Quote

Ralph's closest related remark that he wrote goes...

"To finish the moment, to find the journey's end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

The closest match is actually from a 1920 periodical called "The Christian Advocate" that wrote:

"He wanted his friends to realize that life is a journey and not a destination; that the heart must be set upon those matters of character which are eternal and not upon those matters of sensation which pass away." -Lynn H. Hough

Other 'Journey Better Than Destination' Quotes

• "Success is not a destination, but a journey." -anonymous, 1929
• "Happiness is a journey, not a destination." -1935 story in the Clevelan Plain Dealer
• "Life’s a journey not a destination and I just can’t tell just what tomorrow brings." -1993 Aerosmith song, Amazing

Basically, no one really knows who first used the words "life is a journey, not a destination" but it's good advice regardless. That's clear from the many iterations of the quote over the course of generations.

The life lesson is this: set goals to help move you forward, but enjoy the journey.

Never forget that life is a journey that teaches us along the way. Be prepared to adjust your path and go with the flow as you find new meaning and better dreams you couldn't predict.

How to Start Your Journey

The first steps of your journey should lay your foundation with a healthy mindset and a clear idea of the habits you need to form. Establishing those habits will be your true goal, just like establishing healthy habits ended up being Mary's true goal.

By the way...

If part of your journey includes a desire to become a better public speaker, or be more confident on stage, click the button below for a special free gift.

Read Next:  The Goal is NEVER the Goal

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The state of AI in early 2024: Gen AI adoption spikes and starts to generate value

If 2023 was the year the world discovered generative AI (gen AI) , 2024 is the year organizations truly began using—and deriving business value from—this new technology. In the latest McKinsey Global Survey  on AI, 65 percent of respondents report that their organizations are regularly using gen AI, nearly double the percentage from our previous survey just ten months ago. Respondents’ expectations for gen AI’s impact remain as high as they were last year , with three-quarters predicting that gen AI will lead to significant or disruptive change in their industries in the years ahead.

About the authors

This article is a collaborative effort by Alex Singla , Alexander Sukharevsky , Lareina Yee , and Michael Chui , with Bryce Hall , representing views from QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey, and McKinsey Digital.

Organizations are already seeing material benefits from gen AI use, reporting both cost decreases and revenue jumps in the business units deploying the technology. The survey also provides insights into the kinds of risks presented by gen AI—most notably, inaccuracy—as well as the emerging practices of top performers to mitigate those challenges and capture value.

AI adoption surges

Interest in generative AI has also brightened the spotlight on a broader set of AI capabilities. For the past six years, AI adoption by respondents’ organizations has hovered at about 50 percent. This year, the survey finds that adoption has jumped to 72 percent (Exhibit 1). And the interest is truly global in scope. Our 2023 survey found that AI adoption did not reach 66 percent in any region; however, this year more than two-thirds of respondents in nearly every region say their organizations are using AI. 1 Organizations based in Central and South America are the exception, with 58 percent of respondents working for organizations based in Central and South America reporting AI adoption. Looking by industry, the biggest increase in adoption can be found in professional services. 2 Includes respondents working for organizations focused on human resources, legal services, management consulting, market research, R&D, tax preparation, and training.

Also, responses suggest that companies are now using AI in more parts of the business. Half of respondents say their organizations have adopted AI in two or more business functions, up from less than a third of respondents in 2023 (Exhibit 2).

Gen AI adoption is most common in the functions where it can create the most value

Most respondents now report that their organizations—and they as individuals—are using gen AI. Sixty-five percent of respondents say their organizations are regularly using gen AI in at least one business function, up from one-third last year. The average organization using gen AI is doing so in two functions, most often in marketing and sales and in product and service development—two functions in which previous research  determined that gen AI adoption could generate the most value 3 “ The economic potential of generative AI: The next productivity frontier ,” McKinsey, June 14, 2023. —as well as in IT (Exhibit 3). The biggest increase from 2023 is found in marketing and sales, where reported adoption has more than doubled. Yet across functions, only two use cases, both within marketing and sales, are reported by 15 percent or more of respondents.

Gen AI also is weaving its way into respondents’ personal lives. Compared with 2023, respondents are much more likely to be using gen AI at work and even more likely to be using gen AI both at work and in their personal lives (Exhibit 4). The survey finds upticks in gen AI use across all regions, with the largest increases in Asia–Pacific and Greater China. Respondents at the highest seniority levels, meanwhile, show larger jumps in the use of gen Al tools for work and outside of work compared with their midlevel-management peers. Looking at specific industries, respondents working in energy and materials and in professional services report the largest increase in gen AI use.

Investments in gen AI and analytical AI are beginning to create value

The latest survey also shows how different industries are budgeting for gen AI. Responses suggest that, in many industries, organizations are about equally as likely to be investing more than 5 percent of their digital budgets in gen AI as they are in nongenerative, analytical-AI solutions (Exhibit 5). Yet in most industries, larger shares of respondents report that their organizations spend more than 20 percent on analytical AI than on gen AI. Looking ahead, most respondents—67 percent—expect their organizations to invest more in AI over the next three years.

Where are those investments paying off? For the first time, our latest survey explored the value created by gen AI use by business function. The function in which the largest share of respondents report seeing cost decreases is human resources. Respondents most commonly report meaningful revenue increases (of more than 5 percent) in supply chain and inventory management (Exhibit 6). For analytical AI, respondents most often report seeing cost benefits in service operations—in line with what we found last year —as well as meaningful revenue increases from AI use in marketing and sales.

Inaccuracy: The most recognized and experienced risk of gen AI use

As businesses begin to see the benefits of gen AI, they’re also recognizing the diverse risks associated with the technology. These can range from data management risks such as data privacy, bias, or intellectual property (IP) infringement to model management risks, which tend to focus on inaccurate output or lack of explainability. A third big risk category is security and incorrect use.

Respondents to the latest survey are more likely than they were last year to say their organizations consider inaccuracy and IP infringement to be relevant to their use of gen AI, and about half continue to view cybersecurity as a risk (Exhibit 7).

Conversely, respondents are less likely than they were last year to say their organizations consider workforce and labor displacement to be relevant risks and are not increasing efforts to mitigate them.

In fact, inaccuracy— which can affect use cases across the gen AI value chain , ranging from customer journeys and summarization to coding and creative content—is the only risk that respondents are significantly more likely than last year to say their organizations are actively working to mitigate.

Some organizations have already experienced negative consequences from the use of gen AI, with 44 percent of respondents saying their organizations have experienced at least one consequence (Exhibit 8). Respondents most often report inaccuracy as a risk that has affected their organizations, followed by cybersecurity and explainability.

Our previous research has found that there are several elements of governance that can help in scaling gen AI use responsibly, yet few respondents report having these risk-related practices in place. 4 “ Implementing generative AI with speed and safety ,” McKinsey Quarterly , March 13, 2024. For example, just 18 percent say their organizations have an enterprise-wide council or board with the authority to make decisions involving responsible AI governance, and only one-third say gen AI risk awareness and risk mitigation controls are required skill sets for technical talent.

Bringing gen AI capabilities to bear

The latest survey also sought to understand how, and how quickly, organizations are deploying these new gen AI tools. We have found three archetypes for implementing gen AI solutions : takers use off-the-shelf, publicly available solutions; shapers customize those tools with proprietary data and systems; and makers develop their own foundation models from scratch. 5 “ Technology’s generational moment with generative AI: A CIO and CTO guide ,” McKinsey, July 11, 2023. Across most industries, the survey results suggest that organizations are finding off-the-shelf offerings applicable to their business needs—though many are pursuing opportunities to customize models or even develop their own (Exhibit 9). About half of reported gen AI uses within respondents’ business functions are utilizing off-the-shelf, publicly available models or tools, with little or no customization. Respondents in energy and materials, technology, and media and telecommunications are more likely to report significant customization or tuning of publicly available models or developing their own proprietary models to address specific business needs.

Respondents most often report that their organizations required one to four months from the start of a project to put gen AI into production, though the time it takes varies by business function (Exhibit 10). It also depends upon the approach for acquiring those capabilities. Not surprisingly, reported uses of highly customized or proprietary models are 1.5 times more likely than off-the-shelf, publicly available models to take five months or more to implement.

Gen AI high performers are excelling despite facing challenges

Gen AI is a new technology, and organizations are still early in the journey of pursuing its opportunities and scaling it across functions. So it’s little surprise that only a small subset of respondents (46 out of 876) report that a meaningful share of their organizations’ EBIT can be attributed to their deployment of gen AI. Still, these gen AI leaders are worth examining closely. These, after all, are the early movers, who already attribute more than 10 percent of their organizations’ EBIT to their use of gen AI. Forty-two percent of these high performers say more than 20 percent of their EBIT is attributable to their use of nongenerative, analytical AI, and they span industries and regions—though most are at organizations with less than $1 billion in annual revenue. The AI-related practices at these organizations can offer guidance to those looking to create value from gen AI adoption at their own organizations.

To start, gen AI high performers are using gen AI in more business functions—an average of three functions, while others average two. They, like other organizations, are most likely to use gen AI in marketing and sales and product or service development, but they’re much more likely than others to use gen AI solutions in risk, legal, and compliance; in strategy and corporate finance; and in supply chain and inventory management. They’re more than three times as likely as others to be using gen AI in activities ranging from processing of accounting documents and risk assessment to R&D testing and pricing and promotions. While, overall, about half of reported gen AI applications within business functions are utilizing publicly available models or tools, gen AI high performers are less likely to use those off-the-shelf options than to either implement significantly customized versions of those tools or to develop their own proprietary foundation models.

What else are these high performers doing differently? For one thing, they are paying more attention to gen-AI-related risks. Perhaps because they are further along on their journeys, they are more likely than others to say their organizations have experienced every negative consequence from gen AI we asked about, from cybersecurity and personal privacy to explainability and IP infringement. Given that, they are more likely than others to report that their organizations consider those risks, as well as regulatory compliance, environmental impacts, and political stability, to be relevant to their gen AI use, and they say they take steps to mitigate more risks than others do.

Gen AI high performers are also much more likely to say their organizations follow a set of risk-related best practices (Exhibit 11). For example, they are nearly twice as likely as others to involve the legal function and embed risk reviews early on in the development of gen AI solutions—that is, to “ shift left .” They’re also much more likely than others to employ a wide range of other best practices, from strategy-related practices to those related to scaling.

In addition to experiencing the risks of gen AI adoption, high performers have encountered other challenges that can serve as warnings to others (Exhibit 12). Seventy percent say they have experienced difficulties with data, including defining processes for data governance, developing the ability to quickly integrate data into AI models, and an insufficient amount of training data, highlighting the essential role that data play in capturing value. High performers are also more likely than others to report experiencing challenges with their operating models, such as implementing agile ways of working and effective sprint performance management.

About the research

The online survey was in the field from February 22 to March 5, 2024, and garnered responses from 1,363 participants representing the full range of regions, industries, company sizes, functional specialties, and tenures. Of those respondents, 981 said their organizations had adopted AI in at least one business function, and 878 said their organizations were regularly using gen AI in at least one function. To adjust for differences in response rates, the data are weighted by the contribution of each respondent’s nation to global GDP.

Alex Singla and Alexander Sukharevsky  are global coleaders of QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey, and senior partners in McKinsey’s Chicago and London offices, respectively; Lareina Yee  is a senior partner in the Bay Area office, where Michael Chui , a McKinsey Global Institute partner, is a partner; and Bryce Hall  is an associate partner in the Washington, DC, office.

They wish to thank Kaitlin Noe, Larry Kanter, Mallika Jhamb, and Shinjini Srivastava for their contributions to this work.

This article was edited by Heather Hanselman, a senior editor in McKinsey’s Atlanta office.

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'We can be limitless': The impact of Columbus Crew's journey to Champions Cup final

PACHUCA, Mexico − The road to the CONCACAF Champions Cup final was never going to be easy for the Crew.

Playing against Liga MX clubs from the quarterfinals of the tournament and beyond, the Crew had to defeat the 2020 Champions Cup winner Tigres and the 2021 winner CF Monterrey back-to-back to advance to the final. And getting past Tigres in the quarterfinals required a penalty shootout road victory.

"I knew they were able to do it," Crew coach Wilfried Nancy said . "Because we did it, it was a fact and they realized, 'Yeah, we can do it. We can be limitless.' "

The Crew became the first MLS club to knock out a Liga MX club on Mexican soil in penalty kicks. From there, the Crew outscored Monterrey 5-2 in aggregate goals , putting them in a club-first Champions Cup final on Saturday against one last Liga MX opponent, CF Pachuca, in Pachuca, Mexico.

Out of the three Mexican clubs the Crew will have faced in the tournament, Pachuca has had the most Champions Cup success, winning five titles, its most recent being 2017. Pachuca has never lost in a final.

"Going away to Tigres and Monterrey, those are both historic clubs in Mexico as well," said Crew midfielder Aidan Morris. "But I think regardless of where we go and who we play against, our mentality is always the same. It's just focus on ourselves, and I think when we do that it ends up leading to success. So, we're excited to play against Pachuca. They've obviously got talent. We've got talent, too."

What to expect from CF Pachuca vs Columbus Crew

While the road to the final was difficult for the Crew, they managed to make it with a considerably low goal total, recording nine across six matches. Pachuca scored 16 goals since entering the tournament in the round of 16.

After a scoreless tournament-opening first leg against the Philadelphia Union, Pachuca advanced the quarterfinals by defeating the Union 6-0 in the second leg.

Pachuca outscored its second opponent, the Costan Rican club C.S. Herediano, 7-2 in the quarterfinals and earned a spot in the final when it knocked out Club America in the semifinals with a 3-2 aggregate score.

"They can be really aggressive," Nancy said. "They can score goals also, quickly. They are good in offensive transition, and we are able to compete against that because we have a different style of play. So, it's going to be interesting to see that."

Leading the way for Pachuca has been striker Salomon Rondon, who has scored a tournament-leading seven goals in six matches. The Crew will have their own striker, Cucho Hernandez, available for the final after missing three matches due to a back injury.

Despite the injury, Hernandez was able to participate in altitude training in the past two weeks. Pachuca is nearly 8,000 feet above sea, and the Crew prepared as best they could to play in an unfamiliar atmosphere.

More: Why Columbus Crew took part in altitude training ahead of Champions Cup final in Pachuca

Pachuca will have the high-altitude environment and most of the sellout crowd in its corner, and the club has also been able to rest since its final Liga MX match of the season on May 11. The Crew have played three matches since then.

"It’s a final," Nancy said. "When you play a final, what I’ve learned is the human being, when they’re tired, they can push 20-30% more if he wants to do it. So, for us, it doesn’t change anything."

Since the victory over Tigres, the Crew's confidence in the tournament has significantly improved according to Nancy, evidenced by the Monterrey series.

The Crew also have a very recent memory of what it feels like to finish a final as champions, winning the 2023 MLS Cup , which is fueling their desire win another title in less than a year.

"This is why we play the sport, is for moments like these," said Crew goalkeeper Patrick Schulte. "This group is very tight. We're all one group in the locker room, and to be able to celebrate and to be able to have these moments as a team is why you play and what you dream about as a little kid."

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• June 3, 2024   •   32:07 How Trump’s Conviction Could Reshape the Election
• May 31, 2024   •   31:29 Guilty
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• May 29, 2024   •   29:46 The Closing Arguments in the Trump Trial
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How Trump’s Conviction Could Reshape the Election

The guilty verdict in his manhattan criminal trial is set to become a key piece in the 2024 campaign..

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Last week, Donald J. Trump became the first U.S. former president to be convicted of a crime when a jury found that he had falsified business records to conceal a sex scandal.

Nate Cohn, who is the chief political analyst at The Times, Maggie Haberman, a senior political correspondent, and Reid J. Epstein, who also covers politics, discuss how the conviction might shape the remaining months of the presidential race.

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Manoj Tiwari vs Kanhaiya Kumar, North East Delhi Election Results 2024: Who is winning from North East Delhi Lok Sabha seat?

North East Delhi Election Results 2024: North East Delhi Lok Sabha constituency is one of the seven constituencies of Delhi and is witnessing a strong contest between Congress’ Kanhaiya Kumar and the sitting MP from BJP, Manoj Tiwari. The competition between the two is one of the most anticipated ones in Delhi, as both are originally from Bihar, and Delhi has many Bihar migrants in it.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Manoj Tiwari defeated Congress’ Sheila Dikshit and AAP’s Dilip Pandey by a margin of over 3 lakh votes and became the two-time sitting MP from this seat. The 2019 elections saw a voter turnout of 14,62,767, which was 63.86 per cent of the total voters in the area.

The political journey of Manoj Tiwari and Kanhaiya Kumar

Notably, Manoj Tiwari is already a two-time MP from the same North East Delhi constituency on BJP’s ticket, while on the other hand, this was Kanhaiya Kumar’s first political campaign under Congress’ banner. Kanhiya, in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, contested from Bihar’s Begusarai seat on the Communist Party of India’s (CPI) ticket but lost to BJP’s Giriraj Singh.

Political banter between Manoj Tiwari and Kanhaiya Kumar

During the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Manoj Tiwari kept attacking Kanhaiya Kumar by calling him anti-national and not fit to run elections. Kanhaiya Kumar, on the other hand, accused Manoj of sending his goons to attack him, as Kanhaiya was physically assaulted by two people during one of his campaign visits in his electoral constituency.

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India vs Ireland: Men in Blue begin T20 World Cup journey with focus on top-order

India face Ireland in their opening game of the 2024 T20 World Cup with a massive question mark over captain Rohit Sharma’s opening partner read more

It will be the beginning of the end of an era in Indian cricket when the Men in Blue take on Ireland in their opening match of the 2024 T20 World Cup in New York City on Wednesday.

T20 World Cup 2024:  News  |  Schedule  |  Results  |  Points Table

The Group A fixture, after all, will commence India’s campaign at a tournament that will be former India captain Rahul Dravid’s final assignment as head coach along with the fact that the tournament is also perhaps the last time fans get to witness Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli play a World Cup together.

The Men in Blue, additionally, have not been able to add to their T20 World Cup triumph in the inaugural edition in 2007, or win an ICC title since the 2013 Champions Trophy for that matter, coming within an inch of ending that jinx in last year’s ODI World Cup at home.

Team India, therefore, will be hungrier than ever, looking to give their best shot knowing they cannot afford to take any team lightly — whether it is arch-rivals Pakistan or minnows USA and Canada. And especially Ireland, a team known to spring a surprise in big events.

Also Read | India focus on controllables in nets session

India had registered a thumping 60-run victory over Bangladesh in their only warm-up match, which took place at the same venue where India will play their first three matches of the group stage — New York’s recently-inaugurated Nassau County International Stadium .

The clinical performance against Najmul Hossain and Co in all three departments helped captain Rohit and coach Dravid get a better understanding of what their combination should look like.

Focus on Rohit’s opening partner, all-rounders

The key talking point as far as the Indian team is concerned is their top order with focus on Rohit’s opening partner and the No 3 slot. In an experimental move during the warm-up match, Rohit had walked out to open the innings with Sanju Samson, who had been picked as the second wicketkeeper-batter in the squad. Samson, however, hardly impressed and was dismissed for 1 after facing five deliveries.

Neither Kohli nor Yashasvi Jaiswal, who is making his maiden World Cup appearance, had featured in the warm-up and it is those two who are the primary candidates of the second opener’s slot. And who the Men in Blue go with on Wednesday will not only have a major impact on the balance of their lineup, it will also likely be their preferred combination for the remainder of the tournament.

Jaiswal has been impressive in both Tests and T20Is since he made his debut during India’s tour of the Caribbean last year, scoring 502 runs in 17 appearances for India in the shortest format at an impressive strike rate of 161.93. The southpaw is a specialist opener and had been batting at the top in T20Is since the five-match series against Australia after the ODI World Cup.

At the same time, having Kohli open the innings alongside Rohit allows Rishabh Pant to bat above Suryakumar Yadav at the No 3 slot and free up a slot in the middle order, giving Rohit and Rahul room to bring in an additional all-rounder. Kohli bats as an opener for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the IPL and had recently finished as the season’s leading run-scorer (741) at a strike rate of 154.69.

Jaiswal’s inclusion certainly gives India the advantage of a left-hand-right-hand opening combination and perhaps a more attacking option alongside Rohit. While Kohli’s inclusion gives India a more consistent run-scorer at the top while giving the team more flexibility with their XI.

Also Read | Sunil Gavaskar picks his India XI to face Ireland

Rohit, additionally, had emphasised on the importance of Team India making proper utilisation of their all-rounders on the eve of their match against Ireland. India had included seamers Hardik Pandya and Shivam Dube, the former being named vice-captain, as well left-arm finger-spinners Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel, and skipper Rohit did not rule out the possibility of including all four in the lineup at some point in the tournament, if not against the Irishmen on Wednesday.

“If you want to create a good balance in a team, you need a lot of all-rounders. In fast-bowling all-rounders we have Hardik and Dube while Jadeja and Axar give us options in the spin department.

“We have seen how big a role all-rounders can play in T20 cricket. Not just in T20 cricket, but in all formats. Their role will be more than the rest of the players,” Rohit told reporters in the pre-match press conference.

Also Read | Why Shivam Dube could be the game-changer for India in T20 World Cup?

Given the nature of the New York wicket and how seamers have thrived at the newly-constructed venue, with Anrich Nortje bouncing back to form with a clinical 4/7 against Sri Lanka on Monday, it won’t be too far-fetched to assume the Men in Blue will be looking to include both Pandya and Dube in the XI. Especially after Pandya’s unbeaten 40 off 23 balls and Dube’s two wickets in consecutive deliveries in the warm-up.

Expect Kohli to walk out at the start of the innings for that to happen on Wednesday.

Ireland confident of an upset

Ireland will be hoping to challenge the might Indians by putting up a proper fight even if they enter Wednesday’s clash as the underdogs.

The Paul Stirling-led side, after all, know a thing or two about causing upsets against higher-ranked teams in the big tournaments. The Irishmen had handed Pakistan the knockout punch in the 2007 ODI World Cup and pulled off a memorable chase against England in Bengaluru four years later. They would vanquish their ‘Old Enemy’ in the T20 World Cup as well, in a rain-affected clash in Melbourne in 2022.

Ireland are yet to defeat India in any format , having lost all three ODI meetings against the Men in Blue as well as seven out of eight T20I meetings since they first met in the 2009 ICC World T20. The only time they managed to avoid a defeat against India was when the third T20I during the Jasprit Bumrah-led Indian team’s tour of Ireland last year ended in a washout without a ball bowled.

There were also a couple of occasions where Ireland had given India a proper scare. Andy Balbirnie and skipper Stirling’s whirlwind knocks of 60 (37) and 40 (18) respectively had nearly helped the home team chase down an improbable 226-run target set by the Men in Blue in Malahide in the summer of 2022.

On Wednesday, it is the experienced duo of Stirling and Balbirnie, who have more than a hundred appearances for Ireland in each white ball format, who will be hoping to lead Ireland’s charge when they walk out to open the innings. Balbirnie, additionally, has the best T20I record against India among Irish batters, having scored 156 runs in six appearances at a strike rate of 138.05. He had also played a starring role in Ireland’s five-wicket victory over Pakistan last month with a knock of 77 off 55 balls against an attack comprising Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah and Shadab Khan.

They’ll have similar expectations from Mark Adair in the bowling department with the seam-bowling all-rounder their most consistent wicket-taker in recent events, including in the European T20 World Cup qualifier where he finished with 12 wickets at an average and economy of 8.75 and 5.33 respectively.

Also Read | Irishmen who could pose a threat to India in New York

“India is an experienced side, which means there’s a lot of data and a lot of information out there. Hopefully, we can look to find a couple of areas we can try and exploit.

”It has shown in the past that the luck of the Irish has always been with us. Playing in a country which we don’t know a lot about, and it is what it is, we don’t really focus too much on that,” Ireland head coach Heinrich Malan said in the pre-match press conference, remaining optimistic of his team putting up a good fight against one of the title favourites.

India : Rohit Sharma(c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant(wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal, Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube.

Ireland : Paul Stirling(c), Andrew Balbirnie, Lorcan Tucker(wk), Harry Tector, Curtis Campher, George Dockrell, Gareth Delany, Ross Adair, Barry McCarthy, Mark Adair, Joshua Little, Craig Young, Benjamin White, Neil Rock, Graham Hume.

Venue : Nassau County International Stadium, New York City.

Time : 8 pm Indian Standard Time/10.30 am Eastern Daylight Time.

A Bombay Bong with an identity crisis. Passionately follow cricket. Hardcore fan of Team India, the Proteas and junk food. Self-proclaimed shutterbug. see more

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