Example mapping template
Example mapping for one story: the rules it has to follow, a concrete example of each, and the questions nobody in the room can answer yet.
Opens a live board in one click. No sign-up: share the link and your team joins.
What is example mapping?
Example mapping is a short conversation, about twenty-five minutes, that turns a user story into rules and examples before anyone builds it. Each rule gets a column; each example shows the rule at work. Questions go to the side to be answered later. A story with too many rules is too big; one with too many questions is not ready.
What is on the board
5 frames — Story, Rule 1, Rule 2, Rule 3, Questions — each headed in large type so it reads with the whole board on screen, and a legend with a kind of note for each thing people will write. Drag a note off the legend, or double-click the board.
- Story
- The story being discussed. One per board.
- Rule
- Something that must be true: an acceptance criterion.
- Example
- A concrete case that shows a rule at work.
- Question
- Something nobody in the room can answer yet.
How to run it
- Write the storyPut the story at the top in yellow.
- Find the rulesEach rule the story must follow heads a column, in blue.
- Give examplesUnder each rule, concrete examples in green: given this, when that, then this.
- Park the questionsAnything unanswerable goes in Questions, in red. Decide whether the story is ready.