Example Mapping Template
Create a shared understanding of a new product feature.
Trusted by 65M+ users and leading companies
About the Example Mapping Template
Example mapping (or user story mapping) helps product managers and their teams quickly break down product backlogs. Ideally, example maps help a cross-functional team (for instance, a product owner, tester, and developer) build up a shared understanding and language for why product features need to be added or changed.
Team leads can offer strategic direction toward a cohesive digital transformation (or timely upgrade) so your team has the relevant technology to stay competitive.
What is example mapping?
An example mapping session is a great way to develop structured, concrete user stories. Each example uncovered can help teams explore problem areas for customers and decide on acceptable criteria to build a new feature.
There are a few key elements that an example mapping tool can delineate:
Rules that sum up examples or agree on the scope of the user story
Questions or assumptions about situations where no one knows the ideal outcome
New stories that should be discovered or left out of the final scope
Example mapping also relies on a color-coded system to shape the scope of a user story:
Yellow sticky notes are for defining stories, such as “change of delivery address”
Blue sticky notes are for defining rules, such as “ETA is updated”
Green sticky notes are for defining examples, like “New address is out of range”
Red sticky notes are for questions, like “what if the customer lives outside the free shipping zone?”
This color-coded system helps steer the conversation in the right direction and keep the discussion on track. You can use a blank example mapping template to quickly and easily begin filling in the relevant fields to get the conversation started.
When to use example mapping
Example mapping is a collaborative method that can help your team define what accepted user behavior looks like for different scenarios. An example mapping tool can be a useful way to align your cross-functional teams toward:
Empathy for the customer and the team. Everyone should understand why new product features are needed, and what the customer may be struggling with as far as conflicts between stories and rules.
Shared understanding of the industry or product. By the end of the example mapping session, the team should leave with a shared language and appreciation for what’s at stake.
Small yet impactful potential for change. Think big and act small as a team. How soon can each recorded user story be translated into a real feature?
Rules and examples that follow logic. Specific rules and scenarios should back up every user story.
Create your own example map
Making your own example map is easy with Miro's template. Get started by adding the example mapping template to a new board, then take the following steps to make one of your own.
Understand the problem. Ask your product owner to define the user problem on a yellow sticky note, then explain how this translates to a need for a change in the product features. This helps the team better understand the problem.
Challenge the problem by asking follow-up questions. Collect all your team’s questions on red sticky notes, starting with “What if...?” These questions will live under your user story (the yellow sticky note).
Figure out the rules. Find the rules in the answers to the questions on red sticky notes. Each rule is your acceptance criteria for new product features. Make sure that every new rule can stand on its own. Ideally, it shouldn't be confused with or too similar to another rule.
Describe situations with relevant examples. Green sticky notes are where you record and collect interesting potential cases or instances. Keep the discussion going, and engage your team’s critical thinking skills by checking if you’ve reached the boundaries of the rule of your examples, as well as considering what happens if the rule fails.
Identify outcomes, impacts, and success metrics. What do you hope to accomplish with a new product feature, and how does it contribute to your business objectives? Consider how you might track and test the success of each proposed feature – what behavior you’ll be looking for and measuring.
Turn your stories into action items. These stories can be turned into a development plan for a new feature or product. They can also form the basis of a minimum amount of features needed to be valuable to your customer.
What is an example mapping technique?
Example mapping is a collaborative process. Ideally you should gather your team and agree on the scope of your example mapping and which questions or assumptions should be discussed. Once these agreements have been defined, you can use an example mapping template to fill in the color-coded stickies and workshop together as a group.
Get started with this template right now.
Salesforce Implementation Plan
Works best for:
Roadmap, Planning, Mapping
The Salesforce Implementation Plan template offers a structured framework for planning and executing Salesforce deployment projects. By outlining key milestones, tasks, and dependencies, teams can ensure a smooth transition to the Salesforce platform. This template facilitates collaboration between IT and business teams, ensuring that implementation efforts are aligned with strategic objectives and deliver value to stakeholders.
T-Chart Template
Works best for:
Ideation, Operations, Strategic Planning
T-Charts can help you compare and contrast two different ideas, group information into different categories, and prove a change through “before” and “after” analysis. T-Charts are visual organizational tools that enable you to compare ideas, so you can evaluate pros and cons, facts and opinions, strengths and weaknesses, or big-picture views versus specific details. Designers and content creators can use T-Charts to turn possibilities into actionable ideas. T-Charts are useful for discussing differences and similarities with your team or clients and can help you to reach a decision together.
Recruitment Strategy Roadmap
Works best for:
Roadmap, Planning, Mapping
The Recruitment Strategy Roadmap template helps organizations plan and execute their talent acquisition initiatives effectively. It provides a structured framework for identifying hiring needs, sourcing candidates, and evaluating recruitment channels. By aligning recruitment efforts with business objectives, organizations can attract and retain top talent, driving organizational growth and success.
Swim Lane Diagram with Data
Works best for:
Flowchart, Mapping, Diagrams
The Swim Lane Diagram with Data template is a visual tool for illustrating processes or workflows with swimlanes that contain additional data or information. It provides elements for documenting process steps, timelines, and performance metrics within each swimlane. This template enables teams to analyze process efficiency, identify bottlenecks, and make data-driven decisions for process improvement. By combining visual clarity with data insights, the Swim Lane Diagram with Data empowers organizations to optimize workflows and drive continuous improvement effectively.
UML Diagram Template
Works best for:
Diagrams, Software Development
Originally used as a modeling language in software engineering, UML has become a popular approach to application structures and documenting software. UML stands for Unified Modeling Language, and you can use it to model business processes and workflows. Like flowcharts, UML diagrams can provide your organization with a standardized method of mapping out step-by-step processes. They allow your team to easily view the relationships between systems and tasks. UML diagrams are an effective tool that can help you bring new employees up to speed, create documentation, organize your workplace and team, and streamline your projects.
Customer Touchpoint Map Template
Works best for:
Desk Research, Product Management, Mapping
To attract and keep loyal customers, you have to truly start to understand them—their pain point, wants, and needs. A customer touchpoint map helps you gain that understanding by visualizing the path your customers follow, from signing up for a service, to using your site, to buying your product. And because no two customers are exactly alike, a CJM lets you plot out multiple pathways through your product. Soon you’ll be able to anticipate those pathways and satisfy your customers at every step.