Example Mapping

User stories describe intent. Example maps make that intent precise enough to build and test.

Overview

Example mapping is a collaborative technique for taking a user story or task from a story map and breaking it into concrete examples, business rules, and open questions. The exercise uses colored cards or sticky notes: the story on top (yellow), rules underneath (blue), examples under each rule (green), and questions that surface during the conversation (red). When you’re done, you have a shared understanding of what “done” looks like for that story.

The technique bridges the gap between product intent and engineering implementation. Instead of writing acceptance criteria in isolation, the whole team (product, engineering, testing) generates examples together. This surfaces edge cases, disagreements, and unknowns before anyone writes code. If a story generates too many red cards (questions), it’s a signal that more discovery is needed before the team should commit to building it.

Example maps produce an ordered, sized, and testable product backlog. Each example can become an acceptance test. Each rule becomes a clear boundary for implementation. And questions that can’t be answered in the room become inputs for experiments or further research.

Resources

• Matt Wynne, “Introducing Example Mapping” (Cucumber Blog, 2015) — the original description of the technique
• User Story Mapping — the map from which stories flow into example mapping sessions
• User Journeys — journeys identify which stories to decompose with example maps