The sketch by the Comedy Duo “The Two Ronnies” has been considered one of the greatest UK comedy sketches ever.
It is based on simple misunderstandings between two people, both of whom are certain that their request and understanding is very clear.
Over the years, I’ve experienced the same with product development. What appeared to be a very clear request from the client or me as Product Manager, has worked its way through the process and something very different has been delivered.
Agile processes have certainly gone a long way to mitigate that risk with more frequent points for validating, but even still the opportunity to run into issues within a sprint can happen.
Trying to get a balance between too much detail that innovation is lost and not enough that the ambiguity leads to re-engineering can be challenging, despite the formal ceremonies and processes that Agile has.
This is a technique that I have used with some very positive outcomes:
✏ Using Miro/Mural, I draw out the end to end UI flow using wireframes (or if they are available Figma screens/components).
⚡ Each page / element is linked together with any business logic noted.
💬 Add in annotations where the data is coming from. Include the end points, payload and link the data items to the corresponding elements on the page including any manipulation needed.
🎫 Include the Jira/AZDO tickets against each relevant element on the page
This becomes the storyboard to go through with the team and acts as a consistent point of reference for anyone to look over at any time.
It can take a bit of work and from a distance look complex, however:
👉 It has worked for me as a Product Owner as I can see the entire end to end flow with all the elements in one place and make sure nothing is missing and it tells the story for anyone else on the wider team to visualise. As stories are delivered the status of the Jira ticket gets updated. It’s a little extra work, but it has saved the day on multiple occasions.
👉 It has worked for the developers as they can see the big picture and how their task will relate to another. It opens up collaboration rather than working in isolation. Whatever the theory says, it’s rare that a user story is completely independent.
👉 It has worked for the testers as they can understand the start and end point of the journey and build their test cases out accordingly. Being able to validate that the data has been processed correctly is invaluable.
