HGOMM

This is a real quick gut check, a filter you can put your stories through. Only takes a couple seconds, you can do it outside your customer’s office to calm your nerves before you go in there.

H = Hero (usually your customer)
G = Goal (usually your customer’s goal)
O = Obstacle (usually the obstacle standing in the way)
M = Mentor (usually you or your product/service)
M = Moral (what is the moral of the story)

You can usually ditch the final M (moral); your customer is going to draw their own moral from the story, don’t hit them over the head with it.

So it’s just basically HGOM. Ask yourself who is the hero (Joe). What is Joe’s goal (fix the production problem). What is the obstacle (the software stack Joe is using). Who is the mentor (you and your software).

Boom. You know who the players are, you didn’t forget to put anything into your stories.

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