Product Owner Key Skills Training – Impact Mapping, Story Mapping and Valuable User Stories

Transform Your Agile Process: A Workshop for Product Owners and Business Stakeholders led by Gojko Adzic

Product Owner Key Skills Training

Course Description

Do you find it challenging to break down user stories into manageable, valuable increments? Are you struggling with prioritizing stories or securing commitments from business stakeholders on their goals? If you face difficulties in determining when a story is complete, or if you need to manage and understand the scope of multiple stories to achieve a business objective, this workshop is for you. Join us for an engaging, interactive session where you will learn the art of optimizing user stories for maximum business impact. Bring your product owners and business sponsors to master practical techniques in story prioritization, estimation, and strategic planning, ensuring your team delivers effectively and efficiently. 

Course Objectives

In this interactive workshop led by Gojko Adzic, participants will explore key skills essential for Product Owners, focusing on Impact Mapping, Story Mapping, and crafting valuable user stories. By the end of this course, participants will be able to: 

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Dates

26-27

May 2025
Early Bird

Vienna
26 – 27 May 2025

09:00 – 17:00 CEST

Price
EUR 1400
Price excl VAT.

Early Bird Price
EUR 1300

until 2 May 2025

01-02

December 2025
Early Bird

Vienna
01 – 02 Dec 2025
09:00 – 17:00 CET

Price
EUR 1400
Price excl VAT.

Early Bird Price
EUR 1300

until 1 November 2025

How participants rate our courses

Our Course includes

Key Learnings

What are the Key Questions?

How can you effectively manage and prioritize a large backlog with multiple competing stakeholders needs to ensure that the most valuable user stories are addressed first?
What techniques can you use, like impact mapping and story mapping, to align stakeholders, visualize the project’s big picture, and ensure your team delivers work that directly contributes to business goals?
How can you gather, interpret, and incorporate user feedback to refine your planning and release strategies, especially when handling complex or high-risk projects?

Target Audience

Who is this course suitable for?

This workshop is ideal for professionals involved in product development and agile project management who seek to enhance their skills in backlog management, user story optimization, and strategic alignment. Specifically, it’s designed for: 

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Product Owners

Looking to improve their skills in prioritizing user stories, aligning stakeholder expectations, and ensuring valuable, user-centered product outcomes.

Ein Mann arbeitet im Office am Laptop.

Business Analysts

Who want to strengthen their approach to defining requirements and bridging the communication gap between stakeholders and development teams through structured techniques like impact mapping and story mapping.

Zwei Personen stehen an einem Whiteboard und beschriften die Stickynotes.

Agile Coaches and Scrum Masters

Seeking effective tools to facilitate backlog refinement, improve team alignment, and guide product owners in delivering maximum business value.

Zwei Personen sitzen gemeinsam am Computer und bearbeiten einen Code.

Developers and UX Designers

Interested in understanding how to contribute to the story mapping and impact mapping processes, allowing for better collaboration with product owners and alignment with business goals. 

Eine lächelnde Frau tippt etwas ihren Laptop ein.

Stakeholders and Business Sponsors

Who wish to engage in agile processes more effectively, gain a clearer understanding of the product’s strategic direction, and see how to achieve valuable, incremental releases.

This course benefits anyone involved in agile product development who wants to achieve better outcomes through improved prioritization, clearer user stories, and actionable feedback. 

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Course Outline

Product Owner Key Skills Training:
Modules and Key Topics

Day 1:
  • Morning Sessions: 
    • Managing a Large Backlog: Strategies for handling large backlogs and competing stakeholder demands. 
    • Capturing Real Value: Techniques for describing and capturing real value in small user stories that fit into a larger project vision. 
    • Measuring Progress: Alternatives to story points for measuring progress and recognizing true success over mere activity. 
  • Afternoon Sessions: 
    • Avoiding Water-Scrum-Fall: How to prevent dependencies from obstructing agile releases. 
    • Introduction to Impact Mapping: Using impact mapping to facilitate discussions on value and success. 
    • Conducting Impact Mapping Sessions: Hands-on training to run effective impact mapping sessions.
    • Using Impact Maps: Techniques for aligning stakeholders and aiding in product discovery. 
Day 2:
  • Morning Sessions: 
    • Feedback from Users: Methods for gathering and interpreting user feedback effectively, avoiding misleading insights. 
    • Splitting Complex Stories: Techniques to break down large, complex stories into manageable tasks. 
    • Avoiding Technical Stories: Strategies to stay focused on user value and avoid getting bogged down by technical tasks.
  • Afternoon Sessions:
    • Incorporating User Research: How to integrate user research findings into release planning. 
    • Using Story Maps for Release Planning: Applying story maps to plan releases, especially when managing high-risk situations. 
    • Facilitating Story Mapping Workshops: Best practices for conducting successful story mapping workshops and avoiding common pitfalls. 

Trainer

Gojko Adzic

Gojko Adzic is a strategic software delivery consultant who works with ambitious teams to improve the quality of their software products and processes. He specialises in agile and lean quality improvement, in particular agile testing, specification by example and behaviour driven development.

Gojko’s book Specification by Example was awarded the #2 spot on the top 100 agile books for 2012 and won the Jolt Award for the best book of 2012. In 2011, he was voted by peers as the most influential agile testing professional, and his blog won the UK agile award for the best online publication in 2010.

SECURE YOUR COURSE PLACE NOW.

Our courses have a limited number of participants.

There is the possibility of a multi-booking discount for bookings of 2 or more people. If required, please indicate this on the registration form.

Vienna

26 – 27 May 2025
09:00 – 17:00 CET

01 – 02 Dec 2025
09:00 – 17:00 CET

Price
EUR 1400
Price excl VAT.

Early Bird Price
EUR 1300

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FAQ

What are Impact Mapping, Story Mapping, and User Stories, and how do they help in product development?

Impact Mapping helps teams create a clear link between business goals and product requirements. It visualizes how certain features support the company’s objectives, ensuring that the team focuses on the most valuable functions that have the greatest impact on the business and its users. 

Story Mapping is a method for visualizing the user journey and prioritizing user stories. By using Story Mapping, the team can understand the order and importance of features, guiding the product development process in a structured and user-centered way. 

User Stories are simple descriptions of requirements from the user’s perspective, typically phrased as, “As a [role], I want [feature] so that [benefit].” They ensure that the team understands and prioritizes the needs of end-users. 

In summary: Impact Mapping, Story Mapping, and User Stories are essential techniques in agile product development. Impact Mapping focuses on achieving business goals, Story Mapping organizes the development process from the user’s perspective, and User Stories ensure that the team clearly understands and delivers user value. 

User Stories are concise descriptions of a requirement from the user’s perspective, typically structured as “As a [role], I want [feature] so that [benefit].” They help the team understand what the user needs and why it’s valuable, providing a high-level view of the feature or functionality. 

Acceptance Tests, on the other hand, define the specific criteria that need to be met for a User Story to be considered complete and successful. They are detailed, testable conditions that verify whether the feature works as expected. Acceptance Tests confirm that the functionality aligns with the user’s needs and meets the intended quality standards. 

How they are related: User Stories and Acceptance Tests work hand-in-hand in agile development. While User Stories define what the feature is and why it matters, Acceptance Tests provide clear, objective criteria to confirm how the feature should function. Together, they ensure that the team and stakeholders share a common understanding of the requirements and quality expectations for each feature. 

Answer: Yes, we offer several discounts to make the course more accessible to everyone: 

  • Group Discount: When booking for 2 people or more, each participant receives a 10% discount on the regular price. For larger groups, the discount increases—for example, 15% off for groups of 4 and 20% off for groups of 6 or more. 
  • Students and Non-Profits: Students and non-profit organizations are eligible for a 25% discount on the regular course price. 
  • Self-Paying Individuals: Participants who are paying for the course themselves, rather than through an employer or funding institution, also receive a 20% discount. 
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Eine lächelnde Frau arbeitet am Laptop.
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Subsidy

Overview of funding centres

Our courses are generally subsidised by the Public Employment Service Austria (AMS). In addition, there are various funding programmes for training and further education in each federal state.

Directions

Our training courses take place in 1220 Vienna – with the best view over Vienna in the DC Spaces of the Saturn Tower. The best way to reach us by public transport is to take the U1 underground line to Vienna International Centre station. Parking is available in the Saturn Tower for a fee.

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