Speaker: Arnaud Langlade
📌 Problem
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Backlog refinement meetings are often way too long, hard to stay focused, and prone to going off-track.
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POs sometimes arrive with premade solutions instead of presenting problems, which shuts down collaborative problem-solving.
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Estimates get made too early, and once coding starts, back-and-forth clarifications reveal gaps.
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The risk? Developers’ ignorance gets shipped to production, not the stakeholders’ knowledge.
📌 Solution: Example Mapping
A lightweight, structured technique to improve backlog refinement.
Goal: Clarify a story’s acceptance criteria through short, focused discussions (~30 min) with all relevant roles: devs, QA, PO, domain experts.
📌 How It Works
Tools:
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4 colors of cards or post-its (works physically or on Miro/remote)
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🟦 Blue → Business rules
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🟨 Yellow → Examples (happy path + edge cases)
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🟪 Pink → Questions
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🟩 Green → (optional) Decisions
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Process:
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Pick a use case (e.g., “Create a user account”)
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Write the business rules on blue cards (e.g., “Email must be unique”)
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For each rule, write concrete examples on yellow cards (focus on clear, real-world data)
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Identify and raise open questions on pink cards
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Keep iterating until:
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All business rules are covered
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Each example maps to a rule
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No unanswered questions remain → then the story is ready
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💡 Tip: If you don’t have clear user stories, start by listing examples — missing business rules will surface naturally.
📌 Best Practices
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Use real data in examples and write from the user’s perspective.
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Ensure every example directly ties to a business rule — if it doesn’t, a rule is missing.
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Split large stories into MVP or smaller deliverables when refinements drag on.
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Timebox to 30 minutes max — if it takes longer, the story is too big.
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Roles:
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Facilitator
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Scribe (especially useful in remote setups to avoid Miro chaos)
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Attendees (should rotate roles regularly)
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📌 Benefits
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Faster, clearer, and more collaborative refinements.
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Reduces surprises and misunderstandings during development.
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Better estimates thanks to sharper, smaller user stories.
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All those example cards turn directly into your acceptance tests.
Solid, practical session — Example Mapping makes backlog refinement actually useful again.