Story mapping

Unlock your product with story mapping

Visualize product backlogs, align your teams, and deliver products more efficiently

Story mapping

We’ve got a bit of a problem with flat backlogs.

A traditional backlog is a great way to track a list of things to do. However, these lists lack context — namely the “why”. When building user-focused products, we absolutely need user context right there with the work to be done. Avion solves this issue.

Traditional Planning

Traditional product planning

Linear lists of tasks that make it hard to see the big picture

Avion Planning

Product planning in Avion

Your backlog and user experience combined

Collaborate and align around the backlog

Imagine a backlog that promotes shared understanding across your team. Everyone on the same page. From CTOs to Finance. Avion gives you a common language to describe your product and align your organization.

Collaboration

Zoom out for the big picture

Sometimes you need to see the bigger picture of what your building. Story maps in Avion form a holistic view of your product, so your team can see what you're building next and why.

Zoomed out story map

Empathize more with your users

To convert and keep customers, you need to consistently delight them. Bring every conversation back to your users with our built-in personas and user journeys, so you only ever work on what's valuable to them.

User profiles

Ship fast, iterate faster

If you want to increase the speed that you deliver, you need a consistent framework to plan and prioritise. Avion puts in just enough constraints to guide you, whilst leaving ample room for creativity.

Story map

Guides

Want to learn the detail and nuance of story mapping?

We've written a huge guide that takes you from story mapping zero to hero. It's totally free.

Read the guide

What is story mapping?

A user story map is a unique view of your product backlog that focuses on the perspective and experience of your users.

It’s hugely valuable for product teams as it helps foster an outside-in strategy when planning a backlog.

The story map is multi-dimensional. It allows you to plan development work in the context of your overall user experience, whilst also deciding on the priority in which you will deliver outcomes to your users.

What does a story map look like?

Let’s take a look at a story map and highlight all the individual elements and concepts that make this visualization so powerful.

Less manual work with our integrations

Our integrations are extremely powerful and enable many different workflows. Drive your delivery workflow and automate your process

  • GitHub +

    GitHub

    Give your dev team empathy with your users by plugging your GitHub projects into Avion.

  • Azure DevOps +

    Azure DevOps

    Pair Avion with Azure DevOps to create a reliable process from planning to delivery.

  • Jira Cloud +

    Jira Cloud

    Create focused, user-centric backlogs in Jira, all powered from Avion.

  • Slack +

    Slack

    Keep the whole team aligned by getting your product updates posted straight to Slack.

  • Trello +

    Trello

    Bring the needs and desires of your users to your existing Trello boards and delivery process.

  • Jira Server +

    Jira Server

    Build consistently user-focused backlogs, powered from your product truth — story maps in Avion.

AutoTrader logo
Mark Millican
Business Analyst, AutoTrader, AutoTrader

Avion gives us digital story maps with visible dependencies, integrated with our workflow management tool. Our once flat product backlog has come to life with a holistic view of where we should focus for delivering the most impactful business value.

Share bespoke views of your story map

Avion provides a wide range of sharing options, including public share links (no login required), PDF exports, shareable filtered views and comment-only viewers. With unlimited users across all plans, collaborating is simple.

Bespoke views

Map out and visualize dependencies

Dependencies need conversation and conversation needs a visualization. Avion helps you highlight your dependencies, blockers and duplicates right in the backlog — giving you the perfect asset to communicate.

Story map

Connect data across story maps to plan at scale

Build connections between work across different story maps to help you map out and communicate all levels of complexity.

Connected stories

Custom workflow — tailored to discovery

Create custom workflows for your planning and discovery that guide your teams' execution. Avion allows for flexibility, whilst also helping you to craft a consistent process.

Custom workflow

Sync story maps with your current delivery tool

Best-in-class backlog tool integrations that enable powerful end-to-end planning → delivery workflows and processes. Perfect for high-performance teams.

Sync story maps

Live Figma designs right where you need them

Embed live designs from Figma and other tools directly into Avion, helping you tell your product story and explain your plans with the very latest visuals.

Figma attachments

Story mapping that scales for Enterprise

Scaled usage, secure infrastructure and Enterprise-specific features for organizations that are taking digital transformation seriously.

Learn about Enterprise
A stack of stories

Frequently asked questions

Will story mapping help me create an MVP?
Yes, story mapping is a powerful way to plan your MVP. It forces you to focus on the outcomes and experience of your users, rather than any other distractions, like tech stacks or CEO requests.
Is story mapping for strategic or technical planning?
You can do both. Some teams like to use separate story maps — one for high-level strategic planning and one for full-stack technical planning. You could also combine the two.