Effective Agile product management is vital to the success of your business, but it can be challenging to translate the business strategy into actionable tasks that actually create value for customers. Luckily, Lucidspark can help you visualize, ideate, iterate, and prioritize for more strategic product delivery. 

This article's content is taken from the course, “Agile Product Management in Lucidspark,” available for free on our Learning Campus. In this course, you’ll learn how to utilize Lucidspark’s infinite canvas, features, and integrations to create user story maps and break down larger projects. We’ll share a sampling of the content in this article, so make sure to register for the course to access the rest! 

User story mapping

One significant part of Agile product management is user story mapping, and that’s exactly where the course starts!

Agile epics are large bodies of work that can be broken down into features and user stories. They are a useful framework for work management and a helpful way to create a hierarchy of product requirements.

This is the first spot where Lucidspark can help. On our infinite canvas, teams can brainstorm who their end user is for any given feature with the user persona template. 

User stories traditionally follow this specific formula: As a [type of user], I want [a specific goal] so that [some reason]. Using Lucidspark to map out this formula provides an endless space to ideate creatively. 

There are so many features and tools in Lucidspark to help this process go smoothly. Use our free user story map template to get started faster, utilize Lucid Cards to ensure everyone has access to pertinent information at all times, and leave comments in real time. Then,  brainstorm further with sticky notes. We recommend you start with the sticky notes at the top by listing out in chronological order how the user would interact with the activity. Then, add sticky note below to outline the steps users could take to achieve the desired activities and add more minor details in the sticky note under that.

This can be a tedious process, but Lucidspark simplifies it so you only spend time on the most high-value activities.

Ideation and iterative product planning

A significant part of Agile product planning is input and collaboration between the customer and the development team—this means a lot of ideation as Agile teams focus on customer expectations and increase value for end users.

Lucidspark can help your team collect and document customer research by mining each customer interview or inputting survey responses to discover valuable insights. Use Lucidspark’s CSV import feature to insert feedback and data as sticky note. Utilize the pen tool to ideate, adding ideas and connecting sticky notes to draw further insights. You can add Tags to each sticky note to get organized (consider adding tags for different teams or areas of work), or use the Sort feature to group the sticky note by Container so stakeholders can easily visualize follow-up items. 

And that’s just the beginning! Lucidspark will prepare your team for your upcoming iteration planning meeting in a flash.

Visualizing and prioritizing the product backlog

Product backlogs are another vital part of Agile product management. The product backlog is a list of requirements for work to be done on the product, and it serves as the foundation for each iteration planning session. It should include all work items so nothing is left out or forgotten, and because it’s so comprehensive, transparency into the backlog throughout the entire org is vital.

Lucidspark’s virtual collaborative whiteboard can help remote and hybrid teams organize and visualize this product backlog just as effectively (and maybe even more so!) than if they were doing it in person.

Timelines are a key feature during this step to stay on track of tasks. The product backlog template can also be useful here, where you can insert Lucid Cards from Azure, Jira, Smartsheet, and more, connect them with epics, and organize them by color-coding. Plus, organize the Lucid Cards on a priority spectrum to keep your teams efficient and deliver the highest-quality product.