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INTERVIEW QUESTION:

When would you choose impact mapping over user stories to scope an MVP?

Posted by Adrian M.

// 42 Views // 0 Additional Answers & Comments

Categories: Agile Methods, General

ANSWER

Interview Sound-bite

“I reach for impact mapping at the discovery stage—especially when stakeholders propose an ‘MVP’ that’s really a shopping list of features. In a 90-minute workshop we visualise the business goal, actors, and behavioural impacts. Anything that doesn’t trace directly to the goal is deferred. Only then do we decompose the surviving deliverables into user stories with INVEST attributes. This ensures our MVP is outcome-driven, not backlog-driven, and gives executives a clear line of sight from release scope to business value.”

The Details

Impact mapping is a strategic framing technique; user stories are tactical delivery units.
Choose impact mapping first—instead of jumping straight into user-story writing—when you must clarify why and who before debating what. Typical triggers:

Situation	Why Impact Mapping Wins
Vague or competing business goals	Links every deliverable to a single, measurable objective, exposing mis-aligned stakeholder expectations early.
Multiple actor groups with different behaviors	Forces the team to enumerate who must change what behavior to achieve the goal—something user stories assume is already understood.
Risk of feature bloat	The Goal → Actor → Impact → Deliverable flow surfaces “nice-to-have” ideas that don’t support a quantifiable impact and lets you cut them before they hit the backlog.
Green-field or pivot projects	Provides a lightweight strategic roadmap when historic data or detailed requirements are scarce.
Executive visibility required	The single-page map is easier for sponsors to grasp than dozens of granular stories.

When to Transition to User Stories

Once the Goal–Actor–Impact layers are stable.

After the MVP deliverables column fits inside the team’s capacity and timeline.

When detailed acceptance criteria, edge cases, and UI specifics must be captured for development and testing.

Rule of thumb - Use impact mapping to decide if a feature deserves to exist; use user stories to decide how that feature will work.

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