Better User Stories Live Online
Write User Stories That Drive Real Results
This one-day, live, online class is based on the popular Better User Stories video course. You'll learn advanced techniques for working with user, job, and technical stories including splitting, adding appropriate amounts of detail, story mapping, and adding acceptance criteria.
- Learn to write stories that are clear, valuable, and ready for your next sprint.
- Discover how to express user needs, split large stories, and define done in a way that keeps delivery flowing.
- Experience new AI-enhanced exercises that make refinement faster and more insightful.
What You'll Be Able to Do
Write user stories that communicate intent, not just tasks.
Split large, complex stories into smaller, testable slices that deliver value sooner.
Use AI to analyze and improve stories for clarity, size, and value.
Why Take Better User Stories Live Online?
Based on Mike Cohn’s popular Better User Stories video course, this one-day live class gives you the focused practice and instructor feedback needed to make story writing feel simple.
You’ll learn proven techniques for writing better stories, then apply them through guided, AI-enhanced exercises. AI acts as a smart assistant throughout the day, helping you refine faster, spot improvement opportunities, and gain confidence in using AI as a practical partner, not a replacement.
The ‘definitive authority’ is the phrase that comes to mind when I think about Mike Cohn and User Stories. As an agile trainer, I frequently refer my clients to Mike’s Better User Stories course as a cost-effective, high-value way to significantly improve their personnel’s user story writing skills. Take this course and learn from the best!
Ken RubinAgile trainer, coach, and author of the #1 bestseller: Essential Scrum: A Practical Guide to the Most Popular Agile Process
I think learning from someone who wrote the book on the topic is priceless... Great course. I will definitely be referencing it over and over again.
Aaron Corcoran
As a lifelong learner, and someone who has to reach many diverse audiences, it is important that I constantly add 'new arrows to my quiver'. The tidbits and anecdotes are great 'mental thumbtacks' for recalling important elements on the path to success writing, using and managing work using User Stories.
Travis Reed
Mike is an amazing story teller with the unique ability of making esoteric topics such as user stories magically come to life.
Eugene Nikomba
A Unique, Interactive Learning Experience
Team Home is a collaboration platform that we designed for our courses. It is optimized for live, online training. Participants benefit by collaborating in ways beyond what is possible with generic whiteboard software such as Mural or Miro. Instructors can observe activity across all rooms, improving the effectiveness and efficiency of exercise debriefs.
Access Our Resources, Planning Poker® and AI Toolkit
Expanded access to MGS Essentials, included with your trainining, is your toolkit for doing agile better, with resources that help you and your team move faster, plan smarter, and deliver more value.
Access live events, video lectures, and a powerful set of tools including online Planning Poker®, the Elements of Agile assessment and AI tools for coaching, story splitting and backlog item generation.
Upcoming Public Training
Course Includes:
Certification Credits
Course Outline
Common User Story Problems
Story-Writing Workshops
- Four Times to Write Stories
- Focus on a Single, Significant Objective
- Agenda and Participants
Backlog Refinement
- How Much Should Be Known and When
- Adding Detail to Stories
- Disagreements after a Story Is Done
- The Problems with Too Much Detail
- Sub-Stories and Acceptance Criteria
- The Full Lifecycle of a Story
Job and Tech Stories
- When Job Stories Are Appropriate
- Differences Between Job and User Stories
- Technical Stories
Story Mapping
- Common Story Map Problems
- Sub Maps Improve Readability
- Creating a Story Map
- Roadmaps
Splitting Stories
- The Goal in Splitting Stories
- SPIDR
Non-Functional Requirements and Bugs
- Non-functionals and the Definition of Done
- Bugs
Your Instructor
Mountain Goat has handpicked instructors that share our training values. These are people with deep experience, who are leading teams with agile today and can give you real-world answers about what does and doesn’t work.
Mike Cohn
With 20+ years of agile training experience, Mike has honed a talent for explaining agile concepts with clear illustrations and real-life examples. Participants enjoy his passion for teaching the agile methodologies in a relatable and digestible way.
Read more...Mike is CEO of Mountain Goat Software, and one of the industry’s most well-respected Certified Scrum Trainers. He is the author of User Stories Applied for Agile Software Development, Agile Estimating and Planning, and Succeeding with Agile. He is a co-founder and former board member of the Scrum Alliance, and a co-founder of the non-profit Agile Alliance, home of the Agile Manifesto.
Scrum Certifications include: CSM, CST, CSPO, A-CSM, CSP-SM, CSP-PO
Got a Question?
What happens when you contact us?
- We’ll get back to you within a day.
- Answer your training questions and discuss any custom needs.
- Recommend the best agile training path for your teams and goals.
- Want to talk to someone? Schedule a call.