Using AI to Brainstorm User Stories: A Quick Guide

Creating user stories can be time-consuming, especially when you're managing multiple features across complex projects. AI tools like ChatGPT and Copilot can dramatically accelerate this process, helping you generate comprehensive user stories in minutes rather than hours. In this guide, I'll show you exactly how to leverage these AI assistants to brainstorm and write effective user stories.

The AI Advantage for User Story Generation

AI doesn't just save time—it can help you discover perspectives and requirements you might otherwise overlook. By processing vast amounts of information, AI can suggest user stories from multiple viewpoints, ensuring more comprehensive coverage of your feature requirements.

Step 1: Craft the Perfect Prompt

The key to generating high-quality user stories lies in your initial prompt. Here's the formula I've found most effective:

1. Act as a world-class product owner.
2. Generate epics, user stories, acceptance criteria, and tasks for the following software feature:
3. [Your feature description here]
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This prompt establishes the AI as an expert in product development and clearly defines what you need.

Step 2: Describe Your Feature

After your initial prompt, provide a clear description of your feature. For example:

1. The feature is a refund for customers who are not happy with the flowers they ordered on our site.
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Keep your description concise but specific. The AI will expand on this foundation.

Step 3: Review and Refine the Output

The AI will generate a comprehensive response including:

• An epic overview
• Multiple user stories (e.g., "As a customer, I want to initiate a refund request...")
• Acceptance criteria for each story
• Implementation tasks

Review this content carefully. You can even instruct the AI to regenerate a response if you're not happy with the current response.

Step 4: Expand with Additional User Stories

Once you have your initial set of user stories, use this follow-up prompt:

1. Please generate more user stories for this feature.
2. Ask any clarifying questions that are needed before beginning your answer, and consider exceptions, edge cases, validation and error handling.
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The AI will create additional stories that might include different user roles or edge cases you hadn't considered.

Step 5: Customise for Your Project

Adjust the generated content to fit your specific needs:

• Modify terminology to match the organisation's language
• Add company-specific requirements
• Refine acceptance criteria to reflect your technical constraints
• Prioritise stories based on business value

Pro Tips for Better Results

• Be specific: The more details you provide in your prompt, the more tailored the results will be.
• Request different perspectives: Ask for stories from various user roles (customers, admins, support staff).
• Focus on edge cases: Specifically request stories that cover unusual scenarios or potential problems.
• Regenerate for variety: If you're not satisfied with the initial output, regenerate for alternative approaches.
• Use AI for testing ideas: Ask the AI to generate test scenarios based on your acceptance criteria.

AI tools have transformed the way we can approach user story creation—turning hours of work into minutes while potentially improving quality. By mastering some simple prompts, you can leverage AI to generate comprehensive user stories that serve as an excellent starting point for your development process.

The next time you're facing a blank page and a looming deadline, remember: your AI assistant is ready to help you brainstorm and draft user stories that capture your feature requirements from multiple perspectives.

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