The Point-of-View (POV) mad lib summarizes business goals and other stakeholder needs in a memorable, engaging format. Here’s a basic POV mad lib template. You can use this template as is or create your own.

The format should be familiar to anyone who has written agile stories, though the emphasis is on stakeholders’ needs and how the overall system will provide value rather than specific features or functionality. You might think of it as a user odyssey, a statement that encompasses potentially multiple epics and stories.

Benefits

• Develop empathy for stakeholders’ needs.
• Articulate business goals in a user-focused way.
• Use to start the conversation about business goals.

Activity Timing

30--45 minutes

Participants

Any stakeholders. This activity can be done alone or as a small group of 2--3 people. If necessary, a larger group can be divided into smaller subgroups of 2--3 people each.

Preparation and Materials

• Before the activity, identify the list of stakeholders for which you’ll produce mad libs. This list can be created just-in-time with participants before introducing the mad lib activity.

• Markers and sticky notes for each group. Enough paper for each group to produce one mad lib per stakeholder.

Steps

1. Introduce the activity by sharing the goal of the exercise.

2. Describe the mad lib template and do a warm-up exercise to ensure participants understand the mad lib format. Everyone should participate in the warm-up.

3. Introduce the first stakeholder. Briefly share any information known about the stakeholder and discuss their needs as a group.

4. Give each group 90 seconds to create a mad lib.

5. Repeat steps 4--5 until all stakeholders have been covered.

6. Share the mad libs produced and briefly discuss as a group. Consensus is not required as a part of this activity.

Guidelines and Hints

• Be specific. Pick an actual person if you can.

• Don’t worry about phrasing at first. It can be difficult to find exactly the right words. Getting the ideas out is more important.

• The impact of each mad lib should be outcome focused. Try the 5 Whys technique^[32] to help get to the bottom of stakeholders’ real needs.

Example

The POV mad lib is meant to be filled in fast. Don’t overthink it. Here are some example mad libs for the Project Lionheart case study:

• Mayor van Damme wants to reduce procurement costs by 30 percent because he wants to avoid cutting funding to education in an election year.

• Mayor van Damme wants to improve city engagement with local businesses because it may improve the local economy when local businesses win contracts.

• The Office of Management and Business wants to cut the time required to publish a new RFP in half because it improves services and reduces costs at the same time.

Alternatives

Any of these approaches, and many others, may be substituted for the Point-of-View mad lib.

Design Hills

Design hills describe the impact stakeholders hope the software will have on end users.^[33] Like other ways of specifying business goals, hills try to describe the value the software provides, not how the software is to be built.

Design hills have three parts: who, what, and wow.

Who?

A specific stakeholder who is affected by the software to be built.

What?

Something the stakeholder will be able to accomplish with the software that he or she could not do before.

Wow!

A significant, measurable outcome that directly results from having used the software to complete the task.

Here’s an example from Project Lionheart:

Traditional Business Goal Statement

Traditional business goal statements are plain and direct statements that describe how stakeholders derive value from the system. Business goal statements have three parts, often enumerated in a table.

Subject

A specific person or role.

Outcome

A specific and measurable description of how the world changes if the system is successful.

Context

Describes the conditions around the goal so the team can develop empathy and a deeper understanding of the need.

Here’s an example of the same POV mad libs written as traditional business goals: