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Work on a story map

A story map is a grid. The backbone runs across the top row: the steps a user takes, in order, left to right. Each step’s column holds the detail beneath it. Slices cut the map horizontally into releases. This page covers the moves you make on that layout. For the practice itself, see the User Story Mapping Guide.

Freeze the backbone

Section titled “Freeze the backbone”

On a big map, scrolling down pushes the backbone off the screen, and with it the context for every card below. Freeze the top row and the backbone stays pinned across the top of the canvas while you scroll. The cards beneath it scroll as usual.

To freeze it, right-click the top row and choose Freeze Row. To undo it, right-click the row again and choose Unfreeze Row.

A frozen row is part of the board, not your view of it. Everyone on the board sees it frozen, and it stays frozen after a refresh. Freezing doesn’t move any cards.

The same menu has Freeze Column, which pins the first column while you scroll sideways. Right-click the first column to find it.

Insert a column

Section titled “Insert a column”

To add a step between two existing ones, drag a card to the gap between their columns. A vertical line appears where the new column will go. Drop the card and CardBoard inserts a new column there, with the card in it. Every column to its right shifts over one place, keeping its cards.

Slice releases

Section titled “Slice releases”

Add a slice to cut the map into releases. A slice is a horizontal boundary: every card in its region belongs to the slice’s outcome, and the slice’s name is the outcome’s name. Drag a card up or down across a slice to move it between releases.

Collapse the slices you aren’t working on to fold their cards away. Collapsing is shared: it folds the slice for everyone on the board. It hides cards without changing which outcome they belong to.

Group a journey

Section titled “Group a journey”

A release isn’t the only way to read a map. To trace one kind of user’s path through it, select the cards on that path and group them as a journey. The cards don’t move, and they keep their slice’s outcome. One map can hold several journeys, and a card can be in more than one.