[jt2190]

What users want and User stories (in the agile iterative software sense) are different things. At their best user stories represent problems to solve for the end user, but rarely have I been able trace back a user story to something that an end user actually wanted because nobody bothered to ask them.

Not talking to customers is extremely common. Everyone’s just too busy, including the customer. It’s kind of the “eat healthy and exercise” of business: Everyone knows they should do it, yet few actually do.

[arcbyte]

> At their best user stories represent problems to solve for the end user, but rarely have I been able trace back a user story to something that an end user actually wanted because nobody bothered to ask them.

This is such a universal problem in the industry. It's also the source of the endless reinvention cycles we go through.

Everyone hates user stories now because no one actually does the other work involved - talking to the users to get the stories in the first place. So it becomes an unproductive chore and people grow to hate it. Someday, someone will discover talking to the user and they'll have their own favorite little way of writing down the conversation and they'll come up with their own title for it. It will start getting hyped and eventually we'll all be doing it - except we still won't be talking to the users and the next generation will hate it. And it will repeat.

It's the same with User Stories, OOP, and every other concept in computer science since the 50s.

[kubanczyk]

> It will start getting hyped and eventually we'll all be doing it - except we still won't be talking to the users and the next generation will hate it.

By the way, user stories are an iteration of that. I remember:

- when user stories were a novelty, everyone hated actors and use cases,

- when actors and use cases were a novelty, everyone hated functional requirements.

[xoac]

It's not like the users know what they really want though. You talk to a bunch of Salesforce users and they'll tell you that what they want is Salesforce+. This may not be what you want to be building as your product.

[fishnchips]

Base on my experience (product leadership role) when talking to customers it's most important to focus on their problems and challenges. They will obviously suggest solutions but you will want to be super careful with following these - think your Salesforce+ or the famous "faster horse".