Spotting weak stories

Not every user story captures value clearly, and vague stories often create confusion during development. Common problems include:

• Missing context
• Overly technical phrasing
• Lack of measurable goals

A weak story might sound like “Add login feature” or “Improve dashboard performance.” These describe tasks, not user value. In contrast, “As a returning user, I want to log in quickly so I can access my saved data” immediately clarifies who benefits and why it matters.

To strengthen weak stories, teams should revisit the “who–what–why” structure. Each story must name the user, define the goal, and explain the benefit. Reviewing stories together also helps catch gaps in reasoning or alignment with personas. When unclear stories slip into specifications, they can distort priorities or lead to mismatched expectations across design and engineering. Practicing this critical review ensures that user stories consistently serve as reliable, user-focused building blocks for product documentation.