32 User Story Examples for Agile to Boost Brainstorming Sessions

How do you write a successful user story? The secret is to put yourself in the end-user’s place. If you find yourself overthinking it, user story examples in Agile will help you. Here are a few generic ones we created.

How Do You Write a Good User Story in Agile? 

A user story is a short narrative written from the end-user’s or customer’s perspective. It doesn’t use technical jargon or focus on the finer details. Instead, it’s simple and general. If you try writing one without keeping this in mind, you’ll have trouble making it work.

Whether you have an app, a website, an e-commerce platform, or a subscription-based service, the generic user journey is the same — the person registers, interacts with the platform, and makes a purchase. Following this path can help you write a good user story in Agile.

What Should Every User Story Have in Agile?

Every user story should have the “who,” the “what,” and the “why” of the user journey — who the end user is, what they want from you, and why they want it. It typically looks like this:

“As a [user type], I want [user action or desire] so I can [user goal or benefit].”

You want to make sure you keep things informal — your team of engineers, developers, or decision-makers need to see things from the end-user’s perspective. The user story examples in Agile we created will give you a better idea of how this works in practice.

User Story Examples in Agile for Registration

Your Agile user stories should begin with the registration process:

• “As someone trying to create an account, I want a visual indicator of whether or not my password meets the site’s requirements to make registration more convenient.”

• “As someone creating an account, I want to set password hints to help my future self out in case I forget my login credentials.”

• “As someone who’s just created an account, I want to receive a confirmation email welcoming me by my username so I have something to reference on my next login attempt.”

• “As a new app user, I want an option to set up a recovery email or phone number so I can get back into my account if something goes wrong.”

• “As a new app user who values security, I want to link my phone number to my account so I can receive real-time security updates.” 

User Story Examples in Agile for Login

These user story examples in Agile can help you figure out their login-related needs:

• “As a long-time site user, I want to stay logged in after navigating away from the website so I can pick up my session right where I left off.”

• “As a site user who values convenience, I want the website to autofill my login credentials so I don’t have to continuously re-enter them.”

• “As an app user, I want an error message to pop up if I enter my login credentials incorrectly so I know why my first attempt didn’t work.”

• “As a long-time site user, I want to have an option to reset my password in case I can’t remember what I initially entered when I made my account.”

User Story Examples in Agile for Getting Started 

These generic Agile user stories cover the beginning portion of the customer journey:

• “As an app user, I want to upload a profile picture so I can personalize my account.”

• “As an app user, I want to be able to tailor my dashboard’s layout to my preferences to make it more personalized and convenient to use.”

• “As a site visitor, I want to be able to subscribe to or sign up for a newsletter to receive weekly updates on all of the content that was posted.” 

• “As a site visitor, I want to be able to click through a list of categories so I can save time finding the type of content I’m interested in reading.”

User Story Examples in Agile for Using the Service

You can tailor these generic user story examples in Agile for your business-specific needs:

• “As a frequent app user, I want an offline mode so I don’t have to waste my data when using the app when I’m away from home.”

• “As someone with a subscription, I want to be able to view an overview of my subscription so I know what I’m paying for and to make sure I’m using every feature.”

• “As a long-time app user, I want to invite my friends to the service and receive a confirmation email when they sign up so I don’t have to keep asking them in person.”

• “As a long-time subscriber, I want to be able to sync my data across all of my devices to make it easier to keep using the app when I’m not on my phone.”

• “As an online shopper who’s colorblind, I want an option to overlay color filters on the store page so I can better understand how items will look in my home or on me.”

• “As an app user with a hearing impairment, I want videos to have captions and audio to have a text transcript so I can have the same experience in-app as everyone else.”

• “As someone with a subscription, I want to be able to schedule future payments or set up autopay so I don’t have to worry about remembering to renew each month.”

• “As a site visitor, I want to be able to report bugs, harassment, inappropriate comments, or misspellings in content without having to create an account.”

User Story Examples in Agile for Purchasing

These examples of user stories cover end users who are making a purchase:

• “As an online shopper who knows exactly what they want, I want to be able to filter by color, size, material type, and star rating to filter out all of the noise.”

• “As an online shopper who likes to browse, I want to see some kind of rating system so I immediately know when I scroll past a good product.”

• “As a frequent online shopper aiming to get the best deal, I want to be able to sort items to show the low-priced or on-sale items first.”

• “As a frequent online shopper aiming to get the best deal, I want to receive email updates when an item on my wishlist or waiting in my cart goes on sale.”

• “As someone with an interest in the brand, I want to be able to save products for later so I can come back to them when I’m ready to commit.”

• “As a frequent online shopper, I want to be able to sign up to receive emails about the latest sales, drops, and updates so I have an excuse to browse and buy more products.”

• “As someone who enjoys buying from the brand, I want to see similar products to those I’m browsing or have bought before so I can find more items I’m interested in.”

User Story Examples in Agile for Checkout 

Checkout isn’t the final stage in the user journey for many, but it is for some:

• “As a frequent online shopper, I want to be able to save my card information in-app so I don’t have to constantly re-enter it whenever I go to checkout.”

• “As an app user, I want to be able to link my card, address, phone number, and email address to my account during the checkout process to make tracking updates more manageable.”

• “As a first-time buyer of this brand, I want to receive an order confirmation email with a tracking number to give me confidence that I’ll receive my package.”

• “As a long-time customer, I want to be able to view my order history and past reviews so I can rediscover items I used to like and remind myself which items I didn’t like.”

Keep the Narrative Simple and Straightforward

Remember to keep your narrative short and to the point when creating your own user story examples in Agile. Leave room for the team to get creative when implementing their solution. At worst, if they need clarification or the end-user’s needs change, you’ll have to write a few more.