Making user stories more useful

We often get asked for examples of user stories. That’s probably because defining your requirements with user stories is a great way to make sure you deliver value to your customers early and often. But it's hard to write good user stories without knowing what they look like. What’s the difference between a good story, a bad story and a total trainwreck?

With this in mind, we’ve put together a collection of user stories both good and bad, along with explanations of why the former work and why the latter don’t.

We thought we’d give our loyal subscribers first look. We’d love to hear what you think. If you have any ideas for improvements, please do email us your suggestions.

AI brings the Mona Lisa to life

AI boffins have used machine learning to create lifelike motion and expressions from a single still image. The researchers from Samsung’s Moscow labs have demoed the tech by animating the Mona Lisa. The results are variable but the implications are fascinating.

Mary Meeker’s internet trends report

The annual presentation from tech analyst and venture capitalist Mary Meeker has become a landmark on the IT industry calendar. It’s a rapid-fire data dump that gives organisations a heads-up on the emerging digital environment.

Headlining this year’s presso: For the first time in history, more than half the world’s population is on the internet. But growth slowed to about 6 percent in 2018 as new users are getting harder to come by. In fact, sales of smartphones — the main way many people access the internet — are dropping. We’re not talking Peak Internet just yet though.