user-story

## Purpose Create clear, concise user stories that combine Mike Cohn's user story format with Gherkin-style acceptance criteria. Use this to translate user needs into actionable development work that focuses on outcomes, ensures shared understanding between product and engineering, and provides testable success criteria. This is not a feature spec—it's a conversation starter that captures *who* benefits, *what* they're trying to do, *why* it matters, and *how* you'll know it works. ## Key Concepts ### The Mike Cohn + Gherkin Format A user story combines: **Use Case (Mike Cohn format):** - **As a** [user persona/role] - **I want to** [action to achieve outcome] - **so that** [desired outcome] **Acceptance Criteria (Gherkin format):** - **Scenario:** [Brief description of the scenario] - **Given:** [Initial context or preconditions] - **and Given:** [Additional preconditions] - **When:** [Event that triggers the action] - **Then:** [Expected outcome] ### Why This Structure Works - **User-centric:** Forces focus on who benefits and why - **Outcome-focused:** "So that" emphasizes the value delivered, not just the action - **Testable:** Gherkin acceptance criteria are concrete and verifiable - **Conversational:** Story is the opening for discussion, not the final spec - **Shared language:** Product, engineering, and QA all understand the format ### Anti-Patterns (What This Is NOT) - **Not a task:** "As a developer, I want to refactor the database" (this is a tech task, not ...