How do you write user stories and acceptance criteria that your team can build from?
What the interviewer wants to hear
- User, need and reason in the story
- Clear, testable acceptance criteria
- Small, independent, valuable stories (INVEST)
- Edge cases, errors and non-goals included
- Written together with engineering and design
Model answer
I write stories from the user's point of view: "As a team admin, I want to remove a member, so that former employees lose access." The "so that" part matters because it explains the value and helps the team find better solutions. Then I add acceptance criteria that are clear and testable, often in Given/When/Then form, covering the main flow, edge cases like removing the last admin, error states and permissions. I keep stories small enough to finish in a few days and sliced vertically so each one delivers something usable. I link designs and note non-goals to avoid scope creep. I do not write stories alone and throw them over the wall; I review them with engineers and designers in refinement, where their questions usually improve the criteria and reveal risks early.
Can you answer it under time pressure?
Take a timed easy round and get scored on every answer.
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