We have all been in this situation at once: We have lots of requirements, user stories, EPICs and so on. What they all have in common is that they are very long and full of details. And yet, in the end, the developed solution still doesn’t fit. The user need is still not solved. Why is that? In this talk I share my observations. 

I observed two reasons. Firstly, there are friction losses and secondly, the collaborating people do not speak the same language which causes information and context losses. Like in the children's telephone game. That leads to a lot of rework for the teams. Everything takes a long time and quick fixes on the organization lead to an ever growing organization and making things worse. In my talk, I will show how to use Causal Loop Diagrams (CLD) to analyze and better understand the underlying system dynamics. This is followed by a hands-on Domain Storytelling (DST) exercise, which helps to build a shared understanding of the user needs. CLD and DST will help to make the overall results more accurate and ultimately more sustainable based on a shared understanding of the customer needs.