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Define your portal

The implementation process begins with defining the user-stories and MVP of your developer portal.

Define user-stories​

A user story is a concise, simple description of a feature or functionality from the perspective of the end user.
It is written in plain language to articulate what the user wants to achieve and why, providing context for development teams to create value-driven features.

Defining user stories should be your first step in building your portal, as they will help you understand the needs of your users, prioritize features accordingly, and get the most value out of your portal as fast as possible.

Create a prioritized list of user stories​

Port's roadmap planner is a useful tool that helps you define and prioritize your user stories.

This process includes the following steps:

  1. Define the personas who will use the portal (we recommend to start with developers, followed by engineering managers).

  2. For each persona, define user stories based on the following method:

    • Step 1: Fill in the blank - "Developers will be able to...".
      For example - "Developers will be able to track the health of their services".

      User-story examples

      Feel free to use the examples provided in the roadmap planner and Port's live demo for inspiration.

    • Step 2: Think how it is done today - use the available options in the roadmap planner, or add a custom one.

    • Step 3: For each user story, define its priority by answering the four questions in the roadmap planner.
      Priority is calculated based on the following factors:

      • The percentage of users who will use the feature.
      • The frequency of use.
      • The features importance to the users (nice to have vs. essential).
      • The time effort required to build the feature.

Define MVP scope​

We recommend to take the top 3 user stories from your prioritized list and define them as the MVP (minimum viable product) of your portal.

Developer portals are living products that should be continuously improved, so it is important to start with a small scope that delivers value quickly, while still allowing room for easy expansion.

Next step - prepare for building​

Once you have defined your user stories and MVP scope, proceed to the next step.