Event Storming
Use it when you need to map complex business processes with cross-functional teams quickly and uncover hidden domain insights.
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What is it?
Event Storming is a high-velocity, collaborative workshop technique born from domain-driven design to help teams visualize and untangle complex business processes.
You gather developers, product people, and domain experts around a shared timeline of ‘events', not user stories, to chart every critical moment in your system. By sticking colored notes on a wall or virtual board, you reveal aggregates, commands, policies, and read models without writing a single line of code.
Event Storming solves misalignment between business and engineering by surfacing hidden dependencies, edge cases, and pain points in under a day. Its core components include Domain Events (what happened), Commands (what triggers it), Aggregates (the state holders), and Policies (rules that react to events).
Why it matters?
By visualizing your domain in a single, interactive session, Event Storming cuts weeks of miscommunication and rework. You fast-track alignment, reduce hidden technical debt, and pinpoint the most impactful features before you write code, driving higher delivery velocity and leaner cycles. That speed-to-insight directly fuels product-market fit and sustainable growth.
How it works
Growth co-pilot turns your toughest product questions into clear, data-backed recommendations you can act on immediately.
1
Assemble your cross-functional squad
Gather domain experts, engineers, product owners, and designers around a blank wall or digital board. Lay out a horizontal timeline to anchor all activities.
2
Identify Domain Events
Ask “What happened?” and use orange sticky notes to capture each event in chronological order. Encourage rapid, write-and-stick pace, speed drives insight.
3
Group into Aggregates
Cluster related events under aggregate boundaries (blue notes) to define the core entities or modules in your system. This surfaces your domain's building blocks.
4
Add Commands & Policies
Use yellow notes for commands (user or system actions) that trigger events, and purple notes for policies or rules that react. This clarifies cause and effect.
5
Spot Pain Points & Bottlenecks
Step back, look for gaps, overlaps, or complex flows. Highlight these with red notes to prioritize follow-up.
6
Iterate into Read Models & Solutions
Translate your map into read models, UIs, or APIs. Define next steps, proof-of-concepts, backlog items, or detailed design sprints.
Frequently asked questions
Growth co-pilot turns your toughest product questions into clear, data-backed recommendations you can act on immediately.
You've nailed down your domain events and uncovered hidden bottlenecks. Now run your findings through the CrackGrowth diagnostic to prioritize the highest-leverage backlog items before your next sprint.