PMP · Question #805
A customer complains that the user stories released so far contain too much jargon and do not reflect the expectations of the product. What should the project manager do next?
The correct answer is C. Engage with the customer and rewrite all the stories. When a customer finds user stories unclear and misaligned with their expectations, the project manager must directly engage with the customer to rewrite these stories. This ensures the stories accurately reflect customer needs in clear, understandable language, fostering alignmen
Question
A customer complains that the user stories released so far contain too much jargon and do not reflect the expectations of the product. What should the project manager do next?
Options
- ARewrite the stories to include the technical vision of the product
- BAsk the senior developer to rewrite all the stories
- CEngage with the customer and rewrite all the stories
- DRequest approval from the company director to conduct training for the team
How the community answered
(39 responses)- A5% (2)
- B15% (6)
- C72% (28)
- D8% (3)
Why each option
When a customer finds user stories unclear and misaligned with their expectations, the project manager must directly engage with the customer to rewrite these stories. This ensures the stories accurately reflect customer needs in clear, understandable language, fostering alignment and satisfaction.
Rewriting stories with more technical vision would exacerbate the problem of jargon and likely further detach them from customer expectations.
While a senior developer can help with technical details, they are not the primary source for customer expectations or for translating those into business-centric user stories; this requires direct customer collaboration.
User stories are meant to represent the customer's perspective and should be clear, concise, and understandable to them. If the customer complains about jargon and unmet expectations, the project manager must collaborate directly with the customer to rewrite the stories, ensuring they accurately reflect the customer's needs and are free of technical jargon, thereby improving shared understanding and alignment.
Requesting training for the team might be a long-term solution for improving story writing skills, but it doesn't immediately address the existing problem of unclear stories and customer dissatisfaction.
Concept tested: Agile User Story Refinement, Customer Collaboration
Source: https://www.atlassian.com/agile/scrum/user-stories
Topics
Community Discussion
6
Anjali D.Apr 27, 2026Our group landed on C. The customer is the one who knows what expectations are not being met, so the PM needs to bring them into the process and rewrite the stories together. A and B both push the problem back onto technical people, which is exactly how the jargon got there in the first place. D is a trap because training will not fix stories that were written without the right input in the first place. Anyone disagree or did you all see the same reasoning on this one?
Viktor S.Apr 13, 2026C is right because the customer is telling you the stories do not match their expectations, so you go back to the source and fix it together. The real question is whether rewriting all stories in one pass is actually the agile move here, or if you should be refining them iteratively with the customer as part of normal backlog grooming.
Wei W.Apr 11, 2026I first leaned toward B since the senior developer could clean up the jargon quickly, but that doubles down on the same technical lens that created the problem. The real issue is a gap in shared understanding between the team and the customer, and empiricism says you fix that by collaborating directly with the people who have the actual need. C is the only option that closes that feedback loop and gets the product owner and customer aligned on what value actually looks like. Rewriting stories in a vacuum, whether by the PM or a developer, just risks shipping the same disconnect in cleaner prose.
Mei-Ling H.Apr 13, 2026Agree on C, but want to flag that the word "directly" in the stem is doing a lot of work here, since two of the wrong options involve indirect communication through a middleman, which is exactly the anti-pattern the question is testing.
Mei-Ling H.Apr 23, 2026Picked C. The word "expectations" forces customer engagement before rewriting anything.
Yusuf A.May 1, 2026I first leaned toward A since my lead showed me how technical clarity in stories can help, but the customer is saying the opposite problem exists, so engaging them directly to rewrite makes C the right move.