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Avion
What Is Avion?
Avion is the #1 story mapping tool used by product teams. Break down complexity, build powerful user-focused backlogs and focus on outcomes over output. Avion integrates with the top backlog tools like Jira, Azure, GitHub and Trello.
World-leading companies use Avion to plan their backlog and user journeys. Keep focused on your end-users and turn big ideas into working software.
Who Uses Avion?
Perfect for Product Owners, Product Managers, Product-focussed CEOs / CTOs / COOs, Scrum Masters. Engineers, Software Developers, Technical Product Owners. Agile Coaches and Agile Leads
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Reviews of Avion
Great user story mapping tool
Comments: The simplicity and structure of Avion has really helped us improve collaboration between our stakeholders, product and engineering teams. The support from the Avion team when issues/questions have arisen has been excellent and it have been really refreshing to have such active engagement and support. The roadmap for Avion aligns brilliantly with our requirements and I am excited to see the new features!
Pros:
Getting started with Avion was incredibly straightforward and the functionality is totally intuitive. Our Product Owners were able start mapping their user journeys immediately and the boards provide a raft of really useful features. Because Avion has been designed specifically for story mapping it provides a framework that supports our team in adhering to best practices and consistency. There is a lot of flexibility around integrations with other tools (ADO/Jira) which has allowed us to easily integrate our Avion boards into our wider workflow.
Cons:
There are a few things that our Product team have suggested they would like to see enhanced:-The ability to paste images directly into the description field and sync these to ADO-The ability to turn on a "compact view" of the story map to reduce empty space and allow more to fit on the screen-The ability to selectively pull tickets back from ADO (Already implemented)-The ability to sync an Avion release to an ADO hierarchy level (e.g. Epic/Feature), which is supported in Jira
Alternatives Considered:
Does exactly what we need for a user story mapping tool
Comments: We had a very real need to have a much better view on our user story maps, which we could use collaboratively with a distributed team. It also needed to slot into our existing workflows.
Pros:
Avion is a really focused product, delivering exactly what we need in terms of how we build out our user story maps. The Jira integrations make it super easy to create stories, and track where we're up to. It's like someone took Jeff Patton's book and turned it into a product.
Cons:
Not really a con but as we were early adopters some features were not fully fleshed out, which have been coming through in their roadmap.
Avion Response
5 years ago
Hey Ben, thank you so much for the great review. Really appreciate all your feedback thus far!
Great tool with great Jira integration capabilities
Pros:
Overall I am really happy about the software. What has delighted me the most and was key in my purchase decision is the Jira integration capabilities. The integration is seamless, easy and really straightforward. I am really looking forward to seeing how the team at Avion continues improving the product.
Cons:
The main feature I would recommend adding is to be able to push attachements from Avion stories to Jira
Avion Response
5 years ago
Really appreciate the review Arnau, glad you're enjoying using Avion!
Nice story mapping tool with great ADO (Azure DevOps) integration
Comments: Customer service is exceptional with these guys - they are so tuned in to what their customers are asking for and are so responsive when questions or issues get raised. They frequently release updates and regularly keep us informed as to what they're working on or what's coming next - it's great to see them so invested in their product.
Pros:
The UI is intuitive and responsive and makes it a really nice easy tool to use and to visualise product roadmaps, with limited training needed for those new to story mapping. There's also lots of new features already been added with lots more to come. The integration with ADO is great - the set up process was seamless - and the auto syncing of tags and states is handy and also customisable across story maps.
Cons:
Some like-for-like comparisons from a previous tool we were using such as the ability to capture full details on journeys and steps and to be able choose which of these (and when) get synced to ADO but we understand this is on the roadmap to be done. Some additional missing syncing details to ADO - notably personas and comments but again these are part of some future development to be done. Also the ability to see all story maps across our workspace (we have quite a lot!) - again in the roadmap to be done - and they did provide us with a short term fix to help us with this which was great.
Perfect user story mapping tool for a complex web application
Comments: I loved using this application. I have seen lots of teams build story maps before, but never built one myself. The process was extremely satisfying, and I think what is so great about it, is that all of these little user stories are so simple on their own, which is the point, and yet the application allows you to structure them, in a really simple fashion, but then, and in this manner, you are able to describe a system with a great level of complexity.
Pros:
I needed a tool that I could use to visually describe a complex system in the most simple fashion and Avion allowed this. My available time to work on the project was limited, so I needed to use an application with a small learning curve that I could get cracking with straight away, with limited barriers. The project involved two development teams and a set of product stakeholders, that could all collaborate on the project, and discuss complicated questions, and keep those discussions close to the relevant tickets. The application was too complex to fully understand at any one time, and so the visual and structural layout of Avion supported us with this complexity, as well as allowing us to phase development of the work. i would also point out that the little technical support I needed while I was building my first story map was exceptional. The service is very personal and thoughtful, and I really appreciated that.
Cons:
There were a few little niggles. It's not perfect, but I can't remember what they were. Deleting a story by mistake is a little tricky to recover from, but I expect there is something on the backlog to address this. I notice that releases are fairly frequent with this application and that the developers seem to be listening to their users.
Avion Response
5 years ago
Thanks for the kind words Ian! Always a pleasure to help out with support and great to hear that you are enjoying using Avion
The best story mapping tool on the market
Comments: The overall experience with Avion has been great. Tim and James could not be nicer, the community is great and I am sure there is much more to come.
Pros:
Avion has a very intuitive user interface that provides a first-class user experience. All features are very well thought out and you can tell that a large amount of user feedback goes into the development process. The Jira integration, often a problem with competitors, works smoothly and adds significant value. New features are constantly being added and you get the feeling that the product is "alive".
Cons:
There were a few minor issues here and there, but they were all addressed and fixed immediately.
First 2 months review
Pros:
Customer journey mapping is extremely important and not covered by existing tools like Jira
Cons:
Roadmapping is still roadmap haha! So are some basic features - poor text editor, no cross board dependencies
Fantastic product for development teams
Pros:
Easy to use, fantastic product! This is an amazing find, getting support from avion brought us 100 steps closer to our goal! Keep up the good work guys!
Cons:
Nothing is missing , everything we need is inside
Avion Response
3 years ago
Hey Romana, thank you for the kind words! Great to have you with us
Alternatives Considered:
User Story Mapping
Pros:
All the fundamental story mapping functionality is there with plenty of improvements coming down the pipeline. Integration with Jira is easy and innovative. Avion's interface is intuitive and the addition of a dark mode was appreciated.
Cons:
Some minor improvements to user personas visibility for individual stories but it's already on the roadmap.
Avion Response
5 years ago
Thanks Robert! Glad you're getting use and value from the tool
The most helpful app
Comments: We use Avion for user story mapping, creating epics and managing user personas
Pros:
This software is very organized, it lets you make your work more simple and to the point. Also it is very easy to use.
Cons:
The software is in the startup stage yet and has some little usability issues which do not matter that much as guys work very hard and solve them immediately
Avion Response
5 years ago
Hey Shushanik, thanks for the review and the kind words! Looking forward to seeing your product successes in the coming months
Great tool for story mapping
Comments: I love it.
Pros:
Avion is really easy to use. The learning curve is minimal. I feel like I got it the sec I completed the signup process.
Cons:
The temporary -- But the limit of the type of files that you can upload is a a slight frustration.
Avion Response
5 years ago
Thank you Winston! Just a note to say that we now support many more file attachment types. Our documentation covers this here: https://help.avion.io/docs/faqs/attachments