User story

A user story is a short, plain-language description of a feature from the user's point of view: "As a [type of user], I can [do something] and see [a result]." It captures who wants the feature, what they want to do, and the outcome that proves it worked, before any code is written. For a lean founder, user stories keep building honest. They force you to frame work around a real person achieving a real result, not a vague technical task, and the "see [result]" clause gives you a testable definition of done you can actually verify on the real surface. A good story is small enough to build and check in one go, and concrete enough that you would know immediately whether it succeeded. Stacked together, user stories become your spec and your test plan at once, a list of capabilities a real user gains, each one provable, which is exactly the clarity a solo builder needs to avoid drifting into work nobody asked for.