Thread by @garethaledavies

Struggling with your product backlog? 😓

👉 Here are 7️⃣ simple tips to make your backlog work easier.

Featuring robots, whiteboards, estimation, and more.

🧵 THREAD

1.📝 Treat your backlog like a family shopping list.

Let everyone in your team add items they need.

This helps to build a sense of ownership.

Collective backlogs also factor in more perspectives and are therefore:

- More complete
- More accurate
- More inclusive

2.🧩 Create a template for adding backlog items.

Making a template for new backlog items ensures they are DEEP and the backlog is tidy.

✅ Having a checklist to complete before adding an item also helps.

Here's how our backlog checklist looks:

3.📆 Timebox a slot for backlog refinement (even if you don't use it)

When you’re racing towards the sprint deadline, it's easy to neglect the backlog entirely.

Building the time into your calendar ensures that refinement will happen 💪

4.🤖 Use robots for backlog sprint cleaning.

Nobody likes clearing out stale items. So automate the process with a bot.

Robots don’t have a sprint goal to meet, and you do!

Here's how to automate stale items in @github!

loom.com/share/9be7ac36…

5.♥️ Keep your finger on the backlog's pulse throughout the sprint.

Set up notifications in @SlackHQ or @MicrosoftTeams so you can see what's new in backlog city.

Try to refine during the sprint and add detail as you go.

This will lead to more productive sprint planning

6. 🟨 Experiment with creative tools to prioritise and ideate better.

Backlog tools are usually rigid lists.

Try prioritising or mapping user stories in a tool like Miro or Mural and then exporting it to @Jira, Rally or GitHub.

Entering a different headspace helps!