The document discusses strategies for managing a mature product backlog, including incubating new ideas before adding them to the backlog, prioritizing ideas based on impact and cost, and using exercises to demonstrate prioritizing a city's backlog of issues and new ideas. Teams are asked to generate new ideas for improving a fictional city, prioritize the ideas, then reprioritize after new issues arose. The goal is to introduce techniques for maintaining a healthy backlog focused on the most important work.

1. MATURE PRODUCT BACKLOG
AND HOW TO DEAL WITH IT
_________________________________________

2. BARTEK GATZ
PRODUCT MANAGER AT SPARTEZ

3. GAME
PRODUCT BACKLOG

4. GAME
“PRODUCT” BACKLOG

5. GAME
“PRODUCT”“BACKLOG”

6. GAME
“PRODUCT”“BACKLOG”

7. introduction
exercise #1
exercise #2
some theory
exercise #3
exercise #4
— 15 min
— 15 min
— 15 min
— 20 min
— 15 min
— 10 min

8. SPLIT INTO TEAMS,
PLEASE

9. INTRO

10. BACKLOG CITY
CITY DESCRIPTION HANDOUT
_________________________________________

11. BACKLOG CITY
• existing city
• close to sea and a river
• 4 districts
• total of 2.1 inhabitants
• uneven wealth spread

12. BACKLOG CITY
A
A
B
A
C
D
B

13. BACKLOG CITY
SUMMARY
PROBLEM SOLUTION
? ?
? ? ?

14. BACKLOG CITY
• existing “backlog”
• mix of new ideas and known problems
• continued work on earlier “version”
• but now it is your problem

15. EXERCISE #1

16. BACKLOG CITY
create your own new ideas for Backlog City
EXERCISE #1
TIME: 10 MINUTES

17. BACKLOG CITY
EXERCISE #1
SUMMARY
PROBLEM SOLUTION
? ?
? ? ?

18. BACKLOG CITY
EXERCISE #1
LET’S HEAR ‘EM!

19. EXERCISE #2

20. BACKLOG CITY
EXERCISE #2
TIME: 10 MINUTES
prioritise your stream of work

21. BACKLOG CITY
EXERCISE #2
OBSERVATIONS

22. THEORY

23. WHAT ARE THE
PROBLEMS?

24. #1
We have really long backlogs

25. #2
We do not say “NO” to bad ideas early enough

26. #3
We rediscover the same problems over again

27. #4
We jump from problems to solutions too fast

28. #5
We do not measure and validate

29. #6
We make simple prioritisation mistakes

30. #7
Open backlog invites scope and feature creep

31. It’s all true because I used memes

33. HYPOTHESIS
INCUBATOR

34. sprint in progress
max two sprints of
prioritised issues in the backlog
PRODUCT BACKLOG

35. Nothing gets to the backlog, unless:
this is a technical task
this is a bug
it hatched from Incubator
PRODUCT BACKLOG

36. separate project in JIRA
issue type = HYPOTHESIS
workflow = INCUBATION
LAID
LAID
LAID
INSPECTED
INSPECTED
HEATED UP
PRIORITISED
PRIORITISED
PRIORITISED
PRIORITISED
INFERTILE
GONE BAD
GONE BAD
GONE BAD
GONE BAD
HATCHED
HATCHED
HATCHED
COMPLETED
only HATCHED hypothesis go to backlog
HYPOTHESIS INCUBATOR

37. PROBLEM DESCRIPTION (TEXT)
KPI IMPACT HYPOTHESIS (TEXT)
SOLUTION HYPOTHESIS (TEXT)
SUCCESS CRITERIA (TEXT)
LAY TIME STAMP (DATE)
HYPOTHESIS
PRIORITY (2x VALUE)
IMPACT COST

38. PROBLEM DESCRIPTION (TEXT)
what problem we are trying to solve:
in-product problem
user problem
HYPOTHESIS

39. KPI IMPACT HYPOTHESIS (TEXT)
what primary metric we think this problem relates to:
KPIs only, so this must be focused
strategic alignment
HYPOTHESIS

40. SOLUTION HYPOTHESIS (TEXT)
super short high level description of the potential solution
this is a user story
no technical discussions allowed here
HYPOTHESIS

41. SUCCESS CRITERIA (TEXT)
how are we going to measure whether the solution worked
measurement technique applied
description of experiments if required
quantifiable thresholds for selected metrics
HYPOTHESIS

42. fields required for prioritisation exercise:
values
IMPACT defines the strength of movement of KPI needle
COST of delivery is a guesstimation
HYPOTHESIS
PRIORITY (2x VALUE)
IMPACT COST

43. values between 0 and 5
IMPACT defines the strength of movement of KPI needle
URGENCY defines the consequences if not addressed soon
DIFFICULTY of delivery combines guesstimation of all costs:
development marketing support technology
HYPOTHESIS
RISK specifies the risk associated with a given hypothesis
PRIORITY (4x SINGLE SELECT)
IMPACT URGENCY RISK DIFFICULTY
fields required for prioritisation exercise:

44. LAY TIME STAMP (DATE)
age of hypothesis:
non-important ideas should be removed
method to keep the incubator clean
HYPOTHESIS

45. PROBLEM DESCRIPTION (TEXT)
KPI IMPACT HYPOTHESIS (TEXT)
SOLUTION HYPOTHESIS (TEXT)
SUCCESS CRITERIA (TEXT)
LAY TIME STAMP (DATE)
HYPOTHESIS
PRIORITY (2x VALUE)
IMPACT COST

46. LAID
HEATED UP PRIORITISED
GONE BAD
HATCHED
INFERTILE
INSPECTED
COMPLETED REJECTED
INCUBATION WORKFLOW

47. LAID
new hypothesis:
the only way to get into the workflow
INCUBATION WORKFLOW

48. LAID
first hypothesis check performed:
strategic alignment check
science fiction check
INSPECTED
INCUBATION WORKFLOW

49. LAID
prioritisation complete:
ready for hatching
INSPECTEDPRIORITISED
INCUBATION WORKFLOW

50. LAID
impossible to prioritise just yet:
more data required to validateINSPECTEDPRIORITISEDHEATED UP
not right TTM
unclear impact on KPI
INCUBATION WORKFLOW

51. not worth the investment:
no strategic alignment
science fictionINFERTILE
INCUBATION WORKFLOW

52. hypothesis potentially worth it, but:
fell a victim of prioritisation for too long
most likely outdatedINFERTILEGONE BAD
INCUBATION WORKFLOW

53. hypothesis of high overall priority:
at this stage it goes to product backlog
transforms into:INFERTILEGONE BADHATCHED
user story
experiment
HATCHED
INCUBATION WORKFLOW

54. hypothesis completed:
developed and released
validated to have met success criteriaINFERTILEGONE BADHATCHEDCOMPLETED
source of truth for:
release notes
marketing materials
experiment validation
INCUBATION WORKFLOW

55. HEATED UPPRIORITISEDINSPECTEDLAIDINFERTILEGONE BADHATCHEDCOMPLETEDREJECTED
hypothesis rejected:
experiment failed
validated to have NOT met success criteria
rollback may be required
INCUBATION WORKFLOW

56. LAID
HEATED UP PRIORITISED
GONE BAD
HATCHED
INFERTILE
INSPECTED
COMPLETED REJECTED
INCUBATION WORKFLOW

57. PRIORITISATION
IMPACT 0 1 2 3 4 5
0 1 2 3 4 5COST
IMPACT
PRIORITY =
COST + 1
_______________________________

58. PRIORITISATION
IMPACT 0 1 2 3 4 5
0 1 2 3 4 5
URGENCY
DIFFICULTY
0 1 2 3 4 5RISK
0 1 2 3 4 5
IMPACT x URGENCY
PRIORITY =
RISK + DIFFICULTY + 1
_______________________________

59. PRIORITISATION
IMPACT 0 1 2 3 4 5
0 1 2 3 4 5COST
performed by PO + BO + DEV + MKT on regular basis
using Eisenhower 2x1 matrix

60. TO SUM UP…..

61. clean primary product backlog
controlled inflow of requirements
controlled rollout of ideas / improvements / simplifications
no changes without a good reason - working on things that matter
measurements for validation
deprecation of bad ideas before they hurt us
TO SUM UP…..

62. EXERCISE #3

63. BACKLOG CITY
new problems have arisen
EXERCISE #3
TIME: 10 MINUTES

64. BACKLOG CITY
SUMMARY
PROBLEM SOLUTION
KPI IMPACT SUCCESS CRITERIA
IMPACT COST PRIORITY
EXERCISE #3
SUMMARY
PROBLEM SOLUTION

65. EXERCISE #4

66. BACKLOG CITY
let’s reprioritize!
EXERCISE #4
TIME: 10 MINUTES

67. BACKLOG CITY
let’s reprioritize!
EXERCISE #4
HOMEWORK

68. BACKLOG CITY
SUMMARY
PROBLEM SOLUTION
KPI IMPACT SUCCESS CRITERIA
IMPACT COST PRIORITY
EXERCISE #4
SUMMARY
PROBLEM SOLUTION