What is the best way to prioritize a product backlog?

1 Understand your goals and vision

Before you start prioritizing your product backlog, you need to have a clear understanding of your product goals and vision. What are you trying to achieve with your product? Who are your target customers and what are their needs and expectations? How does your product fit into the market and the competitive landscape? Having a well-defined product strategy and roadmap will help you align your backlog items with your objectives and value proposition.

2 Use a prioritization framework

A prioritization framework is a tool or a technique that helps you evaluate and compare your backlog items based on different criteria, such as value, urgency, effort, risk, or impact. There are many prioritization frameworks that you can use, such as MoSCoW, RICE, Kano, or WSJF. The choice of the framework depends on your product context, goals, and preferences. The key is to use a consistent and transparent method that allows you to communicate and justify your decisions to your stakeholders.

3 Involve your team and stakeholders

Prioritizing a product backlog is not a solo activity. You need to involve your team and stakeholders in the process, as they have different perspectives, insights, and feedback that can help you make better decisions. You can use various techniques to facilitate collaboration and participation, such as voting, surveys, workshops, or feedback sessions. The goal is to create a shared understanding and alignment around the product priorities and trade-offs.

4 Review and refine regularly

Prioritizing a product backlog is not a one-time event. It is an ongoing process that requires constant review and refinement. As your product evolves, your customers change, and your market shifts, you need to adapt your backlog accordingly. You should review your product backlog before each sprint or iteration, and update it based on new data, feedback, or opportunities. You should also remove or deprioritize items that are no longer relevant, valuable, or feasible.

5 Focus on outcomes, not outputs

Finally, when prioritizing your product backlog, you should focus on the outcomes that you want to achieve, not the outputs that you want to produce. Outcomes are the benefits or changes that your product delivers to your customers and your business, such as increased satisfaction, retention, revenue, or growth. Outputs are the features or functionalities that your product offers, such as buttons, screens, or integrations. By focusing on outcomes, you can prioritize your backlog based on the value and impact that your product creates, rather than the scope and complexity that it entails.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?