Product management has rapidly increased in strategic business importance over the last decade. As companies shift to digital, the ability to effectively build products users want separates the market leaders from the laggards.
Research shows publicly traded product-driven companies have outperformed the S&P 500 by 233% since 2020. But only 20% of organizations consider themselves truly excellent at product management.
Where do they differentiate? Superior backlog management and prioritization.
As your company‘s backlog grows in scale and complexity, intentionally prioritizing your product roadmap by value, risk, and effort grows exponentially harder. But it directly impacts your ability to delight customers and fuel business growth.
In this comprehensive guide as an experienced product leader, I’ll share proven frameworks, examples, and data-driven best practices to help you master backlog prioritization.
Why Proper Backlog Management is Critical
Let’s first level-set the business impact of your backlog decisions:
- 73% of a product’s market success is determined by backlog priority calls according to research by Pichler Consulting
- Teams who miss 2 product milestones decrease company valuation by over 30% says Marty Cagan
- 92% of respondents say backlog grooming issues limit product success per the State of Product Leadership 2022 report
Clearly, what you choose to build and when critically impacts your customers and financials.
As your organization scales, proper backlog management only increases in importance to coordinate multiple teams. That next feature you prioritize #1 now requires involvement from engineering, design, legal, sales, execs and more.
But when done right, your backlog acts as a forcing function and communication channel to focus collective efforts. It becomes the backlog of your business, not just isolated product development.
Step 1: Qualitatively Determine Items
Let’s walk through the key phases of building a well-groomed, value-optimized backlog.
First, qualitatively determine which ideas and requests even make it into the backlog for consideration using:
Customer interviews – directly ask target users what problems they want solved.
Focus groups – get feedback from a representative set of existing or prospective customers.
Support tickets & onboarding – identify recurring pain points and feature requests.
Competitor analysis – highlight gaps in your offering versus alternatives.
Ideation workshops – facilitate brainstorms for new innovations.
Stakeholder meetings – collect inputs from sales, support, executives, etc.
Be exhaustive here – cast a wide net to capture all potential items. Avoid self-filtering at this phase.
Step 2: Quantitatively Prioritize with Data
Next, have technical discussions to quantify elements like effort, complexity, and dependencies for each request.
Then apply data-driven prioritization frameworks:
Weighted scoring model
| Initiative | Business Value | Risk Reduction | Effort | Total Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Payments Integration | 25 | 5 | 3 | 75 |
| Configurator App | 15 | 3 | 1 | 45 |
ROI = (Potential Value – Cost to Build) / Cost to Build
| Initiative | Potential Value | Cost to Build | ROI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Payments Integration | $1.5M | $500K | 2.0x |
| Configurator App | $800K | $400K | 1.0x |
And use qualitative techniques like the Kano model to forecast potential customer satisfaction levels.
Combining quantitative and qualitative data gives you the most accurate view of true relative priority.
Step 3: Grooming Your Prioritized Backlog
Now that you have a prioritized list of data-backed initiatives, the goal shifts to continual grooming and maintenance.
Here is a sample roadmap with features and capabilities mapped to strategic goals and quarters:
Q1 2023
Ecommerce Launch
- Payments integration
- Inventory management
Q2 2023
Customer Conversions
- Virtual product configurator
- 1:1 sales appointment booking
Q3 2023
Enterprise Sales
- Role-based access controls
- Sales CRM connector
And so on…
Use backlog management software like Craft, ProductBoard, or Aha! to make re-prioritizing drag-and-drop easy. Set reminders to review your backlog every 2 weeks with stakeholders.
Ask questions like:
- Have any assumptions changed for high-priority items?
- Are there new competing requests?
- What can we remove or descope?
Ruthlessly cull things that no longer make sense. And ensure you clearly communicate updates and the "why" behind future state backlogs.
Key Takeaways
We covered a lot of ground on maximizing your product backlog‘s business impact. Let‘s summarize the key points:
Qualitatively determine potential items through customer engagement and ideation.
Quantitatively prioritize requests using ROI, scoring models, and forecasts.
Continuously groom, communicate updates, and re-assess your backlog.
Great product management comes down to building the right things, in the right order, at the right time. Your backlog is at the heart of this decision process. Master backlog prioritization by combining data, collaboration, and solid frameworks to delight users and propel the business forward.
What resonated with you most from this guide? What backlog management challenges do you face I can help with? Let me know in the comments section below!
