The document discusses common traps that product teams can fall into with their product backlogs. These include keeping extensive backlogs to please stakeholders rather than focus on current goals, gathering requirements to satisfy wants rather than understand user needs, fear of removing outdated items, allowing anything to be added so it becomes a long wish list, and creating solutions without understanding problems. It recommends cleaning the backlog by removing old promises and items unrelated to goals to have a lean backlog focused on delivering value. Saying no to distractions and limiting the backlog size helps teams focus on learning and adapting to deliver solutions to real problems. Regularly inspecting and adapting the backlog prevents teams from getting stuck in outdated ways of working.

1. David Pereira, 10th of October, 2023
Overcoming Common Backlog Traps

2. Company
Marketing
Customer Service
Management
Operations
Product Team

3. Company
Marketing
Customer Service
Leadership
Operations
Product Team
WHAT’S THE
PROBLEM HERE?

4. The Backlog Trap transforms
teams into feature factories

5. Product Backlog Check
menti.com
1420 9858

6. Keeping an extensive Product Backlog to tell
stakeholders their requests are registered instead
of removing items unrelated to your current goals
#1
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7. Gathering requirements from stakeholders to
solve their wants instead of establishing
relationships to deliver on end-users needs
#2
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8. Fear of removing outdated backlog items force
you to work too much on the backlog and too
little on creating value
#3
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9. When everything can go in, your backlog
becomes no more than a 6-year-old wish list
#4
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10. Creating solutions without knowing
the problems they aim to solve
#5
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11. d-pereira.com
The longer the backlog,
the less agile you can be
Common Backlog Traps

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Extensive Backlog Once in, never out
6-year-old wish list
Common Backlog Traps
Solutions without
problem
understanding
Focus on pleasing
stakeholders over
satisfying users

13. Mismanaged product backlogs
transform Scrum into Waterscrumfall
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14. Overcoming the Backlog Traps

15. Cleaning your Product Backlog is
essential to create value

16. Old promises
New promises
Nice to have
Old
New
Lean Backlog
No
Yes
Traditional Backlog Management Lean Backlog Management

17. Old promises
New promises
Nice to have
Old
New
Lean Backlog
No
Yes
Traditional Backlog Management Lean Backlog Management

18. Don’t increase the backlog size
Increase the trash bin size

19. First you’ve got to clean
your Product Backlog. Then,
you’ve got to keep it shiny

20. Product Manager
Requests
Requests
Requests
Requests
No
Yes
Saying no to distractions enable focus
Every yes you give,
you gain a new responsibility
David Pereira

21. Product Manager
Requests
Requests
Requests
Requests
No
Yes
Saying no to distractions enable focus
Every yes you give,
you gain a new responsibility
Saying NO unlocks focus to deliver valuable solutions
agileproductmanifesto.com
David Pereira

22. January April July
New requests, old items down,
new items up
New requests, old items down,
new items up
With an extensive backlog,
everyone wants to run away
David Pereira

23. January April July
New learnings in
Old items out
New learnings in
Old items out
Inspect and adapt, remove distractions.
Focus on goals; not plans
David Pereira

24. Backlog
Item
Age
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25. Backlog
Item
Age
Keep the Product Backlog clean.
Backlog items age like milk, not like wine
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26. Encourage teams to step
back, re#ect, and
challenge the status quo

27. Product Backlog Health Check
d-pereira.com
Backlog items
live forever
Due Date
Backlog items live no longer
than 3 months
A mixed of everything
Goal Related
Most of the items
relate to a common goal
Unstructured
Organization
Simple and easy to understand
Focus on writing
requirements
Focus on learning
Focus on adapting to
learnings
More than a hundred
items
Lean Backlog
No more than a couple
of dozens of items

28. You’ve got a choice to make:
Bow to the status quo and get stuck
Challenge the status quo and have a
chance of a better tomorrow

29. What’s your choice?

30. Untrapping Product Teams
Supercharging your product knowledge to rock the world
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David Pereira
Simplifying Product Management
contact@d-pereira.com
d-pereira.com

31. Untrapping Product Teams
Supercharging your product knowledge to rock the world
Join 13K+ professionals to get weekly insights dpereira.substack.com
David Pereira
Simplifying Product Management
contact@d-pereira.com
d-pereira.com
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