Many teams make the same set of Backlog refinement mistakes that really sabotage their effectiveness:
- The Goldilocks dynamic: detail too early or too late
- Refinement as a meeting
- Horizontal slices
- Allowing technical dependencies to take over the Backlog
- Acceptance criteria as a contract
Check out this recording of a Humanizing Work Meetup Session where we walked through all five of these common mistakes and what to do instead.
These mistakes make it overwhelming for Product Owners, frustrating for teams, and ultimately ineffective for everyone involved. But once you fix them, every day involves a little more refinement, just enough, just in time. No more huge backlogs, no more churn and rework, no stress leading up to sprint planning, no three hour refinement meetings no one really enjoys. Just calm daily progress.
Richard Lawrence
Humanizing Work Founder, Trainer, and Coach
Are you ready to level-up your backlog refinement skills? We’ve built an entire online course for that.
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80/20 Product Backlog Refinement, a new course from Humanizing Work designed for Product Owners, Managers, and anyone steering the direction of a product. This self-paced program is your key to mastering essential skills that will maximize impact, minimize risk, and propel your product and team to new heights.
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….this course helped me learn how to keep a backlog clean and prioritized, which is something I often struggled with. (-Ana, Product Owner)
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