𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭 𝐁𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐥𝐨𝐠: 𝟓 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐨𝐧 𝐀𝐧𝐭𝐢-𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐬 💣
1️⃣ 𝐊𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐚𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐉𝐢𝐫𝐚 𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐥 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐥𝐨𝐠 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠.
▶ Doing that will result in so much noise that it will make you lose track of what's most important to your customer right now.
✅ Regularly clean up your backlog If it’s not a priority in the upcoming three months, remove it; you won't do it, trust me.
2️⃣ 𝐀𝐝𝐝 𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐬 𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐚𝐬𝐤𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭ℎ 𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐧𝐨 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐚.
▶ The result is, for sure, many miscommunications and lots of rework, which destroy your relationship with engineers and designers, and delay your timeline.
✅ Clear, detailed collaborative user stories. Make sure everyone knows what’s expected.
3️⃣ 𝐁𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐥𝐨𝐠 𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐛𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦.
▶ Treating your team only as implementers reduces team buy-in and ownership, potentially missing valuable ideas they can contribute.
✅ Involve the whole team in backlog grooming sessions and ask questions, to engage them, not only about the feasibility of the solution but also to make them wear your hat for a few minutes.
4️⃣ 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐳𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐞-𝐭𝐨-𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐟𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐭𝐚𝐬𝐤𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬.
▶ This can lead to a fancy, feature-packed product with poor functionality and a delay in delivery due to using too many workarounds to add features in a hurry.
✅ Focus on critical tasks first. The glitter can wait 😁.
5️⃣ 𝐓𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐥𝐨𝐠 𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐬𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐭 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐥𝐨𝐠, 𝐟𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐬𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠-𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐦 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠.
▶ Your team will miss the bigger picture and long-term goals that they should work on and plan, Non-scalable technical solutions may also be another side-effect.
✅ Prepare at least three sprints ahead, the content of these sprints should be relevant and serve a clear business goal, with enough details about what you need to build.
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💡 𝑃𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑒 𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑚𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑖-𝑝𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑠 𝑜𝑟 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑜𝑛 𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑠 𝑦𝑜𝑢'𝑣𝑒 𝑜𝑏𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑎𝑠 𝑎 𝑃𝑀 𝑜𝑟 𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑑 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑎 𝑃𝑀.