From Idea to Backlog - How to Ensure Agile Teams Build the Right Product (All Florida CIO Council)

An unspoken problem with agile development is that frameworks like Scrum and Kanban offer guidance to organize a team to build and deliver software. However, these frameworks provide little support to validate which software product the team should build. For example, the Scrum Guide defines the Product Backlog as “an emergent, ordered list of what is needed to improve the product” and the “single source of work undertaken by the Scrum Team.” While this definition helps agile teams understand how to create a backlog, it does not help them determine what should be in the backlog. Agile leaders lack basic tools that help them understand their users’ essential needs and support them in creating product backlogs of the right work.

In this talk, Steven Granese presents a lightweight product discovery framework that quickly helps agile leaders turn ideas into validated backlogs. The framework utilizes four essential tools - user personas, customer journey maps, opportunity canvases, and story maps - and does not require special software or preexisting product experience. Steven demonstrates how agile leaders can build validated backlogs within two weeks and integrate their work with agile teams to ensure fast user feedback. When done correctly, these techniques will reduce the risk of building products no one wants while helping agile leaders discover ideas that users will love and use.