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A Backlog Is More Than a List — It’s Your Leadership Compass
🎬 Cold Open / Hook
You log into JIRA and there it is: 437 tickets. All marked P1.
Welcome to the land where everything is a “priority.”
Here’s the kicker: 70% of digital projects don’t fail because of bad ideas. They fail because no one knows which ideas actually matter most.
A cluttered backlog isn’t strategy. It’s hoarding in JIRA.
⚔️ The Setup: The Real Problem
Somewhere along the way, leaders started mistaking more features for more value.
Teams confused keeping every idea with being innovative.
The result?
Overloaded Leaders juggling 200 tickets.
Overlooked Teammates building work that doesn’t matter.
It’s not that leaders are careless — it’s that they’re afraid to cut. But talent trusts clarity more than horsepower.
💡 Frameworks that Actually Work (Mini-Case Style)
MoSCoW Method
Must. Should. Could. Won’t.
👉 Lesson: If everything is a Must, nothing is.
Mini-example: MoSCoW gives teams a graceful way to say “not this sprint” without killing the idea forever.First step: Take your top 10 backlog items and force them into one of four buckets: Must, Should, Could, Won’t.
Pro tip: Limit “Musts” to no more than 3. If you have 7, you don’t have priorities — you have wishful thinking.
Kano Model
Basics. Performance. Delighters.
👉 Lesson: Not all features buy the same loyalty.
Mini-example: Customers expect brakes on a car; they delight in heated seats. Know the difference.First step: Ask your customers: “How would you feel if this feature didn’t exist?” If they say angry, it’s a Basic. If they say meh, it’s Performance. If they say surprised and delighted, it’s a Delighter.
Pro tip: Basics prevent churn, Delighters create loyalty — know which one you’re funding.
Recycle Bin
A deliberate place for “not now.”
👉 Lesson: Ideas aren’t lost; they’re parked.
Mini-example: NASA’s Apollo program reused shelved concepts years later.These aren’t gimmicks — they’re discipline. And discipline is what builds trust.
First step: Create a “Not Now” column in JIRA/Trello/Notion. Move any item older than 90 days into it.
Pro tip: Review the bin quarterly. 80% will stay dead — the 20% that survive are often your best long-term bets.
These quick starters will get you moving — but the full facilitation guides, with step-by-step strategy and proven ways to build incremental improvement, live inside Collaborate Better. Think of this post as the compass, and the book as the full map.
🎯 Quick-Hit Takeaways
Backlog ≠ Wishlist. It’s your decision engine.
Say “not now,” not “never.”
Clarity beats idea-hoarding.
📊 Poll: What’s your backlog REALLY look like?”
🗂️ A graveyard of half-baked ideas
🔥 Everything’s a “priority”
🚮 Copy-paste chaos from last year
🧘 A clean, prioritized list (teach us your ways)
🦄 A unicorn backlog (doesn’t exist, but we believe)
✅ TL;DR for Leaders
MoSCoW and Kano separate noise from value.
Recycle Bin thinking protects teams from overload and builds trust.
Your backlog is your strategy, not your storage closet.
Next Blog in the ‘Collaborate Better’ PreSale: Death by Approval Cycle (and How to Survive It)
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Collaborate Better is your playbook for turning messy backlogs into momentum. PreSales open now at CollaborateBetter.us
