Elezea: resources for product leaders - Don't delete your backlog
Welcome to another edition of the Elezea Newsletter with articles and resources for product managers, technology leaders, and other curious minds. This is a summary newsletter and if you’d like to get all the blog posts you can subscribe to the feed in a variety of ways. There’s a sentiment I started to see in the agile development world that advocates for deleting old/stale items off a backlog completely. A good recent example is Jason Knight’s latest newsletter:
I’m not trying to pick on Jason—his work is great and it’s another very good edition of his newsletter! I am just using it as an example that got me thinking about this a bit more deeply. My take is that we should absolutely keep all customer feedback around in our backlogs, because that is continuous discovery data that would be a shame to lose. Instead, my proposal would be to normalize the backlog as a place to build organizational memory and a customer feedback knowledge base—not as a list of things that all have to get done. Two tactics can help with this approach. First, a Now/Next/Later roadmap keeps the focus on the list of current priorities. The entire backlog doesn’t go into the “Later” column—only things that are currently prioritized to start within the next few months. Second, have a standard process that the entire company (especially the customer success team) can use to collect user feedback and attach it to features. In our case that’s Productboard, and our success team can easily add and process customer feedback via a browser extension. I guess our list of features in Productboard is technically our “backlog”, but it doesn’t cause us stress in terms of feeling like we need to work on everything that’s on there. However, as part of our planning cycle we can go through this list and figure out if anything is important enough to pull into the “Later” column of our roadmap. An added bonus: if/when we start to work on any of those features we have access to lots of customer data about each feature, and we can reach out to those customers to have more in-depth conversations with them about their needs. So instead of deleting old issues off our backlogs, let’s rather remove the pressure and stigma around what backlogs are for (maybe we should rename it to “customer needs knowledge base”?). And then let’s use our actual roadmaps for the list of things we know we’re going to work on. Marco Rogers has been an engineer and manager of engineers for 20 years. In this posthe shares some short, practical (but not always easy to follow!) advice for engineers. A few of my favorites:
Read the rest of his post for the rest. What would happen if we look at time through the lens of attachment theory? That’s the question my friend Simon de la Rouviere asks in Attachment Styles to Time. I definitely have an “anxious attachment style” with time:
The framing also reminds me of the Japanese phrase Mono no aware:
That is also basically what the entire “synthwave” genre is about so if you’d like to hear what that concept sounds like as a song, just make your way over to Los Angeles by The Midnight. Some Stray Links
|
Key phrases
Older messages
Human systems and the stuff they make
Tuesday, February 7, 2023
Also a mechanical navigation computer for Soviet spaceflight
Engineering maturity models, the importance of setting context, productivity for monks
Tuesday, January 31, 2023
Also some weird-looking fake animals
Everyone's talking about meetings again
Tuesday, January 24, 2023
Also how Figma builds product
The Weekend Edition // 2023.1
Friday, January 20, 2023
Dialup sounds, the origins of “burnout”, and more.
A framework and method for developing a Product Strategy collaboratively (Part 4)
Friday, January 20, 2023
Also everything you didn't know about The Shining
You Might Also Like
Closing 4/19 • World Book Day Promo for Authors • Email Newsletter + Tweets + FB Posts
Thursday, April 18, 2024
Book promo on 4/23/24 for World Book Day Join ContentMo's World Book Day Promotion #WorldBookDay is April 23rd each year. ContentMo is running a special promo on 4/23/24 for World Book Day
Epiphanies Come From Waiting
Wednesday, April 17, 2024
Resist the urge to immediately critique or revise. The subconscious needs time to work, and that period of waiting is when you make the most important connections. Waiting leads to breakthroughs that
99c Kindle & KU eBook • Flash Fiction • From Light to Dark and Back Again by Allison Symes
Wednesday, April 17, 2024
Paperback edition available Welcome to ContentMo's Book of the Day "A wonderful
How FedEx Gambled Its Way to Success
Wednesday, April 17, 2024
Always bet on red... no, black. No, red. No... errr, maybe not gamble if this is your strategy?
• KU Kindle Unlimited Book Promos for Authors & Publishers •
Wednesday, April 17, 2024
Affordable Book Promos Kindle Unlimited Promos for Authors Need an affordable promotion for a book that's not Kindle Unlimited? See our other offers at the bottom of this email. Enable Images to
10 Signs You Over-Optimize Your Site
Tuesday, April 16, 2024
Learn how to deoptimize your website to maintain a balanced SEO approach Hi Reader, Do you know that some SEO efforts may backfire? My latest guide reveals 10 signs that you might be over-optimizing
Non-Fiction Kindle & Paperback Book • Going Crazy: (Left Foot, Right Foot, Breathe) by Tim James
Tuesday, April 16, 2024
An honest, vulnerable memoir. Welcome to ContentMo's Book of the Day ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "An honest
Your Formula for Sustained Success
Tuesday, April 16, 2024
Your weekly 5-minute read with timeless ideas on art and creativity intersecting with business and life͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
The Wife, Husband, and Ex-Husband Nuclear Family?
Tuesday, April 16, 2024
Strange, yes. Wonderful? Absolutely.
🧙♂️ Multi-streaming tool I use for my sponsorships
Tuesday, April 16, 2024
filmed a video walkthrough heyooo