Product Worker: One Product Team, Many Backlogs

This episode of the podcast is about a topic that affects many Product Owners in practice: multiple backlogs. Although the rule in the agile context is “one product, one product backlog”, the reality often shows different scenarios. Dominic Winter and Tim Klein explain how Product Owners can deal with being forced to manage multiple backlogs.

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Clear structures for transparency and overview

There are some challenges with the large backlog. They often arise when a team is working on multiple products or services, making it difficult to organize priorities. Another common scenario is to divide tasks into process steps, such as a separate UX backlog or bug backlog. These different sources and divisions easily lead to loss of observation. What is really important and which backlog takes priority? Product owners are often faced with the question of how they can maintain transparency and at the same time work strategically without getting lost in operational details.

The solution often lies in better organization and clear structures. Instead of maintaining multiple backlogs separately, it is recommended to bundle all tasks into a system like Jira and work with labels or filters. This makes prioritization easier and creates a “single source of truth” for everyone involved. It may also be worthwhile to initially collect ideas or potential features outside the actual product backlog. However, these should not be viewed as additional backlog, but rather as helpful tools in the discovery process. As soon as an idea is mature enough, it gets added to the product backlog to structure and prioritize the team’s work.

courage of simplicity

Another approach is visualization of work processes. By making visible the journey of ideas and requirements through the product development process, teams and stakeholders can better understand where priorities lie and what steps are necessary to achieve goals. Also: Have the courage to keep things simple. It is not necessary to implement every idea or feedback. whoever is brave enough remove unnecessary thingsMakes room for essentials.

Finally, most importantly, clear prioritization is important for Product Owners who work with multiple products and backlogs. When spontaneous tasks arise, a predetermined hierarchy helps avoid conflicts and increase efficiency.

The current version of the podcast is also available on the ProductWorker blog: “One product team, many backlogs,

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