Does your nonprofit team ever feel like you are spinning your wheels? You have a long list of tasks, but you are not sure whether they are actually moving the needle for your mission. In the world of Agile, the solution to this situation is a well-managed nonprofit product backlog.
What Is a Product Backlog?
A Product Backlog is an emergent, ordered list of what is needed to improve your program or service. It serves as the single source of work for your team. By prioritizing this list, you ensure that your team always works on the most important items first.
The Product Backlog encompasses the entire body of possible work for a team to achieve their agreed-upon Product Goal. Although anyone can suggest an item, the Product Owner is responsible for the final order. This structure prevents silos and ensures that the team remains focused on the organization’s mission.
How to Use and Refine Your Backlog
A Product Backlog is more than just a to-do list. It is a living document that requires regular attention. To get the most out of it, your team must engage in backlog “refinement.”
Refinement is the ongoing activity of adding detail, order, and size to your tasks. Because nonprofit work is often complex, breaking down large initiatives into smaller Product Backlog items makes the work less overwhelming. This process ensures that the team has a shared understanding of success for every item.
Ready to streamline your processes? Watch our recorded webinar, Scrum Basics for Nonprofits, where we guide you through creating a backlog.
Seven Methods for Prioritization
Choosing what to work on first is often the hardest part of nonprofit leadership. You can use several different methods to bring order to your backlog.
- MoSCoW: Categorize items into Must have, Should have, Could have, and Won’t have.
- Value vs. Effort: Plot items on a matrix to find the “quick wins” that provide high value for low effort.
- Kano Model: Identify which features will truly satisfy your community members.
- Buy a Feature: Give team members a “budget” to spend on the items they find most important.
- Opportunity Scoring: Use data from community needs assessments to find gaps in your services.
- Stack Ranking: Simply rank items from 1 to N, ensuring that no two items have the same priority.
- Cost of Delay: Determine urgency by calculating the impact of not doing a task right now.
Regardless of the method you choose, keep your Product Backlog visible to your entire team. You can use physical boards or digital tools. Many digital platforms offer discounts or free licenses to nonprofit organizations.
Take advantage of our expert-led webinar “7 Methods of Prioritization” to see how these prioritization methods look in a real-world nonprofit setting.
Key Takeaways
- Single Source of Truth: To avoid confusion, use one central backlog for all possible work.
- Continuous Refinement: Regularly break down large tasks into smaller, manageable pieces.
- Dynamic Prioritization: Your backlog should change as community needs and donor expectations evolve.
- Team Transparency: Keep the list visible so that everyone understands the “why” behind their tasks.
FAQ
Who is allowed to add items to the Product Backlog? Anyone can suggest an item for the backlog at any time. However, the Product Owner ultimately decides where that item belongs in the priority order.
How often should we refine our backlog? Refinement is an ongoing activity. Many teams find success by setting aside time each week to look at upcoming items and add necessary details.
What happens if a new, urgent task comes up? Because the backlog is emergent, you can add new items whenever you need. Then use your chosen prioritization method to see whether the new task is actually more important than what is currently at the top.
Take Control of Your Mission Today
Stop wondering if you are doing the right work at the right time. By implementing a transparent and prioritized Product Backlog, your nonprofit can create twice the impact in half the time at a sustainable pace.
Download our free Backlog Guide to discover detailed instructions for the seven prioritization methods. If you want a more interactive experience, take advantage of our Scrum Basics for Nonprofits or 7 Methods of Prioritization webinars.