Idea Funnel Backlog
Prioritise and focus your backlog while keeping ideas fluid.
About the Idea Funnel Backlog Template
An idea funnel backlog can help you and your team prioritize a list of features, bugs, technical work, and knowledge building. These are elements you should identify and keep updated to make your product or service more functional.
Treat your idea funnel backlog as both a roadmap and backlog. The combination of a Kanban Board and backlog helps you and your team prioritize as you approach near-term or end-of-quarter dates.
Although you can work on a product backlog and 5-day design sprint process separately, this template conveniently combines the two artifacts.
What is an idea funnel backlog?
An idea funnel backlog allows product managers to convert their idea pool into a product backlog, to inform planned feature implementations or user stories.
Product backlogs typically comprise three layers:
Raw requests and ideas (sourced from customer support, product owners, or product teams)
User stories (converted from requests or ideas by a product owner, based on current product strategy or request popularity)
Planned state for user stories (these live on a Kanban Board)
An idea funnel backlog can help you pick new ideas to prioritize for your next sprint. Ideally, the funnel structure helps you turn a large number of ideas into manageable, relevant stories or features to implement.
Teams needing a framework to get out of a reactive sprint planning cycle or task-focused thinking can benefit from an idea funnel backlog. The structure helps teams focus on longer-term goals to gain predictability in tackling idea backlogs.
When to use the idea funnel backlog template
An idea funnel backlog can benefit product teams who need help:
Maintaining costs: queues of unvalidated ideas can often become costly, so product teams need to groom and prioritize backlogs regularly.
Focusing on high-value tasks: prioritizing your ideas leads you to work on user stories or features with potentially more significant impact — and minimizes ideas not being actioned.
Encouraging innovation: try to balance validating ideas with maintaining the potential value of anything behind the queue, and not forgetting anything going to the back of the queue.
How to use the idea funnel backlog template
Making your own idea funnel backlogs is easy with Miro's template. Get started by selecting the idea funnel backlog template, then take the following steps to make one of your own.
Start adding user stories or product features to your backlog. Click the Sticky Note icon on the toolbar or press “N” on your keyboard to enable the tool, to add more Sticky Notes. Don’t worry about prioritizing for this first step — your main goal is to add your team’s relevant ideas to the board as needed.
Give each of your ideas an age limit. For your user story or product feature backlog to stay relevant and timely, agree with your team on an expiration date (for example, three months). If an idea isn’t prioritized in the timeframe, it should disappear from your list over time.
Prioritize your “Must Do” tasks. On this default template, tasks can be organized by “Could Do,” “Should Do,” and “Must Do.” Does your team have their own way to describe and categorize user stories and features? Perhaps “Later,” “Soon,” “Next,” “Now”? Edit the text boxes with your preferred wording.
Add your most urgent or popular backlog items to the sprint area. Add your “Must Do” items to the sprint area on the board, and tackle them in order of “Next,” “Doing,” “Done.”
Continue to maintain your backlog and prioritize through rapid growth periods. This funnel is your idea management system: it keeps your team aligned and sharing a centralized place for tangible, validated customer feedback, prioritized product feature ideas, and committed product roadmap items for a development pipeline.
Get started with this template right now.
Product x Marketing Roadmap
Works best for:
Product Management, Roadmap
Align product development with marketing strategies using the Product x Marketing Roadmap. This template helps you coordinate product launches, marketing campaigns, and key milestones. Use it to ensure both teams are on the same page, maximizing the impact of your product releases. Ideal for product managers and marketing teams aiming to synchronize their efforts and achieve cohesive, successful product launches and campaigns.
Competitor Product Research
Works best for:
Product Management, Planning
The Competitor Product Research template assists product teams in analyzing competitor offerings and market landscapes effectively. By identifying competitor strengths, weaknesses, and market trends, this template enables teams to uncover insights and opportunities for differentiation. With sections for conducting feature comparisons, SWOT analysis, and market positioning assessments, it facilitates informed decision-making and strategic planning. This template serves as a valuable resource for gaining competitive intelligence and driving product innovation and differentiation.
Mandala Chart Template
Works best for:
Planning, Brainstorming, Goal setting
The Mandala Chart Template helps you visualize the relationships between a central theme and its sub-themes. One of the key benefits is how it fosters a holistic understanding of any topic. This perspective ensures every detail is noticed, making it an invaluable asset for those aiming for comprehensive insight and thorough planning or a better understanding of their goals.
Product Vision Template
Works best for:
Product Management
Bring value to your users and develop better products using this Product Vision Template. Help teams craft a killer product vision statement and improve your business and customer experience.
Prune the Product Tree Template
Works best for:
Design, Desk Research, Product Management
Prune the Product Tree (also known as the product tree game or the product tree prioritization framework) is a visual tool that helps product managers organize and prioritize product feature requests. The tree represents a product roadmap and helps your team think about how to grow and shape your product or service by gamifying feedback-gathering from customers and stakeholders. A typical product tree has four symbolic features: the trunk, which represents the existing product features your team is building; the branches, each of which represents a product or system function; roots, which are technical requirements or infrastructure; and leaves, which are new ideas for product features.
Start, Stop, Continue Retrospective by Laura Timmins
Works best for:
Retrospectives, Agile Methodologies
The Retrospective template offers a flexible and customizable framework for teams to reflect on past experiences and identify areas for improvement. It provides elements for sharing successes, challenges, and action items. This template enables teams to facilitate constructive discussions, generate insights, and drive continuous improvement. By promoting reflection and collaboration, the Retrospective empowers teams to optimize performance and achieve their goals effectively.