It’s Not What You Do. It’s What You Do Next.

I see too many teams and product owners obsessing over their entire product backlogs.

Garden Path Made of Round Stone Tiles

You do not need to have your entire your product backlog figured out.

You do not need to know what to do. You only need to know what to do next.

Do that. See how your users and customers respond. Then let their feedback guide what to do next.

Don't blindly adopt anything.

Scrum is a self-organizing team that is given a challenge and to meet that challenge works in short, time boxed iterations during which they meet daily to quickly synchronize their efforts. At the start of each iteration they meet to plan what they will accomplish. At the end they demonstrate what has been accomplished and reflect on how well they worked together to achieve it.

That's it. Anything else---release planning, burndowns, and so on is optional. Stick to the above and find the local optimizations that fit your environment. No expert knows more about your company than you do.

Last updated August 31st, 2025