Practice : Learning Backlogs
Purpose and Strategic Importance
Learning Backlogs give teams a structured way to capture and prioritise what they need to learn, just as product backlogs capture features. They recognise that validated knowledge is as valuable as delivered functionality.
Without learning backlogs, discovery becomes reactive and unstructured, limiting organisational learning.
Description of the Practice
- Items represent questions, hypotheses, or skills to be validated.
- Backlog is reviewed alongside delivery backlog.
- Outcomes inform pivots, product decisions, and team growth.
How to Practise It (Playbook)
1. Getting Started
- Create a backlog of learning goals.
- Review in sprint planning and retrospectives.
- Prioritise based on strategic risks and assumptions.
2. Scaling and Maturing
- Integrate backlog into product planning and portfolio reviews.
- Share learnings across teams to avoid duplication.
- Celebrate learning as progress.
3. Team Behaviours to Encourage
- Curiosity and questioning.
- Pride in learning outcomes.
- Transparency in assumptions.
4. Watch Out For…
- Backlog items too vague to test.
- Teams ignoring backlog under delivery pressure.
- Learnings not synthesised into decisions.
5. Signals of Success
- Qualitative: Teams talk about learning goals as naturally as delivery goals.
- Quantitative: Increase in validated assumptions tracked across portfolio.