Job-to-Be-Done Canvas
6 common mistakes when using spikes
Introducing Example Mapping
Example mapping is a great way to have a discussion about your user stories and can be used to make refinement sessions more interactive.

Read all about it here: https://cucumber.io/blog/example-mapping-introduction/
Agile35 cards which will improve your backlog refinement process and engage every team member
This article describes an interesting card game that will help you improve your refinement process: https://hackernoon.com/35-cards-which-will-improve-your-backlog-refinement-process-and-engage-every-team-member-54f929fdd282
Liberating Structures and (distributed) Scrum Events
For an upcoming meetup I’m preparing a session on how to use LS for Scrum Events and especially events where the participants are distributed and joining the event remotely.
Here’s a brief overview of some LS that can be used for the different Scrum events. I’ve marked all structures with an * that I’ve used myself in a distributed setting.
Refinement / Planning
- *1-2-4-All (examples)
- WINFY – What I Need From You (examples)
- Improv Prototyping (examples)
- *Troika Consulting (examples)
- *TRIZ (examples)
- Ecocycle Planning (examples)
- *Nine Whys (examples)
- Wicked Questions
- Integrated~Autonomy
- *Min Specs
- *Conversation Café (examples)
- *Celebrity Interview
- Critical Uncertainties (examples)
- Panarchy
- P2P – Purpose-To-Practice
- Future~Present (examples)
Daily Scrum
- *1-2-4-All (examples)
- *W³ – What, So What, Now What (examples)
- Design StoryBoards
- *15% Solutions (examples)
- *Conversation Café (examples)
Sprint Review
- 10×10 Writing (examples)
- *1-2-4-All (examples)
- Shift & Share
- Wise Crowds
- Caravan (mash of Shift & Share with Wise Crowds)
- Gallery Walk (examples, examples)
- *UX Fishbowl (examples)
- *15% Solutions (examples)
- Troika Consulting (examples)
- *W³ – What, So What, Now What (examples)
- 25/10 Crowd Sourcing (examples)
- Ecocycle Planning (examples)
- Open Space Technology
- Min Specs (examples)
- Mad Tea (examples)
- Ecocycle Planning (examples)
Sprint Retrospective
- *1-2-4-All (examples)
- *W3 – What, So What, Now What (examples)
- *15% Solutions (examples)
- Troika Consulting (examples)
- *Appreciative Interviews (examples)
- Ecocycle Planning (examples)
- *TRIZ (examples)
- *Nine Whys (examples)
- DAD – Discovery & Action Dialogue
- Helping Heuristics
- *Conversation Café (examples)
- HSR – Heard, Seen, Respected
- Positive Gossip
- 25/10 Crowd Sourcing (examples)
- *Spiral Journal
- Myth Turning (examples)
- Critical Uncertainties (examples)
On the liberating Structures website you can find a design checklist for virtual meetings. Since the link is currently no longer working, you can find the document here:
How to: A Great Product Backlog Refinement Workshop
To conduct the workshop, follow these steps:
- In 30-minute cycles,
- The PO presents the next PBIs that aren’t Ready to the team. (up to 5 minutes)
- The Development Team decomposes into sub-teams of 3-4 people.
- Each sub-team selects one of the next PBIs and gets it Ready. (15-20 minutes)
- Use User Stories, 3 Cs, INVEST, your Definition of Ready, etc. to guide you.
- If Readiness is blocked by an impediment outside the Scrum team, the sub-team makes a concrete plan for what they will do to get the PBI Ready before the next Sprint Planning or Backlog Refinement meeting.
- Merge back into whole group, the full Scrum team.
- Sub-teams present their work to the whole group. (5-10 minutes)
- Take a break (5 minutes)
- Repeat
- Celebrate!
Read the original article here: https://kasperowski.com/how-to-a-great-product-backlog-refinement-workshop/
28 Product Backlog and Refinement Anti-Patterns
Scrum is a practical framework to build products, provided you identify in advance what to build. But even after a successful product discovery phase, you may struggle to make the right thing in the right way if your product backlog is not up to the job. Garbage in, garbage out – as the saying goes. The following article points at 28 of the most common product backlog anti-patterns – including the product backlog refinement process – that limit your Scrum team’s success.
Read the complete article here: https://age-of-product.com/28-product-backlog-anti-patterns/
Myth: Refinement is a required meeting for the entire Scrum Team
In this post, The Liberators bust the myth that Product Backlog refinement should be done as one or more required ‘meetings’ that must be attended by everyone in the team. They clarified the purpose of refinement in Scrum, offered alternative approaches to do refinement and provided some tips to increase the effectiveness.
Read the complete post here: https://medium.com/the-liberators/myth-refinement-is-a-required-meeting-for-the-entire-scrum-team-b17fb7bc25fa?mc_cid=d2843cbf59&mc_eid=b8b1840566
The Art of Product Backlog Refinement
In this blogpost Stephanie Ockerman tries to answer the question “how much Product Backlog refinement should we do and how much detail should be in the Product Backlog?” by applying the The Goldilocks Principle.
Read the complete post here: https://www.scrum.org/resources/blog/art-product-backlog-refinement