Prioritizing the Product Backlog: Practical Tips for Product Owners

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Product Backlog Prioritization

In Scrum, the Product Owner holds a critical responsibility: managing the Product Backlog. They determine the direction of the product and provide clarity on what the team should build next. But with so many options and competing priorities, how can a Product Owner prioritize effectively?

Let’s explore one practical approach that can help organize and bring structure to backlog prioritization.

A Simple but Powerful Tool: The Kano Model

One technique that often comes up in our Product Backlog Management Skills Workshop is the Kano model, developed by Professor Noriaki Kano in the 1980s. It provides a helpful framework for evaluating product features based on how they contribute to customer satisfaction.

The model categorizes work into three key types:

  • Must-haves: Fundamental expectations that customers consider essential.
  • Delighters: Unexpected features that surprise and excite users.
  • Performance features: Enhancements that improve satisfaction as their quality increases.

This model makes it easier to sort Product Backlog items and understand where to focus first.

The iPhone Example

To illustrate, consider the launch of the original iPhone. Basic phone functionality—making calls, sending texts—fell under must-have features. They were non-negotiable.

But when Apple introduced mobile apps, that was a delighter. It thrilled users and set the product apart. Over time, those same apps became must-haves, demonstrating how customer expectations evolve.

How Product Owners Can Use the Kano Model

Kano Model

Using the Kano model helps Product Owners visualize backlog items across the three categories:

  • Must-haves come first—they’re essential for a functioning product.
  • Performance features offer a chance to stand out. For example, upgrading storage from 100 GB to 256 GB may not be necessary, but it positions the product as “standard and better.”
  • Delighters aren’t required, but they spark joy and increase customer loyalty. Including them can lead to rave reviews and referrals.

This approach supports thoughtful backlog prioritization based not only on technical need or feasibility, but on value delivery to customers.

Internal Product Owners Have Backlogs Too

Not all Product Owners work on customer-facing products. For those supporting internal teams, the same principles apply—but with a shift in focus.

Internal customers often bundle critical issues with dozens of lesser concerns, making it hard to identify the real problem. By breaking down broad requests into smaller parts, Product Owners can uncover high-impact items that offer the biggest return on investment.

This is where the 80/20 rule becomes useful: identify the one feature or fix that delivers 80% of the value with 20% of the effort. Start there, then move to the next most valuable opportunity.

Prioritizing for Learning

While features are often ranked by business value, another important factor is learning. Each item delivered from the backlog presents an opportunity to learn—about customer behavior, team capabilities, or technical feasibility.

In complex environments, assumptions are rarely 100% accurate. Customers may say they want a particular feature, only to realize it doesn’t meet their needs once it’s built. Delivering small, testable increments helps reduce uncertainty and guides better decisions for future development.

Even seemingly low-value items can be worth prioritizing if they offer insight that improves the rest of the Product Backlog. In short, prioritize not just for value—but for validated learning.

Bringing It All Together

Effective Product Backlog prioritization is about more than just sorting a list of requests. It’s the strategic process of deciding what to build—and when—to maximize value and minimize waste. This means balancing essential functionality, customer delight, performance improvements, and opportunities for learning or innovation.

Whether you’re building for external users or internal teams, frameworks like the Kano model can help distinguish between must-haves and nice-to-haves, while principles like the 80/20 rule ensure you focus effort where it counts. With the right mindset and tools, you can deliver what matters most—with clarity, confidence, and meaningful impact.

Jason Malmstadt

Jason has been teaching Scrum since 2017, more recently joining the Scrum.org community as a Professional Scrum Trainer. He helps teams grow in agility, build healthier team dynamics, and deliver more value. He leverages almost two decades of software development, IT architecture, and consulting experience to help people from all backgrounds work better.