How can we implement "Upstream Kanban" to manage our product discovery and backlog grooming?

All answers to this question.

Upstream Kanban is the "missing link" for many organizations. You should have a separate board or a separate section where columns are: Idea, Triage, Analysis, Prototyping, and Ready. Just like downstream, you must apply WIP limits here. If your "Analysis" column is full, the Product Owner shouldn't be allowed to add new ideas. This forces the business to make hard choices about what is actually valuable. It measures "Customer Lead Time" from the moment a request is made, providing a much more honest view of the company's' responsiveness than just measuring "Dev Time."

   Answered 2024-05-22 by Dorothy Lewis

Do you include the developers in the Upstream process, or is it strictly for the Product Owners and stakeholders? I worry about "throwing work over the wall" if they aren't involved early.

   Answered 2024-05-26 by Charles King

• Charles, we have a "Technical Feasibility" step in our Upstream board where a lead dev spends 1-2 hours reviewing the idea. This prevents us from spending weeks "analyzing" something that is technically impossible or too expensive. It has saved us so much wasted effort and has actually improved the relationship between the Product and Engineering teams significantly.

     Commented 2024-05-29 by Ronald Green

Upstream Kanban is great for "discarding" bad ideas early. A healthy Upstream board should have a high "abortion rate" for ideas that don't pass the initial value test.

   Answered 2024-06-01 by Elizabeth Young

• Exactly, Elizabeth. The goal of Upstream isn't to get everything to the dev team; it’s to ensure only the best 10% of ideas actually make it to the "Ready" column.

     Commented 2024-06-03 by Anthony Davis