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Supercharged Product Backlog Filters

November 22, 2013

3 minute read

We’re constantly updating and improving, based on your feedback and everything we learn from our fabulous users. One of the first needs that became clear to us when talking to product managers about their backlogs, was the need for powerful filters. Why is this important? As your backlog grows, filling with tons of great (and sometimes not so great!) suggestions on what you could be building next, you need to be absolutely sure you’ll be able to make sense of it in the future. Part of that is being able to find that elusive idea or suggestion you know was entered some time ago, but you can’t quite put your finger on it.

Filtering your Product Backlog
Filtering your Product Backlog

Filter your backlog for maximum control

Several different filters can be applied to your product backlog to help you get the most of ProdPad’s idea management features.

  • Tags – These are your standard, customizable tags
  • Products – Associate each idea to one or many products
  • Whether it’s on a roadmap yet or not – Find out what’s planned
  • User Personas – Associate ideas to various user segments
  • Idea Creator – The person who actually logged the idea
  • Idea Owner – The person in charge of taking the idea forward
  • Idea Author – The bright person who came up with the idea!
  • Status of the idea – Whether it’s in development, done, or anything in between
  • Active vs. Archived – You can even dig though the ideas you’ve archived

You can refine your bank of ideas against even as specific criteria as you need by using multiple tags or combining any of these filters. And as always, these filters will work in conjunction with ProdPad’s powerful search. Plus, this razor sharp focus on a particular set of ideas can be applied throughout ProdPad. Your filters remain selected when you want to visualize priority, edit in bulk, or export your ideas. Filters make your backlog more manageable, no matter what you’re doing.

Sort your backlog any way you like

As well as applying granular filters, you can also sort your backlog by a number of relevant factors to bring the ideas you’re looking for to the top of the list.

  • Date created
  • Effort – This is a quick gauge, out of 100, on how much effort (relatively speaking) it’ll take to pull off the idea
  • Impact – Like the Effort field, this measures how much impact the idea will have (top tip: combine with tags to identify what areas of the business will be impacted and improved)
  • Popularity – Find out which ideas are most popular (bright red!) versus the ones that are feeling neglected (faded to grey)
  • Detail – A rough guide based on whether the idea has comments, a business case or user stories, tags, or other fleshed out parts of the spec.

As always, your feedback is hugely appreciated. If you have any other ideas for how to keep your backlog tidy in ProdPad, just give us a shout at hello@prodpad.com.

If you’re not already a ProdPad user, you can start your free trial today!

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