The Backlog: The Beating Heart of Agile Marketing

Everybody’s heard of daily standup. Sprints get a lot of attention, and there are Scrum teams all over the place. 

But it’s time to shine a light on the most misunderstood artifact in Agile marketing: the backlog.

Somewhere along the way, “I’ll put it in the backlog” came to mean “I’ll toss it into a black hole.” That’s not a backlog. That’s a junk drawer.

A real Agile marketing backlog is the engine of your team. It’s living, prioritized, and brutally honest about what matters next. When we treat it that way, we avoid waste, protect focus, and deliver the right work at the right time.

So let’s get practical about how to build one, keep it healthy, and use it to make better decisions all day, every day.

What an Agile Marketing Backlog Really Is

Think of your Agile marketing backlog like a to-do list on steroids. It’s a single, ruthlessly prioritized list of work your team has not started yet. Once work begins, it leaves the backlog and moves through your visual work system (Kanban board, sprint board, etc.). The backlog is for future work, not in-progress efforts.

Two rules keep it powerful:

1. It’s always prioritized. You don’t have two “#1 priorities.” You have a 1, a 2, a 3… all the way down.
2. It constantly evolves. New information comes up, fresh data gets collected, goals shift – your backlog reflects reality as it changes.

This combination – clarity about what’s currently next, and flexibility about what should be next – is what turns the backlog into an engine instead of a graveyard.

Backlogs were originally designed for a whole Agile team to use, but you don’t need to wait for an enterprise rollout to use one. Start where you are.

1) My personal backlog

Even if you’re not on a formal Agile team, you can run a personal backlog. I do. As a CEO, my world includes podcasting, social content, client work, finances, legal reviews, hiring, and a dozen surprise requests before lunch. A blended backlog helps me decide what creates the most impact right now.

The key word there is blended. Don’t keep separate lists for “internal,” “sales enablement,” and “ad hoc.” The second you split your work, you lose the ability to compare items and choose the most valuable next step.

2) The team backlog

This is your shared truth. In your initial build, put everything on it – recurring reports, admin tasks, “small” requests. Yes, everything. That radical transparency sparks empathy (“Wow, I didn’t realize how busy you are”), and it gives leaders the information they need to de-prioritize and say no.

Plan on a half day to create your first team backlog. You’re consolidating lots of scattered lists and mental models into a single source of truth. Worth it.

3) Scaled backlogs across teams

This is where the magic compounds. Marketing always has shared resources – writers, designers, marketing ops, etc. When each team keeps a real backlog, leaders and contributors can see the full picture of commitments. Patterns emerge: over-investment in one product line, neglected personas, unhealthy dependency chains. With that visibility, you can rebalance, protect focus, and sequence work intentionally.

What “Healthy” Looks Like

A healthy backlog doesn’t happen by accident. Here’s what to look for:

Clear, sufficiently detailed items.

“Write s blog post” is not helpful. About what? For whom? Draft or final? Include a concise description, links to briefs, living docs (Google Docs, Canva, Figma), Slack threads, and decisions to date. Your backlog should be self-service: I can open a card and get the status without booking a meeting with you.

Up-to-date status.

If a project gets canceled, paused, or bumped up, your backlog shows it. Everyone is responsible for updating their own cards, not just the project manager or Scrum Master. Trust in the system lives or dies here.

Right-sized work items.

You’ll have a mix. Some cards are big (we call them epics) and stick around for a quarter as an umbrella. Others are small, one-off tasks (“Update About page headshots”). The rule of thumb: size items so they’re easy to understand, discuss, and start.

One list to rule them all.

Your backlog is the single source of truth for upcoming work. Not five tools and three docs. One list.

The Estimation Debate (and When It’s Worth It)

Time to address the spicy topic: estimation.

Humans are bad at predicting effort. Unless the work is identical to something we just did, we tend to guess wrong. So, is estimation worth doing at all?

It depends on your context. The best reason I’ve found to estimate is this: data-driven boundaries. If you can quantify how much work you finish in a week or sprint, you can push back on unreasonable expectations with evidence, not attitude.

“We complete about X points/size per sprint. You’re asking for 2X. We need to adjust scope, sequence, or timing.”

But estimation has a cost. It takes time and discipline. If your stakeholders chronically over-commit your team, the payoff is real. If you already have strong boundaries and predictable flow, you might skip formal estimation and use lightweight sizing instead. Choose consciously.

Prioritize by Value, Not Volume

But here’s where you don’t get a choice: your backlog must be prioritized. Full stop.

Due dates matter, but due dates are not value. We don’t put work at the top because it’s loud, shiny, or on fire. We put it at the top because it’s the most valuable thing we can do for the customer and the business right now.

Ask simple, ruthless questions:

• What outcome will this create?
• For whom?
• How will we know it worked?
• What must be true before we start?
• Do this and your backlog becomes a strategy instrument, not just a list.

Keep It Visible and Current

Visibility creates alignment. When I was the only writer in the building, my backlog lived on a wall (yep, sticky notes). Stakeholders could see what I was doing and what was next. The result? Fewer interruptions, clearer trade-offs, and faster decisions.

Digital tools make this even easier. Bring your backlog to 1:1s and stakeholder check-ins. When someone asks, “Can you take this on?” capture it in the backlog – not in your memory or a random chat. Then route it through your next backlog refinement (more on that next), where it can be sized, clarified, and prioritized against everything else.

Who Owns the Backlog (and Why It Matters)

Many people can add ideas to the backlog. One person should own it.

In Agile software, that’s the Product Owner. In marketing, call it the Marketing Owner or simply the team lead. The owner is the final decider on ordering, refinement, and stakeholder conversations. Backlog management by committee breeds indecision and bloat. Appoint an owner and empower them.

Also institute regular hard refreshes: a 90–120 minute review at least once a quarter. Pull out stale items, merge duplicates, and re-order based on current goals. It’s spring cleaning for your engine.

Backlogs get nuanced fast. You’ll wonder, “Is this a task, a project, a campaign, a user story?” Here’s my guidance:

• Allow a mix. Epics for big quarter-level objectives, plus normal cards for discrete work.
• Use subtasks or checklists when they help move the card to done.
• Label lightly. Consider labels like priority, work type (lead gen, sales enablement, content), business unit, or product line. Use just enough to filter and spot patterns. If the tool you use offers fancy features you don’t need, skip them. Let your process dictate your tooling, not the other way around.

The purpose of the backlog is shared understanding and better decisions. If a field, color, or label helps with that, keep it. If it adds noise, drop it.

Build and Maintain: A Simple Cadence

Here’s a straightforward cadence you can adopt today:

Capture

Anyone can propose work. Route all requests into the backlog (or an “Icebox/To Review” area if volume is high).

1. Clarify

During backlog refinement (weekly or bi-weekly), add context, links, acceptance criteria, and—if it helps your org—an effort estimate or size.

2. Order

The backlog owner orders by value, not volume. This is your single, explicit sequence of what matters most.

3. Start

When capacity opens, pull from the top. Once you start, the card leaves the backlog and enters your board.

4. Refresh

Quarterly, do a hard clean-up. Remove aged-out ideas. Merge duplicates. Realign to goals.

This rhythm prevents the “black hole” backlog and preserves your team’s attention for the work that matters.

Start Today

If you’re new to this, start with your personal backlog today. Two hours is enough to draft it. Blend all your work – no separate lists. Order by impact. Share it in your next 1:1.

Next, move your team to a shared backlog. Put everything on it, especially the “little things.” Name a backlog owner. Schedule your first refinement. Watch how fast empathy and focus start to grow.

And if prioritization is the sticking point (it often is), we built a short micro-course designed to help you prioritize your backlog in 30 minutes or less. It’ll walk you through a simple, repeatable method you can use immediately.

If you use just one Agile practice, the backlog is great (if often overlooked) candidate. 

Before moving on, why don't you take a second to get our Agile Marketing Transformation Checklist?