Backlog Refinement Pass
Grooms a batch of existing tickets into sprint-ready stories: INVEST and Definition of Ready checks, splits, and Given/When/Then criteria.
Before & after
Same prompt, same agent — the only difference is the skill.
That's a tough situation when customer feedback doesn't align with your planned roadmap. You'd want to consider how many customers are asking for the same thing, whether it solves a critical pain point, and whether it's a quick fix or a major effort. You could also think about your product strategy and which features move your business metrics. I'd suggest documenting all the feedback you're getting and then reviewing it against your roadmap goals. What kind of feedback are you hearing, and which customers are bringing it up? Are these high-value customers?
PRIORITIZATION MATRIX 1. Customer Impact Scoring Request frequency: 3 accounts requesting this (weight: 30%) Revenue at risk: 45k ARR if unaddressed (weight: 40%) Pain severity: Critical blocker vs nice-to-have (weight: 30%) Score: (3×0.30) + (45k×0.40) + (10×0.30) = 24.9 2. Roadmap Alignment Check Q3 goal: Expand user retention from 78% to 85% Feedback addresses: Retention directly (user churn cause #2) Strategic fit: High - directly solves stated goal 3. Implementation Cost vs Benefit Estimated effort: 5 engineering days Revenue unlock: 45k annual + 2-3 new logos (pattern from other customers) ROI ratio: 45000 / 5 days = 9000 per day of work 4. Decision Framework Recommendation: Fast-track into Q3 sprint instead of Q4 Reasoning: Revenue risk + strategic fit + reasonable scope justify priority shift Trade-off: Delay one Q3 feature to accommodate Communication: Tell product team and top 3 requesting accounts this week
About this skill
Paste in the tickets headed for sprint planning and get back the ones that are truly ready, the ones that need splitting, and the questions blocking the rest.
What it does
- Triages every ticket into exactly one bucket: Ready, Split, Needs answers, Close/merge
- Scores each ticket on INVEST and a Definition of Ready
- Rewrites acceptance criteria as Given/When/Then with at least one edge case
- Splits oversized items using named patterns (workflow steps, business rules, happy/edge path, spike + build)
- Orders the ready list by goal value and dependencies
What you get
A refinement report: ordered sprint-ready stories, split tickets, a needs-answers table with owners, close/merge list, and questions for the refinement meeting.
Best for
Product owners and team leads the day before sprint planning, or anyone inheriting a messy backlog.
SKILL.md preview
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name: backlog-refinement-pass
description: Run a backlog refinement pass on a batch of existing tickets - check each against INVEST and a Definition of Ready, split oversized items, rewrite acceptance criteria in Given/When/Then, surface dependencies and open questions - and return a sprint-ready list plus a "not ready" list. Use when the user pastes a set of Jira or Linear issues and says "groom these", "are these ready for sprint planning?", "clean up the backlog", or before a refinement meeting. Also triggers on "is this ticket ready?", "write acceptance criteria for this story", "split this epic for me", or "we keep debating this ticket".
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# Backlog Refinement Pass
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