Growth backlog

A growth backlog is simply a ranked to-do list of ideas that could drive revenue, leads, or retention. Imagine a shared spreadsheet or board where every suggestion—“improve proposal template”, “launch referral scheme”, “add pricing calculator”—sits in one place, waiting its turn. Unlike a random wish-list, the backlog is organised, scored, and regularly reviewed so the highest-impact experiments always rise to the top. It is the growth team’s equivalent of a developer’s product backlog: a living queue that turns scattered thoughts into a clear execution plan.

Keeps focus in a noisy environment

Service firms juggle client work, delivery deadlines, and internal marketing. Without a backlog, ideas pop up in Slack and vanish in inboxes. A single queue prevents context switching and lets the team work methodically instead of chasing the loudest request.

Aligns stakeholders

When sales, delivery, and leadership can see the same ranked list, debates shift from “my idea versus yours” to “which item will move pipeline fastest?” That transparency short-circuits politics and speeds approval cycles.

Enables measurable learning

Each item enters the backlog with a clear hypothesis and metric. As experiments run, results feed back into the list—successful ideas become standard practice; failed ones teach a lesson. Over time the backlog becomes an institutional memory of what works for your market.

Protects capacity

Resource-strapped growth teams need guardrails. A maintained backlog makes it obvious when workload exceeds bandwidth, forcing realistic sprint planning rather than hidden over-commitment that leads to burnout.

1. Capture every idea in one place

Use a Kanban tool, a spreadsheet, or a Notion board—format is less important than consistency. Any team-member can add items, but every card needs:

• a concise description (e.g. “pilot LinkedIn newsletter”)
• the metric it should influence (MQLs, demo bookings, churn)
• the owner who will shepherd it through scoring
  

2. Score for impact, confidence, and effort

Apply a simple ICE or RICE model. For each item, estimate:

• Impact on the chosen metric (1–10)
• Confidence in that estimate (1–10)
• Effort in person-days or complexity (1–10, lower is better)
• Multiply or average the scores and sort the backlog weekly. A consultancy might find “productise discovery workshop” outranks “TikTok ads” because the first has high impact and low effort for its niche audience.
  

3. Slice work into fortnightly sprints

Pick the top items your team can handle in the next two weeks. For a five-person agency, that might be three experiments: redesign the case-study CTA, test a new webinar topic, and automate proposal follow-ups. Move them to an “In progress” column and ignore the rest until the sprint ends.

4. Run experiments and log outcomes

Attach a quick experiment doc: hypothesis, steps, metric baseline, projected lift. When the test finishes, add the result—positive, neutral, or negative. A negative result is valuable if it stops you wasting future effort. Push winners into “Adopted”, archive losers, and update your playbook.

5. Review and groom the backlog every fortnight

Invite marketing, sales, and delivery reps to a 30-minute grooming session. Archive stale ideas, merge duplicates, and re-score items if assumptions change. In a B2B SaaS consultancy, a surge of client interest in AI integrations might bump “AI demo templates” higher than last month’s social-proof tweak.

6. Iterate and scale

As the backlog proves its worth, add tags: channel, funnel stage, persona. This lets you slice data—perhaps 70 % of high-impact wins came from pricing or onboarding tweaks. That insight guides the next wave of ideation and keeps the growth machine compounding.

Example backlog items for a B2B service firm

• Automate client onboarding emails to reduce manual setup time
• Publish a pricing calculator to qualify leads earlier
• Launch a referral incentive offering one free strategy hour
• Add video testimonials to proposal decks
• Host a quarterly round-table for existing clients and prospects
  

Treat each as a potential lever, score it, run it, and feed the learning back into the list. Over time, the growth backlog becomes the engine room driving consistent, data-led improvement.