Recognizing the flood of ideas

Every product team faces more requests than it can deliver. Executives bring new features they believe will capture revenue, engineers highlight technical debt, and customers request fixes or enhancements. This flood of input creates a backlog that easily grows beyond control. Without a system for filtering, it stops being a strategic guide and turns into a dumping ground where urgent and trivial items sit side by side. Overloaded backlogs confuse teams about what to tackle next and delay meaningful progress.

Recognizing this reality is not about dismissing ideas. Many suggestions may be useful, but they cannot all be pursued in parallel. Attempting to do so scatters resources and leaves half-finished initiatives that deliver little value. Understanding the backlog as a funnel rather than a storage bin is key. Items must be captured, but only a fraction should advance toward near-term action. The rest belong in structured secondary lists, so that attention remains on what will directly affect users and the business in the coming cycle.^[1]