In practice
It is the single source of what the team works on. Being on it is not a promise: backlogs grow faster than they shrink, and most items in a mature backlog will never be built. That's normal.
A backlog isn't a roadmap. A roadmap says what is coming. A backlog says what has been noticed.
Why it matters for product builders
A backlog is useful as a record and misleading as a plan. Its size tells you nothing about how well the team is working.
What changes in AI-first products
Many backlog items were deferred because they cost too much to build. That assumption is now wrong for some work and unchanged for other work.
The backlog needs to be rescored, not simply emptied. Cheap work still has to earn its place against valuable work.
See how Annsa does it: Priorities →