# Prioritize Your Product Backlog with Customer Evidence

Pick the top opportunities from a backlog ranked on customer evidence, with a reason, a risk, and quotes for each pick. Run it in Deck or with your AI agent.

- URL: https://getdeck.io/playbooks/prioritize-backlog
- Author: Matt Teixeira
- Published: 2026-11-01
- Updated: 2026-11-01
- Stage: Decide

## How Do You Prioritize a Product Backlog with Customer Evidence?

Start from a backlog that is already ranked by customer evidence, not by who asked loudest. Open the top candidates, set aside anything already in progress, and read the quotes behind the finalists. Move an item up or down only for your goal, your target segment, or work in flight, and write down why.

## Why Backlog Prioritization Turns into Opinion

Someone asks what you should build next quarter, and the answer depends on who is in the room. The backlog is a long list of requests with no shared measure. Scores like RICE get filled in by gut feel, and the reasons behind a pick are forgotten by the next planning cycle.

## How Deck Ranks the Backlog on Evidence

Deck builds the Opportunity Backlog from your customer feedback and ranks it with an impact score, sentiment, insight count, and trend. Each opportunity keeps the insights behind it, so a pick comes with quotes, not just a number. You start from Deck's rank and only change the order for a reason you can state in one sentence.

Deck features used:

- [Opportunity Backlog](https://getdeck.io/product/opportunity-backlog)
- [Evidence](https://getdeck.io/product/themes)

## How to Prioritize Your Product Backlog in Deck

### 1. Set the Decision Frame

Decide how many picks you need, three by default. Choose which customers count, all or one segment, which category tab, and any goal or limit, such as retention this quarter or no large rebuilds.

### 2. Open the Ranked Backlog

Go to Build → Opportunity Backlog and pick the category tab. Read each row's Rank, Impact, Sentiment, Insights, and Trend. The list shows items with at least three pieces of evidence.

### 3. Open the Top Candidates

Open the top 8 to 10 items in rank order. The Overview tab shows the executive-brief summary, impact and sentiment, and segment scope. The Insights & Subthemes tab shows the evidence.

### 4. Set Aside Work Already in Progress

On each candidate, open the ⋯ menu and choose Related Work Items. If a linked Project is in progress or completed, it is not a new pick. List it under Already in progress.

### 5. Rank the Finalists and Write the Reasons

Read two customer quotes for each of the strongest three to five. Keep Deck's order unless your goal, segment, or work in progress says otherwise, and say why in one sentence. Write each reason in the customer's words.

### 6. Act on the Picks

From the ⋯ menu, choose Create Initiative for a larger outcome or Create Project for focused delivery. Deck links the new item back to the opportunity. Archive Opportunity removes a stale item from the default views.

## Prioritize the Backlog with Your AI Agent

You need:

- Deck MCP connected to your agent
- Customer feedback already in Deck

Your agent starts with the `explore_opportunity_backlog` tool.

Paste this prompt into your agent:

```text
Use Deck MCP. Fetch and follow https://docs.getdeck.io/docs/agents/workflows/prioritize-backlog.md
```

Full agent workflow: https://docs.getdeck.io/docs/agents/workflows/prioritize-backlog.md

## Backlog Prioritization Template

### Backlog Prioritization Table

```text
## Decision frame
Picks: [3]  Customers: [All / Segment name]  Tab: [Category]  Goal: [e.g. retention this quarter]

## Picks
| Pick | Deck rank | Impact | Insights | Trend | Reason (customer's words) | Risk | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [#] | [score] | [Deck count] | [Rising / Flat / Falling] | "[quote]" | [risk] | [Deck link] |
| 2 | [#] | [score] | [Deck count] | [trend] | "[quote]" | [risk] | [Deck link] |
| 3 | [#] | [score] | [Deck count] | [trend] | "[quote]" | [risk] | [Deck link] |

Changes to Deck's order:
- [Opportunity] moved [up / down] because [goal / segment / work in progress]

Already in progress:
- [Opportunity] — [linked Project and status]

Thin evidence:
- [Opportunity] — [Deck count] insights

Not in the segment:
- [Opportunity]
```

## Frequently Asked Questions

### Where do the opportunities come from?

Deck's background analysis builds the backlog from your customer feedback. New opportunities appear after the backlog job runs. Until your first one is ready, the page shows “Your first backlog is on its way.”

### Can we still use RICE?

You can, but the agent does not invent its own weighted score. If you ask for one, it uses only Deck's inputs and labels the result as its own, not Deck's.

### Why is an opportunity missing from the list?

The default list hides items with fewer than three pieces of evidence. The agent can include them, but lists them apart as thin evidence.

### What happens when I archive an opportunity?

It is soft-archived. It leaves the default backlog views, but the record is not deleted. MCP cannot restore it, so the agent asks for an explicit yes for every archive.

### Does this create Linear or Jira tickets?

No. Deck tools do not create Linear or Jira items. To plan delivery, turn the pick into a Deck Project and link it from there.

### Can my AI agent run this?

Yes. With Deck MCP connected, paste the prompt on this page. The agent reads the backlog, opens the candidates, checks linked Projects, and writes the ranked table. It asks before any write, such as scoping a pick to a segment or starting an initiative.

## Related Playbooks

- [Turn Customer Feedback into Linear Projects and Jira Epics](https://getdeck.io/playbooks/opportunity-to-delivery.md): Turn a ranked backlog opportunity into a Deck Project that keeps its customer evidence, then link it to one Linear project or Jira epic for delivery.
- [Plan a Product Initiative from Your Opportunity Backlog](https://getdeck.io/playbooks/plan-initiative.md): Group two to six backlog opportunities that share one customer problem into a Deck initiative with a clear goal, linked evidence, and written outcomes.
- [Weekly Customer Feedback Report: What Changed This Week](https://getdeck.io/playbooks/weekly-signal-brief.md): Write a weekly brief of new feedback, growing themes, negative signal, and NPS movement, using Deck's own numbers and quotes. Run it in Deck or with your agent.