Setting up an initial Product Backlog

Companies just start on their Agile journey, starting on a pilot project, typically are stuck with an un-answered question: "How do we obtain our initial Product Backlog?" Of course, first you need a Product Owner. Someone to drive the Product Vision in a desirable direction. But then: What are the steps for creating an initial Backlog?

Step 1: You need a Product Vision.

Some people don't like the term "Vision", because it sounds a bit esoterical. You may refer to it as "Product Purpose". That's about the same and sounds a bit more conservative. In this section, we will stick to the common term "Vision".

A Product Vision is a simple, yet compelling statement of why the product should even exist. It should not be too restrictive, yet sufficiently precise to be meaningful.

How do you get a Product Vision? Ideally, you already have one. Otherwise, you should group people with good ideas together to come up with one. Brainstorming business opportunities is a good way. Typically, someone with some money has a certain need - meeting this need can be the initial vision.

Here is the starting template:

I want to create a product that does [ONE THING]. 

For example, "A new way of communication." would be a decent product vision.

Once you have the Product Vision, it will be your sieve for filtering out stuff that you want to do - and discard everything that will not help in achieving the vision.

Step 2: Drill into the Product Vision.

Just like "Rome wasn't built in one day", neither will your product be. In order to make the Vision a bit more tangible and easier to verify, you need to say who should use your product and how they would be using it in the first place.
At this stage, you know nothing about what the market has to say, so keep it as simple as possible. To simplify the matter, feel free to completely ignore edge cases and negative case scenarios.

Here is the template:

Our primary customers are [ONE target audience].
To reach this goal, first we are going to [do ONE thing] in order to [achieve ONE customer-centric purpose].

Let's take our initial vision. We could specify: "We want to target train commuters who have smartphones to communicate without relying on the presence of mobile telco carrier networks,"

The next thing to do: Verify the viability of your vision quickly and as cheap as possible.

Step 3: Make the vision verifiable.

In order to know whether your product stands a sporting chance on the market, you need to collect evidence that it can do so. Regardless of whether you start with a disposable prototype or an actual MVP, you don't want to waste much time or effort before you know whether to proceed. If your vision doesn't fit the market - stop and reconsider.

When doing checks, please note that you are in the realm of hypothesis testing: You want to prove the idea that your product is viable - you can't assume by default that it is. But it is hard to prove something which does not exist will be viable. Therefore, you need to gather evidence that your product is actually not viable - when you manage to do that, trash the idea. When you can't - you still don't have proof that it is.
The easier the condition of viability can be falsified, the faster you can discard bad ideas. Disposable prototypes might allow you to falsify the viability hypothesis at a miniscule fraction of the cost incurred by an actually viable product - especially when hardware production is involved, so try to see how you want to check the viability condition.

Here is the template:

We know that we're on the right track by [checking ONE condition].

But we also need to be aware of [other conditions].

An example viability check would be: "We built a smartphone with extra long antennae and hand them to commuters, see what they think. If they don't like it, they won't buy our product." Well - you can guess the outcome, but it was just an example.

Step 4: The other stuff.

Your head is probably bursting with ideas of things your product can do. Don't prioritize all of them! There is only ONE priority 1, and that's easy to forget when you have a hundred great ideas. Put all but one of them into the backseat until you know your product actually works.

Again, here is your template:

Once we're on the right track, we will build [more of the same thing] until [a certain condition is reached].

Over time, we might also add [some more things] in order to [achieve other purposes].

Conclusion

You are on the right track with your product vision if you can meaningfully state:

I want to create a product that does [ONE THING].
Our primary customers are [ONE target audience].
To reach this goal, first we are going to [do ONE thing] in order to [achieve ONE customer-centric purpose].
We know that we're on the right track by [checking ONE condition]. But we also need to be aware of [other conditions].
Once we're on the right track, we will build [more of the same thing] until [a certain condition is reached].
Over time, we might also add [some more things] in order to [achieve other purposes].

The bold-faced items are your initial, prioritized Product Backlog in descending order. Congratulations - now it's time for the first Refinement session!