How to Run an Effective Backlog Refinement Session

Backlog refinement is one of the most underrated agile ceremonies — yet it’s the backbone of predictable delivery. When done well, your team will go into Sprint Planning with clarity, confidence, and realistic estimates. When done poorly, you enter the Sprint blind.

This guide shows how to run a backlog refinement session step-by-step, including real examples, questions to ask, and common pitfalls to avoid.

 

What Is Backlog Refinement?

Backlog refinement (sometimes called “grooming”) is a recurring session where the product team reviews upcoming work in the product backlog. The goal is to make future backlog items:

• Clear

• Understood

• Sized

• Prioritised

• Ready for Sprint Planning

Most teams conduct refinements on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, depending on complexity and the volume of their backlog.

How to Prepare Before the Session

Refinement fails when the team arrives unprepared. The Product Owner leads preparation.

What the PO (Product Owner) should prepare:

• A short list of items (4–10) likely to enter the next 1–2 Sprints

• Any mockups, acceptance criteria, data insights, or user stories

• Dependencies or technical considerations

• Prioritisation logic (why these items, why now)

 

 

Start the Session With Context

Allow the team a 1–2 minute overview of why these items matter.

Example

“We saw a 12% abandonment rate on the checkout page last month. PayPal support is expected to reduce this friction. Wishlist is part of Q1 retention goals.”

This sets a shared mental model.

Walk Through Each Item

Refinement isn’t reading stories aloud — it’s a conversation.

For each item, follow this structure:

• Clarify the Story

  Ask:

  • What does success look like?

  • What is in scope? What is not?

  • Are there alternatives?

  Example Discussion:
  User Story: Wishlist feature

  Developer: “Do items persist across devices or only locally?”
  PO: “Across devices. We store them under the user’s profile.”
  Designer: “We might need a simple heart-icon design; I’ll mock it up.”
  QA: “Do we need automated tests for removing items, too?”
  PO: “Yes — add that to acceptance criteria.”

 

• Add or Improve Acceptance Criteria

  Good Acceptance Criteria = Ready for Development

  Example Acceptance Criteria (Gherkin-style)

  Given I am logged in
  When I click the heart icon on a product
  Then the item should appear on my wishlist page

  Given that an item is already in my wishlist
  When I click the heart icon again
  Then it should be removed

 

To learn more about Gherkin, check out our blog post here.

• Identify Unknowns

  If something is unclear, flag it early.

  Examples of Unknowns

  • Technical: “Do we already have a database table for wishlist items?”

  • Design: “Do we need a mobile-first layout?”

  • Legal: “Does PayPal require storing additional user data?”

  If unknowns cannot be answered quickly, create a spike or task.

 

Estimate

Use whatever the team uses: story points, T-shirt sizes, or time ranges.

Example Consensus

Wishlist UI/logic → 5 story points
PayPal integration → 8 story points
Autocomplete search → 13 points (needs more discovery)
Checkout error messages → 2 points
Recommendations widget → 8 points

If disagreement occurs, run a quick Planning Poker round or ask the highest/lowest estimators to explain their reasoning.

You can find out more about how to use estimation points from our in-depth article here.

Reprioritise If Needed

During refinement, you often discover:

• Some items are harder than expected

• Some dependencies exist

• Some quick wins appear

Reprioritisation keeps the sprint realistic.

Example Reprioritisation

Team realises autocomplete needs backend improvements → push to Sprint+1.
Wishlist and error messages now become Sprint priorities.

Confirm “Ready” Status

An item is Ready when the team agrees that:

• Scope is clear

• Acceptance criteria exist

• Design assets exist or are scheduled

• Dependencies are known

• Estimate is assigned

• No major unknowns remain

 

Common Pitfalls in Backlog Refinement

Backlog refinement can easily go wrong when teams fall into common pitfalls such as treating the session as a simple reading exercise rather than a collaborative discussion, bringing unclear or unprepared user stories that lack acceptance criteria, or diving too deeply into technical solutioning instead of focusing on understanding the “what” and “why”.

 

• Treating refinement as a reading session

PO reads the story aloud, and the team quietly agrees without uncovering misunderstandings.

 

• Bringing unclear or unprepared stories

Such as a wishlist feature with missing acceptance criteria or designs, leaving the team to guess the user’s intent.

 

• Diving too deep into technical solutioning

For example, the team spends the session debating database schema changes long before agreeing on what the feature must actually do.

 

• Trying to refine too many items at once

The team rushes through fifteen backlog entries so none of them become truly ready.

 

• Estimating before understanding

For example, assigning story points to a PayPal integration without reviewing API requirements or legal constraints.

 

• Missing hidden dependencies 

Something like discovering halfway through the sprint that third-party approval is required.

 

• Ignoring new information that should reprioritise the backlog

That’s a very common pitfall; for example, learning autocomplete needs backend refactoring, but still pushing it into the next sprint — and not involving the whole team, especially QA, meaning edge cases and test scenarios never surface.

 

Final Thoughts

Backlog refinement isn’t just an administrative task — it’s a core practice that shapes the flow, focus, and predictability of your entire Scrum team. When handled intentionally, refinement creates clarity, uncovers risk early, strengthens team alignment, and sets the foundation for successful Sprint Planning. When rushed or overlooked, it leads to uncertainty, rework, and commitments the team can’t realistically meet.

By preparing properly, encouraging real conversation, clarifying acceptance criteria, surfacing unknowns, and avoiding the common pitfalls that trip teams up, refinement becomes a powerful tool rather than a chore. The goal isn’t perfection — it’s shared understanding. When the whole team walks away with the same picture of what needs to be built, you’ve already increased your chances of a smooth, predictable, and value-driven sprint.