Your backlog isn’t a roadmap. It’s a crime scene, and you’re the one who left the evidence. Half those features are there because a competitor had them, an investor mentioned them, or you got excited on a Tuesday. None of that is a reason to build.

This is the matrix that ends the guessing. Score every feature idea on three brutally simple axes. User Value, Business Impact, and Build Complexity, and it spits out one of three verdicts: Keep, Kill, or Delay. No “maybe,” no “let’s revisit,” no zombie features that keep shambling back into sprint planning every quarter.

Inside, you get the pre-mortem prep work to do before you score anything (because scoring garbage data just gives you confident-sounding garbage), the full scoring rubric with real 1-5 anchors so “3” means the same thing every time, a filled-out example matrix to calibrate your gut, and a breakdown of exactly what to do with anything that lands in the Delay danger zone, because “delay” without a plan is just “ignore and hope.”

This is for you if your backlog has more line items than your team could ship in the next two years, if you keep debating the same features every planning cycle without landing a decision, or if you secretly suspect your roadmap is more ego than strategy. You’ll walk away with a working matrix, a completed worksheet section for your own features, and zero excuses left for keeping dead weight on the backlog.

Kill it. Burn it. Never speak of it again. Or keep it, but only if you can prove it deserves to live.