Backlog ≠ OKR: Why Your To-Do List Isn’t Your Strategy
How to keep teams focused on outcomes, not outputs
Here’s a hard truth: A team can burn through their backlog, check every box, and still fail to move the needle on what really matters.
That’s because a backlog is a list of tasks. An OKR is a shared commitment to an outcome.
Confuse the two, and your team stays busy—but not focused.
Backlog vs. OKR: Know the difference
Your backlog is tactical. It holds features, bug fixes, and technical tasks. Your Team OKR is strategic. It answers: What impact do we want to achieve this quarter?
Think of it like this:
✅ OKR → Backlog: Start with the outcome, then decide what work supports it.
❌ Backlog → OKR: Reverse-engineering an OKR from your backlog turns it into a to-do list in disguise.
A common trap: Backlog-driven OKRs
I once saw a team set this Key Result:
“Add WhatsApp chat to the website.”
Sounds good? Not really. That’s just a task.
Instead, their Team OKR could have been:
Objective: Delight customers with faster, more personal support by Q2.
Key Results:
Reduce average response time from 2 hours to 15 minutes.
Achieve a 90% satisfaction score in support interactions.
With that clarity, the backlog task (Add WhatsApp chat) is just one possible way to achieve the outcome—not the outcome itself.
Why this matters
When teams align on outcomes first, they:
Stay focused even as priorities shift.
Make smarter trade-offs in their backlog.
Measure success by impact, not effort.
When they don’t? They build features no one uses, launch campaigns no one notices, and wonder why OKRs feel like extra paperwork.
What to do instead
Define your Team OKR: What does success look like?
Align your backlog: What tasks will get us there?
Stay flexible: If a task doesn’t move the needle, pivot.
Outcomes drive the backlog—not the other way around.
—Paulo
🔗 https://caroli.org
💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulocaroli
📘 https://caroli.org/en/livro/team-okr/ (Team OKR – book info