Your first backlog is just a starting point. You’re not locking anything in. Think of this as a sandbox - not a final setup.
You can rename levels, move items, change relationships, or restructure everything later. For now, the goal is simply to add a small set of items so you can see how Craft behaves and how work starts to take shape.
Follow these steps to get started:
Start with a simple structure (you can change it later)
Craft uses a flexible hierarchy that works for many product teams:
Products – act as containers for work
Epics – represent larger pieces of work (3 dot)
Features – break Epics into smaller parts (2 dot)
Stories – represent delivery tasks (1 dot)
Many teams adapt this structure to match their own language, for example:
Using Initiatives instead of Epics
Using Tickets instead of Stories
Aligning names with Jira or Azure DevOps
💡 Tip: You can rename item types later from Workspace Settings to match your team’s terminology. For now, stick with the defaults and keep going.
Define a few Products
Products act as containers that help organize your work. Every Epic, Feature, and Story lives under a Product.
Start small. One or two Products is enough.
Examples:
Mobile App
Data Platform
Internal Tools
💡 Tip: You can easily create, delete, or move Products later. Nothing here is permanent.
Add your first Epic
An Epic represents a meaningful, high-level piece of work.
To create one:
Open your workspace
Click Add Item
Select Epic
Choose a parent Product
Give it a short, clear name
Example epics:
New onboarding flow
Search redesign
AI insights builder
You only need one Epic to get started.
Add a few Features under your Epic
Features help break an Epic into smaller pieces of work.
To create one:
Open the Epic
Click Add Feature
Name the Feature
Example Features:
New welcome screen
Faster search indexing
Data validation rules
💡 Tip: Two or three Features per Epic is more than enough to see how structure and views behave.
Add a few details to bring items to life
Once your items exist, adding a few key details helps Craft display them clearly across views and roadmaps.
You only need one or two fields to see how views and roadmaps respond.
Start with fields like:
• Status
• Timeframe or quarter
• Dates
• Priority
• Assignee
These fields power how items appear in Table, Kanban, Timeline, and Swimlanes views - turning a simple list into a usable plan.
💡 Tip: Use the item panel to update fields without leaving your current view. You can also explore Guru templates later to add consistent structure at scale.
What comes next?
Now that you have a small starter backlog, you’re ready to:
See how your work appears across different views
Understand how items relate to each other
Start shaping your first roadmap
Continue to Build Your First Roadmap to see how your backlog comes to life over time.
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