Backlogs make or break startups. Ours was breaking.
Knowing what to work on next in a startup is a massive challenge.
We started with Jira as the backlog. It was effectively siloed to engineering and too expensive for the whole team to live in it.
We added a spreadsheet so sales, marketing, and CS could add ideas.
We used effort/impact to prioritise since the âRICEâ methodology skewed toward the freelancer side of a two-sided marketplace (reach biased the scoring).
This worked for a bit, but customer feedback and bugs still werenât getting the priority they deserved. And it felt kinda weird having our backlog on a spreadsheet.
We pushed more of that into Jira, but things continued to get lost.
So we moved the source of truth to Notion.
What changed and how:
1. A single âBacklogâ database in Notion. Each ticket tracks an owner, discussion, the What, the Why (user story), the How (including âAppetiteâ from Basecampâs Shape Up), assumptions around effort and impact, rabbit holes to avoid, and links to the relevant Objective and KR.
2. A dedicated âUser Feedbackâ Notion database.
Every feedback item links to a Backlog ticket, and a roll-up/SUM field shows which tickets have the most customer signals so patterns surface quickly.
3. Helpdesk integration.
When a tag is added in support, a record is created in User Feedback with type (bug, product feedback, feature request), a GPT summary of the thread, and useful context like browser, device, and location for debugging. We use Crisp Chat and n8n for this automation.
4. An âExperimentsâ Notion database.
We migrated an experiment spreadsheet to track product and marketing tests with hypothesis, expected result, actual result, and links back to the related Backlog tickets.
5. One priority view everyone can see.
Product, marketing, sales, CS, and engineering all look at the same ordered list.
6. Delivery stays where it belongs.
Engineering still runs sprints in Jira/GitHub, while Notion is the front door for ideas, evidence, and decisions. (An integration here is next on our list)
Why this helped us:
- A true single source of truth for âwhatâs next.â
- Customer weighted prioritisation thatâs hard to ignore.
- Clear ownership and OKR alignment across teams.
- Fewer status meetings and faster commits.
- A simple structure that doesnât need some crazy expensive tool.
I hope this helps anyone else going through the pain of what to work on next, and doesnât want to fork out ÂŁs on bloated software.
And of course, if you need help with n8n, Notion, or automation in general, weâve plenty of consultants who can help you.