Looking out into the future is a great exercise and teams can and should discuss future facing ideas together with customers, design and product people. Having a general sense of why we're building what we're building is critical and does help inform the shape of what we build.
That said, the result of those discussions should be kept in a broad, narrative form that is focused on goals or outcomes. They should not generate multiple months-worth of concrete tasks that must be continuously curated, scheduled and negotiated.
In factory terms, this would look like quarterly or annual goals. One level higher than tactical activities.
"Stories on the Board" are more like raw materials that have been released and become Work in Process.
Overwhelming the line by pushing too much raw material has enormous, well-understood, negative consequences and usually results in far more waste than one can imagine.
Doing this well is hard and requires continuous balancing, and while there obviously isn't an exact rule that works for every context, there are thresholds at the edges that become pretty obvious with a little bit of experience and consideration.
That said, the result of those discussions should be kept in a broad, narrative form that is focused on goals or outcomes. They should not generate multiple months-worth of concrete tasks that must be continuously curated, scheduled and negotiated.
In factory terms, this would look like quarterly or annual goals. One level higher than tactical activities.
"Stories on the Board" are more like raw materials that have been released and become Work in Process.
Overwhelming the line by pushing too much raw material has enormous, well-understood, negative consequences and usually results in far more waste than one can imagine.
Doing this well is hard and requires continuous balancing, and while there obviously isn't an exact rule that works for every context, there are thresholds at the edges that become pretty obvious with a little bit of experience and consideration.