Imagine you are working with your team to develop a search results page and the engineers have several potential candidates for the backend search technology. How would you represent the work necessary to decide which is best within your product backlog?

Remember to mention the work you would do to ensure the research or spike backlog item is executed correctly. For example, teams often take on items like these without properly defining the scope or goals, which can result in costly delays. As a product owner, you can assist your team by ensuring the goals of the research are clear and that the criteria used to arrive at a decision are consistent across the available options.

"I would add a product backlog item for a technical spike within my backlog. I would work with the engineers to understand the scope of the research necessary and collaborate to define a list of criteria that should be completed before the item could be considered done.

I would also ensure that there was a common set of criteria to be used when comparing and contrasting the available options. Finally, I would ensure that I communicate any search features or capabilities that are important from the user's perspective as they may help my team decide which tool is the best fit overall."