The Rock Crusher funnel shifts our mental model of the backlog from a passive reservoir to an active learning and discovery process that results in a stabilized and throttled flow:
- Stabilized because the backlog gets prioritized through forced ranking, with few or no changes taking place in the ranking.
- Throttled because the flow does not exceed the team’s capacity, represented by the thin pipe.
The Rock Crusher’s funnel ensures the progressive stabilization and throttling process is visible and, therefore, managed by the village, rather than hidden behind the product owner.