Skip to content
What's Next? The Leader’s Playbook
Subscribe →
Founders’ price Launch pricing for your first twelve months. 40 Playbooks, 40% discount for Founders. View the playbooks →

INVEST Model

TTool · INVEST Model

By , Editor · · What’s Next

There's an item at the top of the backlog that everyone's been avoiding. It's too big, too vague, and nobody can estimate it. It's about to land in the next sprint anyway.

INVEST is Bill Wake's mnemonic for well-formed user stories: Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Small, and Testable. You run each story through the six criteria during backlog refinement, catching problems before they enter a sprint.

A vertical list of six lettered gates spelling INVEST - independent, negotiable, valuable, estimable, small, testable - each paired with a diagnostic question. A banner reads "six gates at intake. the framework is doing the refusing."
Method visual — INVEST Model
A move inside a Playbook

“The deadline moved and nobody told my team.”

Open the Playbook →
Share
Share What’s Next →