BoardSnap is an iOS app that reads a backlog grooming whiteboard and outputs a ranked, sized story list — ready to drop into your ticket tracker before the room clears.
A backlog grooming session on a whiteboard is fast and productive. You write story titles on index cards or sticky notes, stick them on the board, and physically move them up and down until the priority order feels right. The whole team can see the full backlog at once. Arguments about priority get resolved visually.
The problem is the transition from board to tracker. Someone has to take the physical priority order and re-enter it into Jira or Linear in sequence. If there are forty items on the board, that's forty copy-paste operations, each requiring a trip back to squint at the handwriting. Story points written in corners of stickies get missed. Acceptance criteria that were brainstormed on the board in bullet form never make it into the ticket description.
Worse, the team often splits up before the cleanup is done. The groomed board exists in one person's photo library, and the tracker reflects last week's order until that one person has time to reconcile it — which might be never.
One story per sticky note. Title at the top, rough size estimate (S/M/L or point number) in the bottom corner. Stick them all on the board in a rough heap first — getting everything visible before ranking is the move.
Move stickies up and down until the top of the board is what you'd pull into the next sprint. Physically moving them is the whole point. The team negotiates in real time. This is faster and less contentious than arguing over Jira column order.
Stories without estimates get a quick Planning Poker round. Write the agreed estimate on the sticky. Stories that are too big get split into two stickies — overlap them slightly to show the parent relationship.
Put a green dot sticker or check mark on stories that have clear acceptance criteria and are sprint-ready. Red dot or X on stories that need more refinement before sprint planning. BoardSnap AI reads these visual markers.
For your top five ready stories, jot two or three acceptance criteria bullets below the story title on the sticky (or on a separate sticky next to it). These become the starting point for ticket descriptions.
Open BoardSnap. The board should be laid out vertically — priority order top to bottom. VisionKit corrects any angle. BoardSnap AI reads position (top to bottom) as priority order.
A priority-ordered story list numbered from 1 to N — top of the board is item 1. Each item includes the story title, size estimate, ready/needs-work status (from dot markers), and any acceptance criteria bullets written on the sticky. The output maps directly to the structure of a Jira or Linear backlog.
The PM printed story titles on index cards and taped them to a 6-foot whiteboard in three vertical swim lanes: Now / Next / Later. BoardSnap read all three lanes, identified the vertical priority order within each lane, and produced a three-section ranked list. The PM imported it as a CSV and uploaded directly to Linear.
Six stories needed refinement. The team used a small whiteboard to write out acceptance criteria for each. BoardSnap read the criteria bullets and included them as subtasks in the tri-state action item output — instantly useful as ticket description starters.
The lead engineer snapped the groom board after the session. The BoardSnap summary went into Slack. Two remote engineers who missed the live session reviewed the ranked list and left comments on specific stories — skipping the need for a second alignment call.
Yes. BoardSnap AI reads the vertical position of items and outputs them in top-to-bottom order. Write your highest-priority items at the top of the board and the output will reflect that ranking.
If the swim lanes are visually distinct — separate columns with column headers — BoardSnap reads them as separate sections and labels the output accordingly. Items are ranked within each lane by vertical position.
Absolutely. Some teams write story titles directly on the whiteboard in marker. BoardSnap reads marker text just as well as sticky notes. Just leave clear space between items.
Standard 3x3 inch sticky notes work well. Larger (4x6) is better if you're writing multiple bullets per sticky. Mini stickies can work but require clear handwriting — print rather than cursive.
After grooming, run sprint planning — BoardSnap turns the sprint board into a ranked backlog.
Use MoSCoW to sort the backlog by Must/Should/Could/Won't before grooming.
Plot stories by impact vs. effort to surface quick wins before the grooming session.
Snap the board, ship the action items in ten seconds.