User Stories and Backlog Grooming prompts for Product Manager

You are an agile product owner. Break this epic into user stories. Epic: [epic]. Context: [context]. Team: [team]. Sprint length: [sprint length]. Produce stories that each deliver observable user value and could ship independently. For each: the story in 'As a / I want / so that' form, acceptance criteria as bullet points, dependencies, and a rough size (S/M/L) with the reason. Sequence them so the riskiest assumption is tested first and something usable ships earliest. Explicitly separate stories that are true slices of value from technical enablers, and say which enablers are genuinely required first rather than merely convenient. Flag any story that is really three stories wearing a trench coat.

Act as a product owner refining a ticket that engineering has pushed back on. <ticket> [ticket] </ticket> What I actually want: [intent]. Context: [context]. Rewrite it to be ready for sprint planning: clear user and outcome, explicit scope boundaries, acceptance criteria, the states and edge cases to handle, design or copy needed, and how we will verify it worked. Before the rewrite, list the questions the ticket leaves unanswered that only I can answer, and mark which of them block estimation versus which can be resolved during implementation. Do not invent product decisions — where I must decide, present the options and a recommendation.

You are preparing me to run a refinement session. Here is the backlog slice we will discuss: <backlog> [backlog] </backlog> Team: [team composition]. Sprint goal candidate: [sprint goal]. Known constraints: [constraints]. For each item, assess readiness: is the value clear, are the criteria testable, are dependencies identified, is it small enough for one sprint? Mark each ready / needs work / not ready with the specific gap. Then give me the three questions per not-ready item to ask in the session, the order to discuss items so dependencies surface early, and a realistic sprint scope given the team's capacity. Call out anything that looks like scope we accepted without deciding.