Story refinement is where stories that aren't on a team backlog yet are shaped into work a team can pick up. Product owners and product managers typically use it to capture ideas, flesh them out with the details a team needs, and queue them until they're ready to be assigned. Because it's shared across the workspace, anyone can add ideas and help refine them.

The page lists every story in your workspace that isn't on a team backlog, grouped by workflow step. Because these stories aren't on a team backlog yet, they can't be sized, and they don't show projected completion dates, cycle time, or staleness indicators. Bugs that aren't on a team backlog go to Bug triage instead.

Everyone in the workspace can view, create, edit, reorder, and delete stories in Story refinement, and move them between any of its steps. Assigning a story to a team can be limited by that team's backlog management setting, as described in Assign stories to a team.

Access Story refinement

In the side menu, click Story refinement.

Story refinement workflow

The workflow gives each story a path from a rough idea to a fully specified story, so everyone can see how close it is to being ready for a team. Story refinement uses a fixed set of steps that can't be customized. Each step is marked with a light bulb icon in its own color, which is also how you can recognize Story refinement steps on other pages, such as the Everything page.

Idea: Capture initial concepts or rough ideas that need more exploration. New stories, and stories removed from a team backlog, are added to the bottom of this step.
Refinement: Flesh out stories with the details a team needs to act on them, such as acceptance criteria, product themes, timeboxes, and feature flags, and work through open questions with others.
Ready for assignment: Queue fully specified stories so a team can start work as soon as they're assigned.
Won't do: Move stories here when they're no longer relevant or have been deprioritized, so they're out of the way without being deleted.

Like team workflow steps, each step belongs to a workflow category: 'Idea' is in 'To do', 'Refinement' is in 'In progress', 'Ready for assignment' is in 'Done', and 'Won't do' is in 'Won't do'. The categories determine where these steps appear when you filter the Everything page by workflow step.

Switch between list and board view

List view groups stories into sections by step, which makes it easy to scan many titles at once, while board view shows each step as a column of cards, so you can see how work is spread across the workflow.

In the page header, click the list view or board view icon. Your choice is saved for the next time you open the page, and any filters you've applied carry over between views.

In list view, each row shows the story's title, its product theme and timebox (when shown), its Item ID, and its assignee. In board view, each card shows the story's Item ID, assignee, title, and its product theme and timebox (when shown).

Show product themes, pull requests, and timeboxes

In the page header, click the settings (gear) icon.
Select or clear Product themes, Pull requests, or Timeboxes.

These settings only change what you see, and list view and board view each keep their own. By default, only pull requests are shown. Pull requests appear only when your workspace uses the GitHub integration.

Add new stories to the backlog

You can add stories to any step except 'Won't do'. New stories are added to the bottom of their step unless you add them at a specific position.

You can also create a story from Create new in the side menu. If you don't add it to a team backlog, it's added to the bottom of the 'Idea' step in Story refinement. For more details, see Create a story.

Create a story from the page header

In the page header, click Create new.
Fill in the story draft. 'Idea' is selected as its workflow step, but you can select any step except 'Won't do'.
Click Create.

The draft opens over part of the screen, so you can keep working on other pages in Atono while you fill it in, or minimize it and come back to it later. For more details about drafts, see Create a story manually.

Add a story to a specific step

Click the plus (+) icon in the step's header to open a story draft, then fill it in and click Create.

In board view, you can also:

Hover at the top of the 'Idea' column and click the plus (+) icon to add a story to the top of the step.
Click the plus (+) icon at the bottom of the 'Refinement' or 'Ready for assignment' column.

Quickly add stories to the top of 'Idea'

When you have several ideas to capture at once, add them by title and fill in the details later. This is available in list view.

Hover at the top of the 'Idea' step until the quick-add bar appears, then click Create story at the top.
Enter a title and press Enter. The story is added, and the field stays open so you can add another story below it.
When you're done, press Enter with the field empty, or press Esc to discard the title you're typing.

Create a story before or after another

In list view, right-click a story in the 'Idea' step and select Create before or Create after to add a new story directly above or below it.

Filter the backlog

Narrow the page to the stories you're working on, such as the ones assigned to you or the ones in a product theme you're preparing.

Click the filter (funnel) icon next to 'Filter by'.
Select a filter, then select one or more values.
Click Apply.

Each filter appears as a pill next to 'Filter by'. To remove a filter, click the X on its pill.

Your filters are saved, so they're still applied the next time you open the page.

Available filters

Filters are listed in the same order as the filter menu.

Filter	Description
Assignee	Show stories assigned to selected users, or stories with 'No assignee'.
Product theme	Show stories in selected product themes, or stories with 'No product theme'.
Timebox	Show stories in selected timeboxes, or stories with 'No timebox'.

Collapse and expand steps

Collapse the steps you're not working in, such as 'Won't do', to keep the stories you're refining in view.

List view: Click the arrow next to the step's name.
Board view: Click the Collapse column (><) icon in the column header. The column shrinks to its light bulb icon. To expand it again, click the Expand (light bulb) icon, which also shows the step's name and story count when you hover over it.

Collapsed steps are remembered separately for list view and board view.

Move stories through the workflow

Move stories forward as they take shape, and order them within each step to show which ones to refine or assign first.

In list view or board view, drag a story to a different step, or up or down within its step. In list view, a drag handle appears to the left of a story when you hover over it. You can also change a story's step from its details panel. For more details, see Change a story's workflow step.

You can reorder stories in every step, including 'Ready for assignment' and 'Won't do'. You can't reorder stories while filters are applied, so clear your filters first.

Sample stories that come with your workspace can't be dragged and don't have a right-click menu.

Assign a story to a user

Show who's responsible for refining a story without opening it.

Click the assignee icon at the right end of the story's row in list view, or in the top-right corner of its card in board view. It shows the assignee's initials, or a dashed circle if no one is assigned.
Search for or select a user, or select Me to assign the story to yourself. To unassign the story, select No assignee.

You can also assign a story from its details panel. For more details, see Assign a story to a user.

Open a story

Click a story's row or card to open it.

To move to the previous or next story without returning to the page, click the Previous item (up arrow) or Next item (down arrow) icon in the story header, or press J or K. These step through the stories in the same workflow step that match your filters, in the order they appear on the page, and the counter between the icons shows where the story is in that set (for example, 2 of 17).

Right-click actions

Right-click a story to open a menu of actions. In list view, you can also open the menu by clicking a story's drag handle, and for stories in the 'Idea' step, the menu also includes 'Create before' and 'Create after' for adding a story next to the one you selected.

Duplicate a story

Right-click the story and select Duplicate.

A copy of a story in 'Idea' or 'Refinement' is added directly below the original. A copy of a story in 'Ready for assignment' or 'Won't do' is added to the bottom of the 'Idea' step. For more details about what's copied, see Copy a story.

Delete a story

To keep a story you've decided against without deleting it, move it to 'Won't do' instead.

Right-click the story and select Delete.
In the confirmation dialog, click Delete to confirm, or click X to cancel.

The story is permanently removed from your workspace. For more details, see Delete a story.

Assign stories to a team

If a team has backlog management turned on, only its team admins and backlog owners, Product Managers, Administrators, and Workspace Owners can assign stories to it. For other users, the team is unavailable in the team list.

When a story is ready for development, add it to a team's backlog so the team can plan and start the work.

Assign a story by clicking Add to backlog under 'Team' in its details panel. For more details, see Add a story to a team backlog.

Once it's assigned, the story leaves Story refinement and is added to the bottom of the 'To do' step of the team's workflow. On a Scrum team, it's added to the bottom of the 'Unscheduled' section of the backlog unless you also add it to a sprint.

Return a story to Story refinement

You need permission to remove stories from the team's backlog.

When a team won't be working on a story after all, remove it from the team backlog so it can be refined further or assigned to another team.

Open the story, and in its 'Team' field, click the team's name.
Select No team.
In the confirmation dialog, review what will change, then click Unassign from team to confirm, or click X to cancel.

The story is added to the bottom of the 'Idea' step. Its size and sprint are cleared, along with any snoozed staleness indicator, since these are specific to the team. Incomplete stories also return to the bottom of 'Idea' when their team is deleted and its items are unassigned rather than moved to 'Won't do'. For more details, see Delete a team.