curating-the-strategy-ideas-backlog

Peer-Reviewer and portfolio-curator playbook for Bitwarden's Technical Strategy Ideas (TSI) backlog — the upstream idea-stage system that feeds the Software Initiative Funnel at Identification. Covers serving as constructive challenge function for someone else's idea, stewarding the backlog (weekly triage, monthly RICE updates, Now/Next/Later placement), the quarterly prioritization review with engineering leadership, and the handoff of approved ideas to the funnel.

The Two Roles per Active Idea

Each TSI in active status (Research through Implementation) has two Architecture members assigned. The TSI page is explicit about this:

• Primary owner. Drives the idea through the pipeline: writes the problem statement, conducts research, presents at Architecture Council, shepherds the transition to the funnel. Accountable for progress. The Primary Owner's playbook is Skill(championing-a-strategy-idea).
• Peer reviewer. A second Architecture engineer who acts as a sounding board, stays informed, and provides a constructive challenge function. Not a co-owner. Their job is asking the hard questions, catching cross-initiative conflicts, ensuring stakeholder engagement is thorough. This is your role when invoking this skill — alongside the broader portfolio-curator practice covered in the rest of the skill.

How Peer Review Works

Per the TSI page:

• Peer reviewers are assigned per idea. As ideas move through the lifecycle and new ones enter, pairings shift to keep the team building breadth across the portfolio.
• The primary owner shares progress and decision points with the peer reviewer on an ongoing basis. The biweekly architecture working session is the primary venue; ad-hoc check-ins are expected for time-sensitive decisions.
• Before an idea moves from Backlog to Research, the primary owner and peer reviewer jointly complete the Stakeholder & Engagement Map section of the template. This is a gate.
• When the idea is presented at Architecture Council, the peer reviewer attends as an informed ally who can help field questions and support the discussion.
• No single engineer should carry more than two active reviewer assignments at a time, primary or peer. Overloading review defeats its purpose.