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Every 2 weeks

Schedule backlog refinement meetings from your sheet

Before each sprint, the top backlog items are picked from your sheet and refinement meetings are put in the team's calendars.

Runs
Every 2 weeks
Apps
Google Calendar, Google Sheets
AI
Yes, uses the built-in AI allowance
Access
Sheet read; Calendar write

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: before each sprint, read my Backlog sheet, pick the top items by priority and schedule refinement meetings for the team.

Paste it into your assistant. It tells you what it will send or change before it runs live.

First time? Adding ClickRuntime to your assistant takes about two minutes.

Why use it

Why teams use this automation

A product manager at a small software company keeps the backlog in a Google Sheet. Every two weeks she sorts it, decides which stories need discussion, and books refinement sessions around everyone's calendars. It is an hour of admin before each sprint, and when she is away the sessions do not happen.

Picking the highest-priority items and booking time to discuss them on a fixed rhythm keeps the backlog ready for planning. Small product and engineering teams use it to make refinement a habit instead of something that depends on one person remembering.

What you get out of it

  • Refinement happens every sprint

    Sessions are booked on a regular schedule, so the team does not arrive at planning with unclear stories.

  • The most important work is discussed first

    Items are chosen by the priority in your sheet, so the time goes to what matters most.

  • Each meeting has a clear agenda

    The invitation lists the stories to discuss, so people can read them before the session.

  • Less admin for the product manager

    Sorting the backlog and booking meetings no longer eats into the day before each sprint.

How it works

What happens, step by step

  1. A few days before each sprint, ClickRuntime reads your Backlog sheet.

  2. It picks the highest-priority items that have not been refined yet.

  3. AI groups related items into short sessions and writes a brief agenda for each.

  4. Refinement meetings with that agenda are added to the team's calendars.

Before it runs live

  • Connect Google Calendar
  • Connect your Google Sheets account and pick the spreadsheets it may use

What you get

RunsEvery 2 weeks
Schedule backlog refinement meetings from your sheettoday, 9:00Succeeded
Google Calendar · Backlog refinementTue 14:00 Backlog refinement: checkout redesign, invoice export, SSO for Northwind account

Build your own

Need it to work differently?

This template is a starting point. Copy the prompt and change it, or describe a different automation from scratch, with your own conditions, more apps or an AI step. Your assistant writes it, tests it and runs it on ClickRuntime.
  • Your own rules

    Conditions, thresholds, filters and exceptions, written the way you'd explain them to a colleague.

  • Any number of apps

    One automation can read from one app and update several others. Over 248 apps are ready, and anything with an API works too.

  • AI where it helps

    Summaries, classification, extraction and drafts use ClickRuntime's built-in AI, with no extra key.

  • On a schedule or on each event

    Runs as often as every 5 minutes, or the moment an app sends an event, and keeps track of what it already handled.

Changes you can ask for

  • Run it at a different time, more or less often, or only on weekdays
  • Change what the AI looks for, or how it writes the result
  • Add another app, for example also send it to Slack
  • Combine it with other Google Calendar and Google Sheets steps into one automation

Under the hood

The code that runs this automation

This is the Python script that runs each time the automation starts. Your AI assistant writes it for you when you send the prompt, and you allow each step in your assistant. To change how the automation works, describe the change to your assistant and it updates the script for you. For every function it can use, see the script reference.
sprint_refinement_sessions_planned_from_a_backlog_sheet.pyexample
from datetime import datetime, timedelta, timezone
from google.oauth2.credentials import Credentials
from googleapiclient.discovery import build
from clickruntime import on_trigger, credentials, ai

SHEET_ID = "your-spreadsheet-id"
TEAM = ["dev1@example.com", "dev2@example.com", "designer@example.com"]

@on_trigger
def run(event):
    creds = Credentials(credentials.connection("google", "work"))
    rows = build("sheets", "v4", credentials=creds, cache_discovery=False).spreadsheets().values().get(
        spreadsheetId=SHEET_ID, range="Backlog!A2:D").execute().get("values", [])
    todo = sorted([r for r in rows if len(r) >= 3 and (len(r) < 4 or r[3].lower() != "refined")], key=lambda r: int(r[2]))[:9]
    cal = build("calendar", "v3", credentials=creds, cache_discovery=False)
    start = (datetime.now(timezone.utc) + timedelta(days=1)).replace(hour=14, minute=0, second=0, microsecond=0)
    for n in range(0, len(todo), 3):
        batch = todo[n:n + 3]
        agenda = ai.generate("Write a 3-line agenda for a refinement session on these stories:\n" + "\n".join(f"{r[0]}: {r[1]}" for r in batch), max_output_tokens=200).text
        s = start + timedelta(days=n // 3)
        cal.events().insert(calendarId="primary", sendUpdates="all", body={"summary": "Backlog refinement", "description": agenda,
            "start": {"dateTime": s.isoformat()}, "end": {"dateTime": (s + timedelta(minutes=45)).isoformat()},
            "attendees": [{"email": e} for e in TEAM]}).execute()
    return {"items": len(todo), "meetings": (len(todo) + 2) // 3}

FAQ

Common questions

How are the items for each meeting chosen?
It sorts the sheet by your priority column, skips items already marked as refined, and groups the top ones into sessions, a few stories per meeting.
Who is invited?
The team members whose emails you list. Each gets a calendar invitation with the stories in the description.
When are the meetings booked?
In the days before each sprint starts, at a time you choose, such as Tuesday at 2pm. You set the sprint length and the start date once.
What permissions does it need?
Sheet read; Calendar write. Nothing else in your accounts is used.
Does it need AI?
Yes. It uses ClickRuntime's built-in AI, so you don't need an OpenAI or Anthropic key. Every plan includes a monthly AI allowance.
How many runs does it use?
One run each time it runs (every 2 weeks). Checks that find nothing to do and stop right away aren't counted.
Can I change how it works?
Yes. Describe the change to your AI assistant, for example a different schedule, channel or filter. It updates the automation, tests it and tells you what changed.

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