Check my top level comment and several other replies on this post.

One I’ll mention here is “Tasks for testing and refactoring”. “Task” is the key word - testing and refactoring isn’t a backlog item that the product manager gets to deprioritize. (haha, like the product manager even realizes they are supposed to manage the backlog). It’s part of ongoing continuous codebase improvement and done whenever and wherever it’s needed.

I’ve been a software developer since 1997, I’d love to have a beer and shoot the shit with them!