I've repeated this process elsewhere too, both for other companies and on my own projects... though the example shown was among the most severe.
In the essay, I'll try to be a bit more precise though, because in practice you might have a hard time with getting buy in on "Delete the issues" and an easier time with what I actually did on this project:
"create a priority queue that only the product owner and CEO can touch, treat that as the new official backlog until the crisis is resolved, put a bunch of rules on what gets in there and how much it can hold, then track progress actively"
More details will be shared in a couple days, can't wait to hear responses. :-)
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