Prioritize Features in 2 Steps.

Prioritizing your backlog isn’t just about putting a bunch of features in some order to be completed. It involves managing the many opinions of stakeholders, internal and external. It also requires an understanding of your got to market process and what level of complexity can be handled in a given time period.
 
Narrowing that list of demands and feature requests for a product roadmap is one of the most challenging parts of a product manager’s job. Every stakeholder will have a different idea of when the company should do what, so it’s important to remove bias and subjectivity as much as possible from this process.
 
Another challenge you might face is knowing which team members, stakeholders or customers should be involved, and to what degree does their opinion hold weight.
 
Ideally, good product prioritization frameworks help align teams,  increase buy-in and reduce the amount of time spent debating these topics.
 
There are a lot of different frameworks out there but my favorite is the Feature Prioritization Score.

Here's how it works

Heres how it works.
 
The feature priority score is comprised of 2 main components.
  • A score to evaluate the value or impact of the feature (1-5)
  • A score to estimate the effort involved to bring it to life. (1-5)
Feature Priority Score = Value Score + Effort Score
 
The higher the score the higher its priority.

Value score

The value score is meant to quantify the impact (positive or negative) the feature will have on either the business or the user. 
 
The value score has 2 parts; impact and frequency. You need to consider both. Major stakeholders are accountable for this score. If you stakeholders cant agree, have them state their case until they reach an agreement.  Try not to let these debates drag. As product manager, you need to push for resolution.
 
If it has a huge impact that happens all the time give a value score of 5. If its minor and hardly ever happens give it a 1.

Effort score

The development team or whomever is executing the task is responsible for the effort score. The effort score is pretty straight forward. If it’s a small effort give it a 5. If it’s a large effort give it a 1. There is some subjectivity here because its a super early not fully informed opinion of what the effort would be. Try your best to the keep some symmetry with this score.

Final score

Now all you have to do is add the scores together to get your final feature prioritization score. 
 
Rank all scores from highest to lowest. Keep in mind these scores are a guide. As circumstances in the business change so might the impact of proposed features.  Lastly, you need to document the itemized score (value and effort) in whatever place you are documenting the feature and its requirements. I document the score in Jira and in the PRD related to that feature. It will help as you might need to reference it in the future or when you have duplicate scores.
 
Duplicate scores always happen. Heres how i suggest you prioritize features.
 
High Value + Low Effort: Do this now! This is an easy win!
 
High Value + High Effort: Do these items next. They make take a while but the payoff is worth it
 
Low Value + Low Effort: You’ll hardly ever get to these. Look at these items with a discerning eye. Connect with stakeholders again to see if circumstances have changed.  But if you do, make sure everything else of higher value is complete. Then go for it…maybe.
 
Low Value + High Effort: Not worth your time. Delete these items from your list.

Key Takeaways

Product prioritization methods shouldn’t replace humans in decision-making. Use them as guides.  A good framework is a way to get everyone on the same page in terms of outlining the goals/value for the product. Prioritization methods are an exercise in socializing all the possible inputs for a given idea while helping align teams,  increase buy-in and reduce the amount of time spent debating.

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