Prioritization Frameworks

Why Prioritization Matters

Every product team has more ideas than capacity. Prioritization is the discipline of deciding what to work on and—equally important—what NOT to work on.

“Strategy is about making choices, trade-offs; it’s about deliberately choosing to be different.” — Michael Porter

Common Prioritization Frameworks

RICE Scoring

RICE = Reach × Impact × Confidence / Effort

Formula:

RICE Score = (Reach × Impact × Confidence) / Effort

Example:

Best for: Comparing initiatives when you need a quantitative approach

MoSCoW Method

Categorize features into four buckets:

Best for: Scope negotiations, release planning, MVP definition

Tips:

• Limit Must Haves to ~60% of capacity
• Be honest about Won’t Haves—clarity helps
• Revisit categorization as you learn more

Kano Model

Categorize features by how they affect customer satisfaction:

Satisfaction
     ▲
     │         Delighters
     │        ╱ (Excitement)
     │       ╱
     │      ╱     Performance
     │     ╱     ╱ (Linear)
─────┼────╱─────╱────────────────▶ Feature
     │   ╱     ╱                   Fulfillment
     │  ╱     ╱
     │ ╱     ╱
     │╱     ╱
     │   Must-Haves
     │   (Basic)
     ▼

Best for: Understanding customer perception, balancing feature types

Value vs. Effort Matrix

Simple 2x2 prioritization:

        High Value
             │
    ┌────────┼────────┐
    │  Do    │ Plan   │
    │ First  │ Next   │
    │        │        │
────┼────────┼────────┼────▶ High
Low │        │        │      Effort
    │ Quick  │ Avoid  │
    │ Wins   │ These  │
    │        │        │
    └────────┴────────┘
             │
        Low Value

Best for: Quick triage, visual communication to stakeholders

Weighted Scoring

Create a custom scoring model based on your priorities:

Step 1: Define criteria that matter

Step 2: Score each initiative (1-5 scale)

Step 3: Calculate weighted score

Score = Σ (Criterion Score × Weight)

Best for: When you have specific strategic priorities to optimize

ICE Scoring

Simpler alternative to RICE:

Formula:

ICE Score = (Impact + Confidence + Ease) / 3

Best for: Quick prioritization, growth experiments

Opportunity Scoring

Based on customer importance and current satisfaction:

Opportunity Score = Importance + (Importance - Satisfaction)

Where:

• Importance: How important is this to users? (1-10)
• Satisfaction: How satisfied are they with current solution? (1-10)

Interpretation:

• High importance + Low satisfaction = Big opportunity
• High importance + High satisfaction = Maintain (table stakes)
• Low importance = Deprioritize

Best for: Customer-centric prioritization, identifying gaps

Prioritization in Practice

Combining Frameworks

No single framework is perfect. Many teams combine approaches:

1. Strategic filter first: Does it align with company/product strategy?
2. Qualitative triage: MoSCoW or Value/Effort matrix for initial sorting
3. Quantitative scoring: RICE or weighted scoring for detailed comparison
4. Stakeholder input: Incorporate business constraints and context

Avoiding Common Mistakes

The Prioritization Meeting

Preparation:

• Pre-score items individually
• Gather supporting data
• Know your capacity constraints

Meeting flow:

1. Review criteria and goals
2. Discuss outliers (high/low scores)
3. Debate disagreements
4. Align on final priority order
5. Commit to what’s in/out

Outputs:

• Prioritized backlog
• Clear rationale for decisions
• Stakeholder alignment

Path2Response Context

Prioritization Criteria for P2R

Balancing Stakeholders

P2R serves multiple customer types with different needs:

Technical Debt Allocation

Reserve capacity for non-feature work:

• Platform reliability
• Data quality improvements
• Security and compliance
• Performance optimization

Recommendation: 20-30% of capacity for technical health