How to place carts and horses in their rightful position
Imagine you're the product manager for a promising new fintech startup, Ascent Finance. Your team is buzzing with ideas - new features, product expansions, technical improvements. The requests are piling up, and your stakeholders all have their own pet priorities. How do you sift through the noise and decide what gets built next?
Welcome to the world of product prioritization, where tough choices are the name of the game. As a seasoned PM, you know that effective prioritization is the key to delivering maximum value and avoiding the dreaded "feature graveyard." But with so many frameworks, methodologies, and priorities to juggle, it can feel like navigating a minefield.
In this in-depth guide, we'll dive into the art of prioritization, we'll go through the strategies, frameworks, and real-world examples you need to tackle even the most daunting roadmap decisions. Get ready to level up your prioritization prowess and take your product to new heights.
Prioritization at Ascent Finance: A Case Study
Let's start by taking a look at the prioritization challenges facing our fictional fintech company, Ascent Finance. As the product manager, you've been inundated with a flurry of feature requests from various stakeholders, each with their own data-driven justifications.
Here's a snapshot of the requests on your plate:
Request | Stakeholder | Data Points |
Automated Expense Tracking | CFO | - 25% of customers request this feature - Could save customers an average of 2 hours per month |
Mobile App Redesign | Head of Marketing | - 60% of customers use the mobile app daily - Net Promoter Score for the mobile app is 45 (industry average is 50) |
Integrated Invoicing | Head of Sales | - 35% of customers request this feature - Could increase sales by 15% |
Cryptocurrency Portfolio Tracking | Engineering Lead | - 18% of customers hold crypto assets - Could differentiate Ascent from competitors |
As you can see, each request comes with its own set of data points and stakeholder priorities. Your challenge is to weigh these factors and determine the optimal prioritization strategy.
Prioritization Frameworks in Action
To tackle this challenge, let's explore three popular prioritization frameworks and see how they would be applied to the Ascent Finance scenario.
RICE Scoring
The RICE (Reach, Impact, Confidence, Effort) framework is a data-driven approach that assigns a numerical score to each feature request. Let's run the numbers:
Automated Expense Tracking:
Reach: 25% of customers = 4
Impact: Average of 2 hours saved per month = 4
Confidence: High confidence in data = 5
Effort: Moderate development effort = 3 RICE Score: 4 x 4 x 5 / 3 = 26.67
Mobile App Redesign:
Reach: 60% of customers use the app daily = 5
Impact: Increase NPS from 45 to 50 = 3
Confidence: High confidence in data = 5
Effort: Significant development effort = 2 RICE Score: 5 x 3 x 5 / 2 = 37.5
Integrated Invoicing:
Reach: 35% of customers request this = 4
Impact: 15% increase in sales = 5
Confidence: Moderate confidence in data = 4
Effort: Moderate development effort = 3 RICE Score: 4 x 5 x 4 / 3 = 26.67
Cryptocurrency Portfolio Tracking:
Reach: 18% of customers hold crypto = 3
Impact: Differentiate from competitors = 4
Confidence: Moderate confidence in data = 4
Effort: Significant development effort = 2 RICE Score: 3 x 4 x 4 / 2 = 24
Based on the RICE scores, the clear priority would be the Mobile App Redesign, followed by Automated Expense Tracking and Integrated Invoicing. Cryptocurrency Portfolio Tracking, while an interesting feature, ranks the lowest in this analysis.
Kano Model:
The Kano Model categorizes features into five buckets: Must-Be, Performance, Delighter, Indifferent, and Reverse. This provides a more nuanced view of customer preferences.
Automated Expense Tracking: Performance
Customers expect this feature and will be satisfied when it's present, but won't be delighted.
Mobile App Redesign: Performance
Customers expect a high-quality mobile experience and will be satisfied with an improved app.
Integrated Invoicing: Must-Be
Customers see this as a basic expectation for a fintech product and will be dissatisfied if it's not present.
Cryptocurrency Portfolio Tracking: Delighter
Customers would be pleasantly surprised by this feature, as it's not a standard expectation in the industry.
Applying the Kano Model, the priorities would be Integrated Invoicing (Must-Be), Mobile App Redesign and Automated Expense Tracking (Performance), and Cryptocurrency Portfolio Tracking (Delighter).
MoSCoW Prioritization
The MoSCoW method categorizes features into Must Have, Should Have, Could Have, and Won't Have this time.
Must Have:
Integrated Invoicing (basic customer expectation)
Should Have:
Automated Expense Tracking (high customer impact)
Mobile App Redesign (high customer usage)
Could Have:
Cryptocurrency Portfolio Tracking (differentiating feature)
Won't Have This Time:
None of the features fall into this category based on the information provided.
Using the MoSCoW framework, the priorities would be Integrated Invoicing (Must Have), Automated Expense Tracking and Mobile App Redesign (Should Have), and Cryptocurrency Portfolio Tracking (Could Have).
Lessons Learned and Key Takeaways
As you can see, each prioritization framework provides a unique lens through which to view the feature requests. While the specific rankings may differ, a few key lessons emerge:
Understand your customer: Deeply understanding your customers' needs, pain points, and preferences is crucial for effective prioritization. The Kano Model, in particular, highlights the importance of categorizing features based on customer expectations.
Leverage data-driven insights: Relying on quantifiable data points, like usage statistics, customer feedback, and potential impact, helps you make more informed and defensible prioritization decisions. The RICE framework is a great example of this.
Align with business objectives: Prioritizing features that directly support your company's strategic goals and priorities is essential. The MoSCoW method's "Must Have" category is a useful way to ensure critical business needs are addressed.
Balance short-term and long-term thinking: While it's important to tackle the most pressing issues, don't neglect features that could provide long-term differentiation and growth potential, like the Cryptocurrency Portfolio Tracking example.
As a product manager, you'll often find yourself in the middle of competing priorities, each with their own justifications and champions. By mastering the art of prioritization, you'll be equipped to navigate these challenges, deliver maximum value to your customers, and drive your product's success.
So, the next time you're faced with a dizzying array of feature requests, remember the lessons learned from Ascent Finance. Leverage a combination of frameworks, data-driven insights, and strategic alignment to cut through the noise and chart a course towards product greatness.