Prioritization

Order a list of work by value and cost, and draw a cut line. Pick the lightest method that fits the situation; precision beyond the quality of your inputs is noise.

When to use

• A backlog, roadmap, bug list, feature list or task list larger than capacity.
• "What first?", "what can we cut?", "MVP scope", "RICE / ICE / MoSCoW".
• A stakeholder disagreement about order that needs a transparent method.

Skip: choosing between two or three alternative designs or vendors on tradeoffs, or estimating a single number.

Before you start

1. State in one block: Goal the ranking serves, Capacity or deadline, Items (count), and Pass (Pick method, Score, Rank, Cut line, Sanity check).
2. Gather first. Read the backlog, tickets, usage data, customer requests and past estimates. Never invent reach or effort numbers; mark guesses [ESTIMATED] and give a range. Ask up to 3 questions only for goals and capacity tools cannot answer.
3. Light path. Small ask: pick a method in one line, score in one table, name the top 3 and the cut line.

Steps