In a previous post (I recommend you read it to get this one fully), we said that feature prioritization frameworks are a way to decide which products and features will work. Product prioritization decisions take into account customer expectations and business goals. Product prioritization frameworks are the way to achieve this. These frameworks guide a process of weighing variables for possible initiatives, helping you not to commit any essential errors that might clutter your work. PPFs are also very useful for reducing work time and making better use of your time. Product prioritization allows teams to make more objective and tactical decisions. Now we will go through 3 of the best product prioritization frameworks, however, these can not be followed o closely. These don't make the decisions, they are just a tool to help us accelerate and maximize our decision-making process. In the first post we talked about 3 of the best options, today we will review three other frameworks.
3 highly efficient Product Prioritization Frameworks
1. RICE
RICE allows product teams to work on product ideas that can have a nig impact on any given goal. This is a scoring system in which your product ideas and initiatives are measured against reach, effort, impact, and confidence.
Reach: The amount of customers are affected by the new feature
Impact: Measured on a scale from 1-5; can be quantitative or qualitative data
Confidence: Measured in a percentage. Reflects how much confidence you have that the other aspects are accurate.
Effort: Calculate your resources and abilities and assign a number based on your result.
Once you’ve gone through you have recorded the RICE to each of your feature initiatives, you’ll have to use a formula to prioritize your backlog.
This is useful for businesses and startups with an extensive backlog. RICE will let you stay focused and avoid wasting time and resources. Rice requires that product teams make their product metrics smart before they quantify them. This means specific, measurable, and relevant. The big disadvantage of RICE scores is that this system doesn’t take dependencies into account. There might be cases in which an initiative with a high score must be deprioritized over something else. RICE scores arent 100% accurate.
2. Opportunity scoring
This prioritization technique, also known as opportunity analysis, assumes that customers purchase goods and services in order to complete specific tasks. Although customers aren't very good at coming up with answers to their problems, their feedback is significant, according to this theory. The product team will utilize this feedback to determine the targeted results for a product or feature.
A satisfaction and importance graph is used in opportunity scoring to quantify and rate opportunities. Following the creation of a list of ideal results, you survey your clients and ask them the following questions:
- How significant is this feature? Have them ranked by your customers.
- How happy is the client with the solutions?
You should be able to observe the features that are important to customers but currently have poor satisfaction levels in your product after plotting these responses along the chart. You should give priority to the following features for your upcoming sprint.
It’s a simple framework for identifying the most innovative features. It's a rapid solution to a problem. Opportunity scoring is also simple to visualize on a graph.
3. The Product Tree
This cooperative creative game, often known as pruning the product tree, was created by Bruce Hollman. This activity's main goal is to mold the product to meet the client outcomes that will be most valuable to the business. To avoid leaving behind creative ideas, the game tries to eliminate product backlog items.
This is how it works:
First, on a piece of paper or a whiteboard, design a giant tree with a few broad branches.
The qualities your product already possesses are represented by the tree's trunk.
The features that will be included in the upcoming version are represented by the furthest branches. The features that aren't yet available are represented by the other branches.
In this situation, your customers should be asked to brainstorm some potential features and jot them down on sticky notes. These will be your tree's leaves. Then, request that your clients place their feature leaves on a branch. You can determine the largest clusters or branches by asking clients to set their desired attributes on the tree. This will enable you to decide which features of your product need to be modified, which ones need to be improved, and which ones can be deprioritized for all upcoming releases.
This product prioritization framework will give you a visual sense of the balance of your product features. It has an interactive method to gather information (the game) that allows customers to be more sincere than a boring survey. The main disadvantage of this method is probably the time and resources spent. Gathering the customers and organizing the whole deal might take several weeks
Final thoughts
Product prioritization help with the precision and simplicity of decisions. They help business teams decide which features will be more effective by taking into account different elements such as value, customer expectations, and more. In the “first part” we talked about three product prioritization frameworks. These were: value vs effort, kano, and buy a feature. We still believe these are pretty solid options that you must consider for your company, however, we added three other options to the list. First off, RICE scoring is a suitable option for startups with an extensive backlog, it'll help work teams optimize their time and not spend many resources on product prioritization. Opportunity scoring is a great way to easily identify innovative ideas. It's also easy to represent in a graph and has a better general view. Lastly, the product tree is an interactive game that will give you a visual sense of the balance of your features. There are other types, however, the ones stated in both posts are the most efficient ones. That is why checking out both posts is crucial. If you don't do this, you might be missing a way more suitable option for you. Each one has its advantages and disadvantages but all are pretty simple ad bring good results. After all, product prioritization frameworks are a key tool for any company that wants to upgrade its efficiency.
