When you start working on a new product, your first steps are generally listing down the core features that you would end up developing that would provide value to what customers are looking for.
You have laid out your product vision and now plan & develop a product roadmap to start executing, but as and when the product starts to grow and you start getting a list of customer requirements and stakeholder's breathing down your neck to push features that would improve their top line & bottom line, it becomes chaos. And in no time, you have a product backlog with no idea how and what to push into development first.
Product Prioritization doesn't just mean stacking features and developing them one by one, it involves juggling between customer, business & stakeholders requirements & expectations
In 2016 in a survey conducted by MindTheProduct, 47 product managers named the biggest challenge they face at work is prioritising the roadmap without market research. Further 49% of Product Managers said that they were not sure if they were working on the right thing.
It was then a lot of companies started building their own product prioritization frameworks. This was to ensure that products being built could deliver the maximum impact both in terms of client's needs and business targets.
In this article, I will explain how you can come up with a winning prioritization framework and will showcase all the popular product growth prioritisation frameworks that are used by major product companies
As a product manager, prioritization is a key aspect of your job. You need to ensure that your product team's efforts are focused on the most important and impactful initiatives.
To do this, you need to have a solid framework for prioritization and decision-making. In this section, we'll explore some of the best practices for effective product prioritization and product management.
The first step in strategic prioritization is to establish clear criteria for prioritizing initiatives.
This will help you and your team make objective decisions and avoid subjective biases. Some common criteria for prioritization include:
By establishing clear criteria for prioritization, you can create a framework for evaluating and comparing different initiatives. You can also use these criteria to communicate with stakeholders and ensure that everyone is aligned on the priorities.
Once you have established your prioritization criteria, the next step is to make decisions about which initiatives to pursue.
This is where decision-making frameworks come in.
There are many different frameworks that you can use, depending on your needs and preferences.
Some popular frameworks include:
By using a decision-making framework, you can make objective and data-driven decisions about which initiatives to pursue.
You can also use these frameworks to communicate with stakeholders and ensure that everyone is aligned on the priorities.
The Effort Versus Impact Matrix is a simple and effective tool for prioritizing features based on their potential impact and the amount of effort required to implement them.
To use this technique, you'll need to create a matrix with two axes: Effort (Low to High) and Impact (Low to High). Then, you'll plot each feature on the matrix based on its estimated effort and impact.
Features that require a low amount of effort but have a high impact should be prioritized first, while features that require a high amount of effort but have a low impact should be deprioritized or eliminated altogether.
This technique helps you focus on the features that will provide the most value with the least amount of effort.
Weighted Scoring Prioritization is a more complex technique that involves assigning weights to various criteria and then scoring each feature based on those criteria.
To use this technique, you'll need to identify the criteria that are most important to your product's growth and assign weights to each criterion.
For example, if customer acquisition is a top priority, you might assign a higher weight to features that will help you acquire more customers. Once you've assigned weights to each criterion, you'll score each feature based on how well it aligns with those criteria.
Features that score the highest should be prioritized first, while features that score the lowest should be deprioritized or eliminated altogether. This technique is more time-consuming than the Effort Versus Impact Matrix, but it provides a more granular view of each feature's potential impact on your product's growth.
The RICE framework is a prioritization model that considers four factors:
Reach, Impact, Confidence, and Effort.
To use the RICE framework, you assign a score to each factor and then multiply the scores together to get a final score. This final score can then be used to prioritize features.
The RICE framework is particularly useful for teams that want to prioritize features based on their potential impact.
The Kano Model is a prioritization model that helps you identify which features are essential to your customers and which features are merely nice-to-have.
The Kano Model considers three types of features: Must-Have, Performance, and Delighters.
By understanding which features fall into each category, you can prioritize features that will have the most significant impact on your customers.
MoSCoW Prioritization is a prioritization model that helps you prioritize features based on their importance.
The model considers four categories: Must-Have, Should-Have, Could-Have, and Won't-Have.
To use MoSCoW Prioritization, you assign each feature to one of the four categories. This allows you to prioritize features based on their importance and focus your efforts on the most critical features first.
One way to prioritize features for customer-centric growth is by leveraging customer feedback.
You can use various methods to collect feedback, such as feedback boards, surveys, user testing, and customer interviews. Once you have collected feedback, you can use it to identify the most important or most requested product features to your customers.
To make the most out of customer feedback, it is important to analyze it carefully. You can use tools like Productlogz or prepare a table or a list to organize the feedback and identify common themes.
By doing so, you can prioritize the features that are most important to your customers.
Another important aspect of customer-centric prioritization is balancing customer satisfaction and value.
While it is important to satisfy your customers, you also need to ensure that the features you prioritize will bring value to your product.
To achieve this balance, you can use a value vs. effort matrix.
This matrix helps you identify the features that will bring the most value with the least effort.
By prioritizing these features, you can ensure that you are building a product that will both satisfy your customers and bring value to your business.
In conclusion, customer-centric prioritization is essential for product growth. By leveraging customer feedback and balancing customer satisfaction and value, you can conduct feature prioritization that will bring the most impact to your product.
Once you have implemented a prioritization technique, it is important to assess its effectiveness.
You can use a variety of metrics to evaluate how well your process is working, such as the number of features released, customer satisfaction, and revenue growth. For this you can use ProductLogz to visualize the number of features released compared to planned and in progress. Measure customer satisfaction with in-app surveys.
By analyzing these metrics, you can identify areas where your process is working well and areas where it needs improvement.
One way to assess the effectiveness of your prioritization process is to conduct a retrospective.
During a retrospective, you review the results of your prioritization process and identify areas where it could be improved. You can then use this feedback to refine your process and make it more effective.
Your prioritization framework should be closely aligned with your business goals. As your business evolves, your prioritization framework may also need to evolve to ensure that it continues to support your goals.
When re-evaluating your prioritization framework, it is important to consider your business objectives.
For example, if your goal is to increase revenue, you may need to prioritize features that have a direct impact on revenue growth. Alternatively, if your goal is to improve customer satisfaction, you may need to prioritize features that improve the customer experience.
By adapting your prioritization framework to your business goals, you can ensure that it continues to support your overall strategy and helps you achieve your objectives.
When it comes to prioritizing your product growth, having the right tools and resources can make a big difference. Here are some options to consider:
Using product management software can help you streamline your prioritization process and keep everyone on the same page. Some popular options include:
If you're looking for guidance on how to prioritize your product growth, there are plenty of resources available. Here are a few to check out:
By using these tools and resources, you can make sure that your product growth prioritization process is as effective and efficient as possible.
A successful product prioritization framework should consider the business goals, user needs, and market dynamics. It should also take into account the resources available, the level of effort required, and the potential impact of the features or projects being prioritized.
A good framework should be flexible and adaptable to changing circumstances, and should involve input from all stakeholders.
The RICE framework is one of the most popular product prioritization frameworks and is often used by startups and small businesses. It is a simple and effective way to prioritize features based on reach, impact, confidence, and effort.
However, there are other frameworks that may be more suitable for larger organizations or more complex products.
For example, the Kano model is a popular framework for prioritizing features based on customer satisfaction, while the Weighted Scoring Model is a more quantitative approach that assigns scores to different features based on a set of criteria.
There are several strategic prioritization frameworks used in product management, including the Ansoff Matrix, the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Matrix, and the GE-McKinsey Nine-Box Matrix. These frameworks help product managers make strategic decisions about which products to develop and how to allocate resources based on factors such as market growth, market share, and product profitability.
A prioritization matrix can enhance product development decisions by providing a clear and objective way to evaluate and rank features or projects based on their potential impact and level of effort required. This can help product managers make more informed decisions about which features to prioritize and which to deprioritize, which can ultimately lead to more successful product launches and increased customer satisfaction.
A prioritization framework can improve the efficiency of feature development by helping product managers focus on the most important features and projects. By prioritizing features based on their potential impact and level of effort required, product managers can ensure that the development team is working on the most valuable features first. This can help reduce waste and ensure that resources are being used effectively.
Using a prioritization template for project management can help ensure that all stakeholders are on the same page and that priorities are clearly communicated. It can also help ensure that all relevant factors are taken into account when making prioritization decisions, and can help reduce bias and subjectivity. Additionally, using a template can help save time and ensure that the prioritization process is consistent and repeatable.
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