Unique and Basic Prioritization: How To Give Choice to Some Stakeholders | by Lee Fischman | Apr, 2023

For a good deal of items, the truth is more complex than throwing each aspect ask for into a bucket and looking at what is most crucial. Facts usually is not excellent more than enough for a quantitative position and also, precise demands from time to time have to occur initially. Specific and Typical prioritization is the reply.

For one of my merchandise, I inherited a Confluence desk that contains a long checklist of functions, lacking prioritization. A colleague proposed RICE and we gave it a test. We quickly uncovered that we could not arrive up with Reach, Impression, Self-confidence or Hard work for nearly something. We also could not just prioritize capabilities, for the reason that some that could possibly not have been important to everybody ended up strategically important to certain consumers.

I took a various method, inserting two columns: Certain and Basic. Every column could have one particular of a few values:

“Nice to have”, “Pain point” and “Critical” are my values — you can opt for your possess. An present column held names of consumers inquiring for a characteristic and another held deadlines.

Implemented, it looked one thing like this:

Sorting by Specific or Normal, we could then prioritize. A particular customers’ Vital request could preempt normal priorities, notably if pushed by a deadline:

Including a Scope column assisted to further more sort General precedence goods. Observe that I’m fundamentally just utilizing T-shirt sizing:

The happiest coincidences happened when the demands of certain clients aligned with every person else’s. Sorting by Normal and then Certain, we see that Uniqua’s critical require is shared by anyone else.

Precise and General Prioritization is born of the messy authentic earth, where you may perhaps have to give preference to some stakeholders or initiatives, and you really do not have wonderful data.