Lenny's Newsletter · Product & Work
TIER 4 2021-07-27
> ## Q: How do you prioritize your roadmap? Which prioritization framework do you recommend for a team within a mid-sized company? Judging by [the sea of SEO thirst-trap blog posts about prioritization](https://www.google.com/search?q=prioritization+framework+product+management&sxsrf=ALeKk02hXQvP0V-ahYH0txqrrFeb_L3YJA%3A1627237077317&ei=1ar9YJvuEqW_0PEPpba28A4&oq=prioritization+frameworks+p&gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAMYADIECAAQCjIGCAAQFhAeOgcIABBHELADOgcIABCHAhAUSgQIQRgAUNQ5WLs6YNdIaAFwAngAgAGqBYgB1AaSAQUyLjUtMZgBAKABAaoBB2d3cy13aXrIAQjAAQE&sclient=gws-wiz), you aren’t a PM blogger (or PM SaaS tool) if you haven’t shared your perspective on prioritization. So here’s my advice: **In most situations, ignore most of these frameworks and just keep it simple.** 1. Make a single list of all your team’s ideas 2. T-shirt-size (XS, S, M, L, XL) each idea on two dimensions: *estimated impact* and *estimated cost* 3. Sort the list based on the highest ratio of impact-to-cost For example:  With this very basic framework, you’ll immediately identify 80-90% of your best opportunities and, more important, have a starting point for conversations with your team and team leads. Expect to adjust this list by 10-20% based on dependencies, hard-to-quantify opinions, and other strategic priorities. I’ve tried so many frameworks over the years, constantly hoping to make the process less subjective. But again and again, I’ve found that there’s no way to avoid the messiness of people, opinions, and unknowns. Instead, I embrace the messiness and keep the process simple and people-focused. For that reason, I prefer using T-shirt sizes instead of a 1-5 rating (which many people prefer) because it forces me to manually sort the list, and thus keeps me from expecting a magical math formula to give me the answers. Throughout this process, it’s essential that you get your team’s input before finalizing anything. You most likely missed something along the way, and your team won’t feel bought-in if they don’t have a chance to share their perspective. Here’s one way to ask for their feedback: > *Hey team,* > > *Here’s my first pass at our prioritized roadmap for next quarter. Take a look, and let me know if you see anything missing or misprioritized. Ideally by the end of the week* 🙏 > > *Go team!* Remember, prioritization is just another name for sequencing—just because it’s not currently prioritized doesn’t mean it won’t ever happen. #### **A few templates to help you get started:** 1. [Simplest possible prioritization framework](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dezLP0MAXTZ3_JbbB2OEP1yCLBYPkbTOXLEI-G6ELN4/edit#gid=0) 2. [Gina’s sample prioritization template](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PLxx5lWSoJDk6fuBRxMAKKhYQJpnITdDcbRD9gjhpPg/edit#gid=0) 3. [Optimizely’s prioritization framework](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17IpyLuyGyaqnS7tSx_9gVfhCvDfpwUl8TYWRomS2isQ/edit#gid=1687325850https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17IpyLuyGyaqnS7tSx_9gVfhCvDfpwUl8TYWRomS2isQ/edit#gid=1687325850) 4. [My favorite roadmap template](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zlx3RuidNOW40Zf7gh07p2SqoR53Ungv9JFT-PhHwxI/edit#gid=184965050) #### **How do I estimate Impact and Cost?** Take your best-informed guess! Every decision is somewhere along this spectrum: **Gut <———> Complete data**.Knowing this, use all the data at your disposal (quant and qual), plus your team’s experience, to guesstimate. You are smart people—trust yourselves. For *Impact*, look at: - How similar projects performed in the past - How many users per day will see the feature <— Often overlooked - How much of an impact this will likely have on a user Based on these, come up with the expected range of impact. You’ll often be wrong, but you’ll get better over time. [Shreyas](https://twitter.com/shreyas) has a great metaphor for how to frame your thinking on impact: For *Cost*, have the people who will likely work on this task estimate it. Give them time to dive into unknowns when necessary. As a PM, you can take the first stab, but always review it with the builders. Make sure to factor in all of the work involved, including research, design, engineering, and launch. Remember that these numbers are all relative. An XL on *Impact* just means it’s the highest possible impact you can imagine, and an XL on *Cost* is the most amount of work you’d consider biting off. #### **What about [RICE](https://www.intercom.com/blog/rice-simple-prioritization-for-product-managers/)?** I love the theory behind RICE, but I find the two additional variables of *Confidence* and *Reach (*as independent variables with equal weight) to not be helpful enough to make the added complexity worth it. I instead bake these factors in my *Impact* estimate, and that works well enough. But if RICE works for you, stick with it! #### What about MoSCoW, Kano, or WSJF? I haven’t personally found these super-valuable, but many people swear by them. I’d absolutely encourage you to experiment with these if your current process isn’t working well: 1. [MoSCoW](https://www.productplan.com/glossary/moscow-prioritization/) 2. [Kano](https://www.productplan.com/glossary/kano-model/) 3. [Weighted Shortest Job First](https://www.scaledagileframework.com/wsjf/) Also don’t miss [this amazing thread full of recommendations](https://twitter.com/lennysan/status/1418664847911256066) from 100+ people. I highly suggest you stay away from anything that looks like this:  #### **How does strategy fit into this process?** 🚨 **WARNING** 🚨 **Do not prioritize your roadmap until you have a strategy.** Developing a roadmap without a strategy is like heading into battle without a plan.  It won’t end well (usually). Your prioritization needs to be driven by your Goals/KPIs, which come from your Strategy, which are rooted in your Mission/Vision. It’s all connected 🌀 1. Mission: What are we trying to achieve? 2. Vision: What does the world (or product) look like when we’ve achieved it? 3. Strategy: How will we achieve our vision? 4. Goals: How will we measure our progress towards it? 5. **Roadmap: What do we need to build to get there? <— Don’t skip ahead** 6. Task: What should we do today? **Here’s a helpful guide to better illustrate where the Roadmap step fits in:** #### **How do I develop a Strategy?** This is beyond the scope of this post, but check out [my post on product strategy](https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/getting-better-at-product-strategy), which will give you a starting point for building your strategy muscle. I also suggest reading Teresa Torres’s stuff on [opportunity mapping](https://www.producttalk.org/2020/07/opportunity-mapping/), which is a super-helpful framework for breaking down opportunities in front of you.  #### How do I prioritize small bets vs. big bets? If you did your product strategy correctly, you will have identified 2-5 strategic bets your company/team plans to focus on for the next month/quarter/year. These are sometimes called strategic pillars, bets, or swimlanes. Next, your leaders should have decided roughly what percent of available resources they want to put into each of these pillars/bets/swimlanes. Let’s say: 1. Go mobile-first: 50% of resources 2. Expand into Japan: 30% of resources 3. Revamp onboarding: 20% of resources Great! Everyone now knows how much focus each of these bets will receive. Now, within each of these strategic bets, you can start to mix small and big bets. I like to follow the 80/20 rule: Roughly 80% of resources go to incremental low-risk projects, and 20% go to longer-term higher-risk bets. Kind of like this:  Take on too many long-term big bets, and leaders will wonder why you aren’t moving your metrics (and will often pull your resources). Take on too much incremental work, and you’ll never break out of a local maximum. I like to think of low-risk incremental bets as creating cover-fire for your big long-term bets, by moving your KPIs and showing success while you continue to make forward progress on your big ambitious bets behind the scenes🛡  #### How do I come up with potential roadmap ideas in the first place? 1. Talking to customers 👂️ 2. Talking to employees who talk to customers (e.g. sales, customer support, marketing) 🤗 3. Observing your customers, through data and user research 🧐 4. Spending quality time with previous data dives and user research 🔬 5. Using the product yoursel️f 🕵️♀️ 6. Thinking in a quiet place 🤔 7. Having small discussions with teammates 💁♂️ 8. Working backward from your long-term vision 🤩 9. Looking into what caused users to churn 📉 10. Looking at competitors 👀 11. Looking at adjacent markets 😏 12. Looking at analogous businesses in completely different markets 🔭 13. Creating user journey storyboards 🎞 14. Having hackathons and watching the demos 👩💻 15. Catching technology shifts 📱 Where great ideas rarely come from: 1. A large brainstorm — bad source for big new ideas, but has other benefits such as getting everyone on the team involved in the process 🎯 2. Staying heads-down for too long — give yourself space to go big and wide on occasion 🙃 3. Copying what your competition is doing — don’t assume they actually know what they are doing 😝 #### What if I work at an early-stage startup? Watch this: [Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzVvjKLdAbk) Good luck!  ## 📚 Further study 1. [Ruthless Prioritization](https://blackboxofpm.com/ruthless-prioritization-e4256e3520a9) by Brandon Chu 2. [Opportunity Mapping](https://www.producttalk.org/2020/07/opportunity-mapping/) by Teresa Torres 3. [Product at hypergrowth: prioritization for fast-scaling startups](https://blog.superhuman.com/product-at-hypergrowth-prioritization-for-fast-scaling-startups/) by Ketki Duvvuru 4. [Where great product roadmap ideas come from](https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/where-great-product-roadmap-ideas) 5. [Getting better at product strategy](https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/getting-better-at-product-strategy) *Have a fulfilling and productive week*🙏 ## **🔥 Featured job opportunities** 1. **Jetpack Workflow:** [Product Designer (UI/UX)](https://pallet.xyz/list/lennys-jobs/job/1653c4a3-0230-481c-a0fa-9b7203b2783d) (Remote—US/EU) 2. **Pallet:** [Full Stack Software Engineer](https://pallet.xyz/list/lennys-jobs/job/4fafcda8-cfb9-4e51-9173-04dc72382ea9) (NYC/Remote—US) 3. **Runway Financial:** [Product Manager](https://pallet.xyz/list/lennys-jobs/job/0601f0a1-96ee-4dc5-b9fb-d613f6e212bc) (Remote—US) 4. **SwagUp:** [Director, Product Management (Dashboard)](https://pallet.xyz/list/lennys-jobs/job/943ab014-bcb4-4d79-8bdb-2c18f7fc0fa0) (Remote—US) 5. **Whatnot**: [Product Manager](https://pallet.xyz/list/lennys-jobs/job/c9d0007f-e954-4306-8776-11d994395e67) (Remote—US) 6. **Evisort:** [Senior Product Manager](https://pallet.xyz/list/lennys-jobs/job/f643aa41-7b02-48a7-8bb9-8319e0a32270) (Remote—US) 7. **Truework**: [Senior Product Manager](https://pallet.xyz/list/lennys-jobs/job/288da35c-9090-4186-8d57-e269611288f3) (San Francisco) 8. **Staffy**: [Head of Product](https://pallet.xyz/list/lennys-jobs/job/ed0b504b-4fa3-48bc-9716-684750df3e80) (Toronto) 9. **Quidax:**[Product Director](https://pallet.xyz/list/lennys-jobs/job/fd33811d-4b9d-40e5-b041-46db566f2d95) (Toronto) 10. **Cord:**[Head of Product](https://pallet.xyz/list/lennys-jobs/job/67d8080e-c51b-4574-ade8-cab0693984a5) (London) 11. **Rally:**[Founding Product Manager](https://pallet.xyz/list/lennys-jobs/job/55e10d59-13ea-461a-bdaa-fe8ad989b41b) (Remote—Global) 12. **Crusoe:**[Senior Product Manager](https://pallet.xyz/list/lennys-jobs/job/4bd3b894-fa7b-4f31-9022-04ca611ceaeb) (SF, Denver) *Browse many more open roles (or add your own) at [Lenny’s Job Board](https://lennysnewsletter.com/jobs).* ## **🧠 Inspiration for the week ahead** 1. **Read**: [7 do’s and don’ts to get better at giving and receiving feedback](https://collinmathilde.medium.com/7-dos-and-don-ts-to-get-better-at-giving-and-receiving-feedback-d394bd20d1fb) by Mathilde Collin 2. **Listen**: [How Packy McCormick Plays The Great Online Game](https://ideas.beondeck.com/how-packy-mccormick-plays-the-great-online-game/) 3. **Watch**: [“When you focus on the past, that’s your ego.”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=-qLchg4xkOY) [Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qLchg4xkOY) #### **How would you rate this week's newsletter? 🤔** [Great](https://t.sidekickopen82.com/s1t/c/5/f18dQhb0S7kF8cV_VXW1CdjwB59hl3kW7_k2847sD3qkVNxJHk1CX2ZcW2bzNJl8lkfc1101?te=W3R5hFj4cm2zwW4cQKtC3KcLnYW4hLZp03ZVbTxW1JB0ML1--tKxW20ZTw51-YpBFW1W_jBk1ZmvHBW21j9tt1-_j_TW1Vnkcj1V3fMvw1V21pC4Hp2&si=7000000001348012&pi=6174bab6-7009-4402-a497-3d6f867fbea1) • [Good](https://t.sidekickopen82.com/s1t/c/5/f18dQhb0S7kF8cV_VXW1CdjwB59hl3kW7_k2847sD3qkVNxJHk1CX2ZcW2bzNJl8lkfc1101?te=W3R5hFj4cm2zwW4cQKtC3KcLnYW4hLZp03ZVbTxW1JB0ML1--tKxW20ZTw51-YpBFW1W_jBk1ZmvHBW21j9tt1-_j_TW1Vnkcj1V3fMvw1V21pC4vX2&si=7000000001348012&pi=6174bab6-7009-4402-a497-3d6f867fbea1) • [Meh](https://t.sidekickopen82.com/s1t/c/5/f18dQhb0S7kF8cV_VXW1CdjwB59hl3kW7_k2847sD3qkVNxJHk1CX2ZcW2bzNJl8lkfc1101?te=W3R5hFj4cm2zwW4cQKtC3KcLnYW4hLZp03ZVbTxW1JB0ML1--tKxW20ZTw51-YpBFW1W_jBk1ZmvHBW21j9tt1-_j_TW1Vnkcj1V3fMvw1V21pC4kr2&si=7000000001348012&pi=6174bab6-7009-4402-a497-3d6f867fbea1) **If you’re finding this newsletter valuable, consider sharing it with friends, or subscribing if you haven’t already.** Sincerely, Lenny 👋