The purpose of this doc is to explore and consider methodologies for making prioritization decisions at a startup. Prioritization is probably the hardest and most important thing that one can do at a startup, and what one chooses to prioritize changes as you learn more.
This is by no means an exhaustive list of prioritization frameworks (there are dozens, if not hundreds, of models for this that you can find across the internet), but we’ll go over a few of the most common and think through the tradeoffs of each.
It’s worth keeping in mind the saying, “All models are wrong, but some are useful.” The result of this isn’t going to be a “correct” answer of how to prioritize, but rather a methodology for framing problems and approaching them in a systematic way.
We’ll start with a few simple prioritization frameworks, then we’ll take a deeper dive into prioritization more broadly through the lens of company stage.
There are an (effectively) unlimited number of prioritization frameworks, and again there is no “right answer” for which prioritization framework to use. When deciding on a prioritization framework for yourself, you should think deeply about the problems you’re experiencing and pick a framework that helps you solve the problems you need to solve.
For example, if the problem you’re experiencing is that you’re prioritizing too many things that feel urgent, but you’re missing the forest for the trees and you’re not delivering the things that are the most important for delivering value, you should consider something like an Eisenhower Matrix; if you have a hard time prioritizing projects relative to their scope, you should consider something like a RICE Prioritization Framework; if you’re having difficulty ensuring that your human resources are being used effectively to deliver value, you should consider a simple ROI Framework.
We’ll go over these frameworks below, but to further emphasize the point, there are an unlimited number of prioritization frameworks you can use and there is no universal prioritization framework that works for every application. If the framework you’re using solves your problem, then that’s the best framework. It’s also likely that you’ll use a different prioritization framework for different parts of the business depending on what problem you’re solving.
A relatively common prioritization framework used in product teams at tech companies is the RICE Score (which is very similar to the ICE Scoring Model), which is a weighted average of Reach, Impact, Confidence, Effort.