Week 16 - 🤯 6 Most Effective Problem Prioritization Frameworks for Product Managers - Part 1
Week 16 - 🤯 6 Most Effective Problem Prioritization Frameworks for Product Managers - Part 1
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The value is in what gets used, not in what gets built. – Kris Gale
💯 Framework // Concept // Mental Model
6 Most Effective Problem Prioritization Frameworks for Product Managers - Part 1
As a product manager, you’re responsible for making decisions that will have a significant impact on the product roadmap and the company as a whole. One of the most important skills you need to master is how to prioritize problems and features effectively.
As a product manager, you are constantly facing new challenges and problems. It can be difficult to know which problems to tackle first and how to prioritize them effectively. Luckily, there are a number of tried-and-true problem prioritization frameworks that can help you make quick, informed decisions about which issues to address first.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to problem prioritization. The approach you take will depend on the specific product and company context. In this article, we’ll introduce you to six of the most popular problem prioritization frameworks and explain when you should use each one.
Value vs. Complexity Quadrant
The Kano Model
The RICE framework
ICE Scoring Model
The MoSCoW method
Weighted Scoring Prioritization
Each of these frameworks has its own strengths and weaknesses. You will need to decide which one is the best fit for your organization and your particular problem-solving process.
The Value vs. Complexity Quadrant is a simple framework that can be used to prioritize problems. It takes into account both the value of solving the problem and the complexity of the problem.
The Kano Model is a more sophisticated framework that takes into account the customer's satisfaction with the product or service. It can be used to prioritize problems that need to be solved in order to improve customer satisfaction.
Weighted Scoring Prioritization is a framework that allows you to assign weights to different factors that need to be considered when prioritizing problems. This can be helpful if you have a lot of factors that you need to take into account.
The RICE and ICE frameworks are specifically designed for product managers. It takes into account the impact, effort, and feasibility of solving a problem.
Value vs. Complexity Quadrant
The Value vs. Complexity Quadrant is a framework that can help you prioritize problems based on their potential impact and the effort required to solve them.
To use this framework, start by plotting each problem on a quadrant diagram, with the x-axis representing the complexity and the y-axis representing the value.
Value Understanding the potential value of a feature is paramount to both customers and your business. Will the feature reduce customer friction, increase efficiency, or provide a better overall experience? In addition, will it be financially beneficial for your company? Analyzing these questions can help you decide if this is a feature worth implementing.
Complexity (or Effort) Product complexity is an important factor to consider when building a feature or product. Taking into account the associated costs, like operational fees, development time and resources, technology, infrastructure, training and more are all part of this evaluation process. The feature must not only be desirable for customers but it must also be viable for your organization. Crafting the perfect mix between customer value and organizational efficiency is key.
If you can get more value with fewer efforts, that’s a feature you should prioritize.
There are four quadrants in the Value vs. Complexity Quadrant framework:
Fill-Ins or Maybes (Low value, low complexity): These are problems that are unlikely to have a significant impact on the product and can be solved quickly and easily. Unless there are other factors at play, these should be low priorities.
Time Sink Features (Low value, high complexity): These are problems that are unlikely to have a significant impact but would require a lot of time and effort to solve. These should also be low priorities unless there are other factors at play.
Quick Wins (High value, low complexity): These are problems that are likely to have a significant impact and can be solved quickly and easily. These should be high priorities.
Major Projects, Big Bets (High value, high complexity): These are problems that are likely to have a significant impact and would require a lot of time and effort to solve. These should be high priorities, but you may need to consider trade-offs if there are other problems that are easier to solve but also have a high potential impact.
The Kano Model
The Kano Model is a framework that can help you prioritize problems based on customer satisfaction.
To use this framework, start by identifying the factors that contribute to customer satisfaction. Then, classify each factor as either “must-have”, “nice-to-have”, or “indifferent”.
Expected - Must-have features are those that customers expect and take for granted. For example, a must-have feature of a smartphone is the ability to make and receive phone calls.
Delight - Nice-to-have features are those that are not essential but can still contribute to customer satisfaction. For example, a nice-to-have feature of a smartphone is the ability to play music.
Indifferent features are those that have no impact on customer satisfaction. For example, the color of a smartphone’s casing is usually indifferent to customers.
Once you’ve classified each factor, you can prioritize problems based on the potential impact they have on customer satisfaction. Must-have and nice-to-have factors should be high priorities, while indifferent factors can be low priorities. Also the classification changes as the product move from the initial stages to more mature stages. where initially features that delight turns into expected and new features that delight fill in.
Source: Product Roadmaps Relaunched by C. Todd Lombardo, Bruce McCarthy, Evan Ryan, Michael Connors
Let’s take an example of a Food delivery app
Expected - Must-have features - Able to order food and get food delivered
Delight - Nice-to-have - Display food that can be delivered within 10 mins
Indifferent - Show customer’s images of the restaurant instead of their logos
The RICE framework
The RICE framework is a problem prioritization framework that was developed at Intercom, a customer support software company.
The RICE framework prioritizes problems based on four factors:
Reach
Impact
Confidence
Effort
Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/rice-scoring-framework-resolve-product-prioritization-digvijay-singh/
Reach
What is the estimated scope of users that will be impacted by the specified feature within a given period of time?
Assume 20 million users use your product and this feature could be used by 10 million people that are its reach score.
Impact
Intercom scores the impact of a specific feature on an individual person level on a scale from 0.5 to 3.
3 – massive impact
2 – high
1 – medium
0.5 – low impact
Confidence
The Confidence score in the RICE method gives you a way to rate your features based on your research data. This helps product managers make informed decisions while still allowing them flexibility with their own research and insight.
Confidence is a percentage value:
100% – high confidence in your data
80% – medium confidence in your data
50% – low confidence in your data or lack of data
Effort
The effort is an estimate of the resources required to successfully complete a particular feature. It is measured in “person-months” and should be taken into account when planning software development. A higher effort can lead to longer timelines or additional personnel required, so clear communication with all stakeholders involved is essential.
Source: https://hygger.io/blog/4-powerful-factors-rice-scoring-model/
As this post is becoming too long for the email I have to split it into 2 parts stay tuned for the continuation that will come out next Sunday.
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