Relative Prioritization

I have been having a number of conversations on prioritization over the last couple of weeks. This is a natural consequence of ending a quarterly review and now looking at what we will do in the next quarter and perhaps dusting of a product backlog and working out which items should be tackled next.

The whole process is of course incredibly subjective. If it was terribly scientific then there would be no need for product management at all, you could simply deal with things like an accountant.

There are a number of frameworks available. I personally prefer MoSCoW prioritization but there are many who consider RICE to be better, and then of course there is KANO, Walking Skeleton and others.

I like MoSCoW for its simplicity, and of course it is terribly subjective but the Weighted Shortest Job First Framework has the advantage of of being aligned with Lean-Agile principles and is the most comprehensive.

My view though, is that there are often very few circumstances under which you have perfect information, so subjectivity is always there.

The most important thing, in my mind, is to remember that prioritization is only good for a point in time. It is also all about prioritizing competing items on the table at that time. The rationale for the calculations is likely to have a reset in say 6 months time when you do the exercise again and the results in 6 months time may not be the same as they are today based on new information, new circumstances.