How Do You Prioritize Your Backlog?

Introduction

Prioritizing features is a crucial aspect of product management. With limited resources and a long list of potential enhancements, it becomes essential to identify the most valuable features to build. In this blog post, we will discuss a method for product prioritization that involves three frameworks: Story-Mapping, Buy-A-Feature, and Cost of Delay. Each framework offers unique insights into feature prioritization, allowing product managers to make informed decisions and align them with company goals and customer satisfaction.

Story-Mapping: Understanding the User Journey

To start the prioritization process, it is crucial to have a deep understanding of the current user journey of the product. This involves analyzing user data, conducting user research, and considering market and industry trends. By mapping out the user journey, product managers can identify pain points, areas for improvement, and potential new features. This exercise helps in determining the dependencies of each feature and categorizing them into three groups: features that can be built today, features that can be built tomorrow, and features that can be built in the future based on resource availability and company goals.

Buy-A-Feature: Letting Users Decide

Once the features are categorized, it's time to involve the users in the prioritization process. The Buy-A-Feature framework allows users to determine which features they would "buy" given a specific amount of money. The dollar value assigned to each feature does not correlate with the willingness to pay for it but rather represents the desire for that feature to exist today. By organizing the features based on the dollar value assigned to them, product managers can gain insights into the most desired features from the user's perspective.

Cost of Delay: Evaluating Value and Effort

After understanding the user's desires, it's important to assess the value and effort associated with each feature. The Cost of Delay framework helps in estimating the cost of building and shipping a feature against the value it would bring if it existed today. This estimation takes into account the number of dependencies and the desire expressed by the users. By assigning rough dollar figures to each feature and ordering them based on user desire, product managers can make informed decisions about feature prioritization.

Conclusion

Product prioritization is a complex task that requires careful consideration of factors like criticality, customer satisfaction, and effort. The three frameworks discussed in this blog post - Story-Mapping, Buy-A-Feature, and Cost of Delay - provide valuable insights into feature prioritization. By understanding the user journey, involving users in the decision-making process, and evaluating the value and effort of each feature, product managers can create a prioritization plan that aligns with company goals and outcomes. It's important to socialize the prioritization strategy with stakeholders and internal teams to ensure alignment and maximize the return on investment.

What do you think? What’s your preferred method to prioritization? Let us know in the comments below!