10 User Story Prioritization Techniques
10 User Story Prioritization Techniques
Select the right technique to prioritize requirements, features, epics and user stories
👋 Hello,
I’m Vibhor, and welcome to my weekly newsletter, the “Winning Strategy.” Every week I answer one question from you about agile, product, roles, processes, frameworks, career growth, working with humans and anything else that’s stressing you at your office. Send me your questions here, and in return, I’ll offer actionable, down-to-earth, and straightforward advice.
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On to this week’s question!
Q: Hi Vibhor, I really appreciate the valuable insights you shared in your YouTube video on backlog prioritization. However, I'm still a bit confused about choosing the appropriate technique. Would it be possible for you to create a video explaining how to select between different priority techniques? Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us.
Thanks for the question.
Let me start by saying that the confusion is real. I received 36 questions on user story prioritization last week, and the common theme is around finding the right technique from gazillion that are floating around on the internet.
Before we start, let me share the video you referred to in your question.
Creating a video on different prioritization techniques and how to choose the best for your situation is definitely in my YouTube backlog, but it may take some time to fulfil that request. To help you out faster, I'm putting together a newsletter post here that can give you some clarity without any delay.
Below you can find 10 different prioritization techniques with some recommendations on when to use which technique.
1. RICE SCORING
What: RICE stands for Reach, Impact, Confidence, and Effort. Each item is scored on these four dimensions, and the one with the best combination gets the highest priority.
We score each item on four aspects: how many users it impacts (Reach), how much it benefits each user (Impact), how confident we are about our estimates (Confidence), and how much work it requires (Effort
Best suited for: Features
Why: Balances reach, impact, confidence, and effort, making it versatile for evaluating features.
When to use: When there is a need to balance strategic and tactical needs, especially in product-oriented decisions.
Strength: Provides a comprehensive, multi-dimensional approach to prioritization, considering multiple factors to derive a score.
Weakness: Scoring can be a time-consuming task that requires careful consideration and it also relies heavily on subjective judgment.
More information: Learn more here.
2. VALUE vs. EFFORT MATRIX
What: It is a visual tool that helps to decide on what items to work on based on the value they deliver versus the effort it requires. The goal is to choose tasks that provide the highest value for the least effort.
Imagine a graph. You'll plot your items based on how much value they bring to the project and how much effort they require. The ones with high value and low effort, we'll tackle first. It's like picking low-hanging fruits first.
Best suited for: Features, User Stories
Why: Quantifies benefits and efforts, making it effective for granular work items like features and user stories.
When to use: When resources are limited or there are time constraints. Ideal for balancing work against available capabilities.
Strength: Provides a visual, balanced view of value against effort, helping to make informed decisions on what tasks to tackle first.
Weakness: Relies heavily on the accuracy of estimates. Incorrect estimations can lead to incorrect prioritization.
More information: Learn more here.
3. WEIGHTED SHORTEST JOB FIRST (WSJF)
What: This approach prioritizes items by considering their size and the cost of delay, with the objective of minimizing the time it takes to deliver value.
Best suited for: Epics, User Stories
Why: Considers the cost of delay and the size of work units, enabling effective sequencing and prioritization.
When to use: Ideal, when there are many items to prioritize and their dependencies and costs of delay, need to be considered.
Strength: Offers a rational and quantitative approach that minimizes time waste by focusing on job size and urgency.
Weakness: Requires detailed understanding of each item’s time requirement and the cost associated with its delay. Can be complex to implement.
More information: Learn more here.
4. KANO MODEL
What: Model to classify features into 'basic needs' that if not fulfilled cause dissatisfaction, 'Performance' where more is better, and 'Exciters' that can delight customers even though they never expected them.
Here we consider our features from a customer satisfaction perspective. 'Must-be' features are the basic ones our customers expect, 'Performance' features are those where more is better, and 'Exciters' are those that customers never asked for but will be delighted to find.
Best suited for: Features, User Stories
Why: Evaluates features based on customer satisfaction and differentiation, making it useful for user-centric work items.
When to use: When you want to prioritize features that could greatly impact customer satisfaction or set your product apart from the competition.
Strength: Helps identify "delighters" and must-have features to improve product value and customer satisfaction.
Weakness: Requires detailed customer insights and subjective classification. Not all features can be easily classified.
More: Learn more here.
5. RISK/VALUE MATRIX
What: Visual tool to prioritize tasks based on their potential benefits and associated risks. The goal is to maximize value while minimizing risk.
You'll plot your items on a graph, one axis for the potential value and one for the risk. Our aim is to choose tasks that bring high value but come with low risks, like choosing safe investments that also provide good returns.
Best suited for: Epics, Features
Why: Weighs potential risks against the value of larger units or standalone features, helping to balance risk and reward.
When to use: When considering items with substantial potential benefits but also significant associated risks.
Strength: Provides a balanced view of both risk and value, helping teams make informed decisions when risks are involved.
Weakness: Quality and accuracy of risk assessment can greatly impact the effectiveness of this method.
6. BUY A FEATURE
What: In this technique, stakeholders are given a certain budget and they can 'buy' the features they consider most important. This reveals what the stakeholders value the most.
Imagine stakeholders have some play money to 'buy' the features they want in our product. The most 'purchased' features get the highest priority because those are what our stakeholders value the most.
Best suited for: Features
Why: Directly involves stakeholders in decision-making, promoting consensus on feature value.
When to use: When there is a need to gather feedback from a large group of stakeholders or users.
Strength: An engaging method that brings stakeholders into the decision-making process, providing direct insight into what they value most.
Weakness: Can become a popularity contest rather than a rational decision-making process. Requires careful preparation to execute.
More: Learn more here.
7. THEME SCORING
What: This method averages multiple factors (like value, risk, cost, etc.) to score themes or epics. The highest scoring theme gets priority.
You’ll give each theme/epic a score based on different factors. This process is similar to rating movies based on their storyline, acting, direction, and so on. The theme with the highest average score will receive top priority.
Best suited for: Epics, Themes
Why: Averages multiple factors, providing a comprehensive view of larger, thematic work units.
When to use: When strategy-level decisions are needed for large units of work that can be broken down into smaller parts.
Strength: Offers a comprehensive system that considers various factors to provide an overall score for bigger work units.
Weakness: Requires detailed information for scoring and can be subjective, depending heavily on accurate estimation.
Here’s how it works:
Let's say your team is working on an e-commerce platform and they have two themes for the upcoming sprint:
Improve the Checkout Process
Add a Personalized Recommendation System
The first theme, "Improve the Checkout Process," is about refining the existing system, making it more user-friendly and efficient. The second theme, "Add a Personalized Recommendation System," is about introducing a new feature that provides customers with personalized product recommendations based on their shopping history and behaviour.
To apply Theme Scoring, you would first identify the factors that are important to your decision. These might include business value, cost, risk, and customer impact.
Business Value: Improving the checkout process could lead to an immediate increase in conversions, hence it scores a 5. The recommendation system, while beneficial in the long term, may not have an immediate high impact on revenue, hence a 4.
Cost: The cost to improve the checkout process might be less (3) since it is about refining existing systems. The recommendation system would require more resources to build from scratch, hence a higher score of 4.
Risk: The risk factor is relatively lower (2) for refining existing processes as compared to introducing an entirely new feature (4), which might have some unforeseen risks.
Customer Impact: Both themes provide value to the customer, but a personalized recommendation system could significantly enhance the user experience, giving it a higher score (5) as compared to the checkout process refinement (4).
Now, calculate the average score for each theme:
Improve Checkout Process: (5+3+2+4) / 4 = 3.5
Add Personalized Recommendation System: (4+4+4+5) / 4 = 4.25
Based on this scoring, you might prioritize the "Add Personalized Recommendation System" theme over "Improve Checkout Process" for your next sprint.
8. IMPACT MAPPING
What: It's a strategic planning technique that visualizes deliverables and their impacts on project goals. It aids in decision making by connecting the project's goals with its tasks.
Check out the following video I created on Impact Mapping.
We create a 'map' that shows how our tasks and deliverables contribute to our project goals, much like a mind map or a tree diagram. This visual guide helps us stay focused on our goals and understand the impact of our work.
Best suited for: Requirements, Epics
Why: Provides a visualization of the effects of work on business goals, essential for high-level planning.
When to use: Best when aligning team efforts with business outcomes, or when visualizing dependencies.
Strength: Allows visualization of how work aligns with business goals, and showcases dependencies. Useful for strategic planning.
Weakness: Can be complex for larger projects or those with many dependencies. Requires initial time investment to set up.
9. OPPORTUNITY SCORING
What: This method evaluates opportunities based on their potential to impact business and the probability of their success. The one with the best balance of impact and probability gets the priority.
We'll rate each opportunity based on two aspects: how much business value it can potentially bring (like how much profit a new business line could generate) and how likely it is to succeed (how confident we are that the business line will be profitable). The opportunities that score high on both aspects get our attention first.
Best suited for: Epics, Features
Why: Balances the potential of opportunities against their probability of success, helpful for making strategic decisions.
When to use: When there are several business opportunities and the team needs to decide which to pursue first based on their potential return and likelihood of success.
Strength: Considers both the potential return and likelihood of success, helping teams make informed decisions on which opportunities to pursue.
Weakness: It is subjective and requires a detailed understanding of each opportunity. Not suited for teams with less business acumen.
More: Learn more here.
10. PRIORITY POKER
What: This is a game that encourages team participation. Each team member votes on the priority of a user story. Majority vote decides the priority.
Best suited for: User Stories, Features
Why: Encourages team participation, fostering a democratic prioritization process.
When to use: When there's a need to increase team collaboration, engagement, and buy-in for the priorities set.
Strength: Encourages broad team engagement and reduces bias in decision-making by ensuring everyone has a say.
Weakness: It can be time-consuming and potentially influenced by dominant personalities within the team. Requires commitment from all team members.
More: Learn more here.
BONUS - (11) MoSCoW METHOD
What: Categorizes items into 'Must have', 'Should have', 'Could have', and 'Won't have' based on their necessity for project completion. This simplifies decision-making and helps focus the team on what really matters.
We have four categories. 'Must-haves' are vital for the project, without them, the project fails. 'Should-haves' are important but not critical. 'Could-haves' are nice to have if we get the time. 'Won't-haves' are not in our focus now.
Best suited for: Requirements
Why: Simplifies complex requirements by categorizing them based on their level of necessity.
When to use: When there is a need for quick prioritization under strict deadlines, or in projects with a rigid scope.
Strength: Provides a simple and easy-to-understand method of prioritization that facilitates stakeholder negotiation and consensus.
Weakness: Tends to oversimplify complex issues and does not consider the relative importance within categories, which may lead to overlooking significant details.
More: Learn more here.
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Vibhor 👋
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Vibhor Chandel
HI Vibhor, thanks for sharing this newsletter on a wonderful topic. I am sure for any product, one of these will definitely fit in.
Hi Vibhor,
Thank you for your great and selfless insights. Will you be kind to take on the Story Pointing Techniques even though it is a concept now in contention in the Agile world.
Many thanks,
Olushola R. Akinyemi