How I help my team prioritize features when time is limited

🎁 Full Facilitation Checklist and Pitfalls

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Last week, I was sitting in a room with a product team.

On the whiteboard were 47 feature requests. Each feature seemed more urgent than the last.

The Product Manager was overwhelmed.

The developers were anxious. The stakeholders kept adding "just one more critical feature."

It was almost too funny to watch.

Why?

Because I have seen this scenario far too many times. The reality at the foundation of this issue is almost always the same.

Having too many features to build is not the problem.

The problem is not having a way to say "no" to good ideas so the team can say "yes" to the great ones.

So, how did I help this team cut through the noise?

In this post:

1. I’ll walk you through a proven 3-part process to help your team prioritize and filter features, even under tight constraints

2. I will share the most common pitfalls to avoid, so you can save time, align your team, and focus on what truly matters

3. Plus, there is a 90-minute facilitation checklist to help you guide your team

Let’s get started.

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First… what do you need to make this work?

Let’s take a step back.

To effectively prioritize features when time is limited, you need a system that can help the team focus on what truly matters.

This means having a way to quickly evaluate and filter features based on 3 things:

1. feasibility,

2. business impact, and

3. user value/needs

All while keeping the team aligned and engaged.

So… what do you do first?

You start by asking 3 key questions:

1. What is realistic to deliver given the team’s existing capacity?

2. What features are most important for achieving our business goals?

3. What delivers the most value to our users?

To answer these questions, you will need a way to:

• Filter features by what’s realistically possible right now

• See clearly which features will deliver Business value

• See clearly which features will deliver User value

When you combine these elements, it starts to act like a 3-layered funnel.

Each layer of this funnel helps you remove features that don't require your immediate attention, allowing you to focus on what truly matters.

Let me show you the exact process I used with this team.