Roadmap Prioritization Techniques

I know you searched for a good prioritization method but you only found basic matrix templates in the internet. The templates are mostly helping PMs to decide which epics or themes have importance or urgency.

If you are the product manager for a mature product and there are a lot of stakeholders whose requests are always urgent, you need to stop using general product roadmap templates and dive into your long backlog.

In order to achieve the product vision, first you need to decide which theme you will focus on each quarter. High level prioritization methods can help you select a theme for the next quarter. After you select your focus, we can dive in with low level prioritization techniques.

I will use Pirate Metrics values “Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Revenue and Referral” for the theme field to keep it generic. Because sometimes we can focus on the metrics we want to increase for a quarter. We will give the highest values to the theme you selected so that other requests will have lower values in the prioritization excel.

For example, if our focus is increasing “Number of Orders (per User weekly)” we need to give a high priority value to the “Retention” theme.

High Level Prioritization

In this post we will examine the Low Level techniques but I don’t want to skip basics for scoring your product, so you can go and check some high level methods from other bloggers. Maybe I can explain what I am using most in later posts.

https://hygger.io/blog/4-types-of-powerful-prioritization-matrix-that-help-to-score-product/

Low Level Prioritization

Prioritization method tables can be managed with excel by using specific given values. We are using mostly The Fibonacci Sequence numbers to be able to get valid numbers for long roadmaps.

Before prioritizing requests let’s select fields we need for our product. We can list must have fields as follows:

1. Request Number

Specific ID for each request. If you are not using any tool, I highly recommend you to use unique numbers for every request in your backlog. We are even adding links to IDs, so we can click and see the details for the issue in our backlog management tool.

2. Request Description

A brief explanation is enough. It is important to understand the request without any need to go and check the management tool. You can also use the same title with your management tool.

3. Priority

Priority number will be our reference for the development queue. We will start to develop the requests which have the highest numbers. The priority number will be calculated via the VLOOKUP table according to the numbers you set for each field. To be able to get an average value within a range, we can sum up the Fibonacci numbers and divide them with a fixed value. You can play with the numbers. Multiply them, divide with other values until you get a number that suits your backlog.

4. Estimation (days)

For development team estimation we can give a percentage and divide the Fibonacci numbers result with the estimation to get “Priority” value. Because higher the development time will give the lesser value according to agile processes. If you want to increase priority for the features which have high estimation numbers, you can increase other variables’ priorities or you can basically divide them into sub tasks before adding them into the backlog.

5. Severity

The Severity field can be Trivial, Major, Critical and Blocker. These field names can be changed according to the management process you use. You should use the same Severity value you have in the management tool and excel. Different values will cause wrong priorities later.

6. Theme

The Theme field can have Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Revenue and Referral values. You can use fixed numbers “1,100,1000,10000,100000” for each theme according to your product vision. You can change the theme field as your product such as, Privacy, Authentication, Order Process, Payment Process etc.

7. Time Criticality

The Severity field comes from your management tool. Time criticality rows can be selected according to Product Managers initiative or other stakeholders.

You need to add the table into a VLOOKUP sheet. I used The Fibonacci Sequence numbers for the tables. You can set different numbers according to your backlog length. As seen in the below table excel will set “8” for a Trivial Immediate request. The “8” value will be set via the VLOOKUP table.

8. User Business Value

User Business value can be learned from the Support team, Sales team or you can get from the metrics you collected. If your product is not a B2C product, you can change the fields such as “Requested by 0–3 companies or stakeholders”.

You need to add the table into a VLOOKUP sheet. As seen in the below table excel will set “1” value for a Trivial and Requested by 0–100 users requests. The “1” value will be set via the VLOOKUP table.

9. PM Business Value

The PM Business Value field is my best field. Because I can use every detail I have for the product and merge my knowledge with a percentage. As a product manager this field is your savior if you need to change some priorities the excel formulas provided. Again you need to add the below table into the VLOOKUP page.

As a summary, I created a dummy table with the fields I listed. I reflected “Priority” calculation results with order. In real cases the numbers will be like 1000, 1100. You need to sort the numbers or use a new calculation for the Priority field. For example, “10000-Priority Value”, you can select a fixed number according to your results.

It can be hard to apply such a complex method with excel but trust me you will get your effort’s worth immediately. If you decide to apply into your roadmap rezerve a seat from here. We can build it together :)

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