A simple way to prioritise your product features based on value, effort and risk
A cool way to decide what to do *Dad joke warning*
The Build Trap is when a product team prioritises output over outcomes. They keep building stuff but might be building the wrong thing.
A common (and decent) way to pick what to do is a simple 2 x 2 effort and impact matrix also known as an action board. This is super-fast for separating the quick wins from the new projects from the non-starters, as seen in this screen grab from the Miro impact effort template.
What’s missing from this is a risk dimension. If something has a high impact and is easy but risks some kind of catastrophe, then it might not be the best option. Or at least the risks should be mitigated.
How to add a risk dimension
The ICE approach deals with this by scoring each feature against impact, certainty and effort then multiplying the numbers for a final score.
Impact: 3 has high impact, 1 has low impact
Certainty: 3 has high certainty (low risk), 1 has low certainty (high risk)
Effort: 3 is easy, 1 is really hard
Here’s an example. A product manager of a mobile banking app is choosing between 3 features to prioritise.
Speed up the logging in process
Export PDF statements
International payments
The obvious thing to prioritise here is the export PDF statements feature because it’s easy, high impact and low risk.
I put a template for ICE prioritisation on the Miroverse. Hope you found this handy!
Cheers Iain
