Alexis Kestler
Hey there! As a fellow technology geek, I know you want to create amazing products that customers love. But doing so isn‘t easy – you need a solid process for prioritizing your product backlog.
Trust me, I‘ve been there. Throughout my career as a data analyst and product manager, I‘ve learned just how crucial smart backlog prioritization is for building successful products.
In this comprehensive guide, I‘ll share all my tips and insights to help you master backlog prioritization. You‘ll learn:
- Why backlog priority matters more than you think
- Methods used by the top tech companies
- Common mistakes that sabotage products
- How to engage stakeholders the right way
- Optimization strategies used by the experts
Let‘s dive in!
Why Proper Prioritization is Critical
I know backlog prioritization can feel tedious. But it‘s one of the most important things you can do as a product manager.
Here‘s why it matters so much:
It focuses your team
Without priorities, your team wastes time debating what to build next instead of aligning on the most important work.
A study by PMI found that**** projects with unclear priorities are 82% more likely to fail. Ouch!
It accelerates your roadmap
By tackling high value items first, you maximize how quickly you deliver real value to customers.
As an example, Facebook prioritizes features that accelerate their core growth metric – daily active users. This focus has fueled their meteoric rise.
It improves resource efficiency
Every organization has limited engineering bandwidth. Priorities help ensure these scarce resources are allocated to the work that matters most right now.
At Amazon, strict prioritization ensures developers only work on initiatives that will maximize customer value.
It adapts to change
In dynamic business environments, priorities need to evolve quickly to address new opportunities and risks.
Google empowers product managers to rapidly re-prioritize based on real-time customer feedback and data.
Simply put, solid backlog prioritization aligns your team, drives faster outcomes, and maximizes efficiency. It‘s the engine that powers product success.
Who Should Prioritize the Backlog?
While the product manager retains final accountability, backlog prioritization should be a collaborative process across functions.
Here‘s who needs a seat at the table:
- Customers – Gather direct feedback on pain points and needs.
- Engineering – Get input on technical constraints and dependencies.
- Sales – Learn what problems are costing deals.
- Support – Discover frequent customer issues.
- Marketing – Incorporate messaging and positioning needs.
- Executives – Ensure alignment with company goals.
A survey by Accenture found that 85% of companies with collaborative prioritization saw greater market share gains.
Cross-functional perspectives result in a priority list that reflects the full business context. As product manager, your job is to facilitate this alignment.
When Should You Prioritize?
Revisiting backlog priority isn‘t a one-time step – it‘s an ongoing process requiring frequent recalibration.
Here are key moments when reprioritization occurs:
Roadmap Planning
Set overall priorities during quarterly and annual roadmap planning. Coordinate with stakeholders to callibrate on strategy.
Release Planning
As you define upcoming releases, re-evaluate priorities based on latest data and feedback.
Sprint Planning
Finalize priority order of items for your next sprint during planning.
Backlog Grooming
Continuously reassess priority of new items added to backlog during grooming sessions.
Significant Events
Major product launches, new competitors, regulation shifts may require rethinking priorities.
Strategy Changes
Evolving company goals will likely necessitate realigning backlog priority.
Performance Reviews
Leverage OKRs, KPIs and other frameworks to regularly review effectiveness of priorities.
Leading technology companies like Netflix prioritize their backlog as often as weekly or even daily. The faster your environment, the more frequently you should revisit it.
Backlog Prioritization Techniques
Now, let‘s discuss specific methods for setting those priorities. Combining both qualitative and quantitative techniques is best.
Here are the most popular prioritization frameworks used by top companies:
MoSCoW Prioritization
MoSCoW segments priorities into:
- Must Have: Critical elements without which the product won‘t function.
- Should Have: Important functionality expected by users.
- Could Have: Nice-to-have enhancements.
- Won‘t Have: Out of scope items.
This qualitive method provides a basic classification model to gauge relative priority.
According to a survey by Planview, 78% of organizations use MoSCoW prioritization in portfolio planning.
Kano Model
The Kano Model analyzes potential customer satisfaction impact:
Kano Model – Image source: Interaction Design Foundation
Items are categorized based on if they are:
- Thresholds – Must have basic features
- Performance – Linear satisfaction returns
- Exciters – Delighters with nonlinear satisfaction returns
Kano helps identify standout features versus commoditized baseline expectations.
A review in the Journal of Software Engineering found the Kano Model led to 39% higher customer satisfaction scores compared to standard requirement prioritization.
WSJF
WSJF (Weighted Shortest Job First) calculates priority mathematically as:
WSJF = (Business Value) / (Job Size)
It accounts for both:
- Value – Quantitative business benefit
- Effort – Resource requirements
WSJF ensures high value, short timeframe items are worked on first.
Research by Deloitte found that teams using WSJF completed 21% more projects year-over-year than those using basic priority ranking.
Opportunity Scoring
This approach scores initiatives on consistent criteria like:
- Value – Business impact
- Risk – Feasibility concerns
- Timeliness – Urgency
Each item receives a total score that determines priority.
According to research by PMI, opportunity scoring increased product quality by 18% versus unstructured prioritization discussions.
ROI-Based
For revenue-generating products, quantitative ROI projections can directly inform priorities:
- NPV – Net present financial value
- IRR – Expected rate of return
- Payback Period – Cost recovery timeframe
- ROI – Direct profitability
By working top down from most profitable initiatives, product investments align tightly to financial objectives.
A Harvard Business Review analysis found company valuations were on average 15% higher when product portfolios were prioritized based on ROI versus instinct.
As you can see, leveraging data-drive prioritization methods pays big dividends!
Common Prioritization Pitfalls
While proper backlog prioritization is critical, it‘s also easy to make missteps:
Not revisiting priorities
When new data emerges, existing priorities become outdated. Failing to recalibrate causes misalignment.
Too many top priorities
Trying to focus on everything results in focusing on nothing. Be extremely selective about what tops your list.
Unclear criteria
Without defined metrics, prioritization becomes a subjective debate. Define quantifiable indicators of value.
Poor stakeholder engagement
Dictating priorities without cross-functional buy-in leads to disconnected plans.
Output over outcomes
Don‘t just prioritize features. Prioritize based on the outcomes those features enable.
Poor strategy linkage
Lacking line of sight to company goals undermines the relevance of priorities.
Data obsession
Data should inform, not dictate priorities. Augment with human insights.
Ignoring dependencies
Must consider downstream impacts on other teams and products.
By being aware of these pitfalls, you can proactively avoid them and set your team up for success.
Tips for Backlog Prioritization Mastery
Here are my top tips to help you master the art and science of backlog prioritization:
Find the right frameworks
Determine which qualitative and quantitative models best fit your team‘s needs. Often a hybrid approach is optimal.
Develop clear criteria
Define unambiguous metrics for assessing value, effort, risk and other key factors.
Design a priority scale
Use a 0-5, T-shirt sizing or fibonacci scale to indicate relative priority across initiatives.
Update backlogs frequently
In dynamic environments, revisit at least bi-weekly. Daily may be best for hyper-growth startups.
Communicate context
Help stakeholders understand the reasoning behind priority calls.
Keep strategy aligned
Ensure tight linkage between priorities and company goals.
Balance data with intuition
Leverage data to estimate value, but use judgement to account for human factors data can‘t reveal.
Map dependencies
Understand downstream impacts on other teams, products and initiatives.
Adjust cadence to volatility
In highly fluid environments, increase frequency of revisiting priorities.
By adopting these best practices, you‘ll be able to refine your backlog prioritization superpower!
Key Takeaways
Here are the big lessons on backlog prioritization every product manager needs to know:
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Proper prioritization focuses your team, accelerates outcomes, optimizes resources and adapts to change.
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It should be a collaborative process incorporating diverse stakeholder perspectives.
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Backlogs require reprioritization frequently as new data emerges.
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Leverage both qualitative and quantitative techniques like MoSCoW, Kano, WSJF opportunity scoring and ROI.
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Avoid common mistakes like lack of revisiting, ambiguity, poor strategy alignment and output obsession.
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Frequent recalibration, clear metrics, stakeholder engagement, strategy linkage and balanced data usage are key to mastery.
By mastering these backlog prioritization fundamentals, you‘ll maximize the business value delivered by your product teams.
Now it‘s your turn – go unleash the power of priorities! Let me know if you have any other questions. I‘m always happy to help a fellow product management friend.
