11/23/21, 8:56 AM 10 Prioritization Matrices & Techniques You Need to Narrow a Product Backlog

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k 10 Prioritization Matrices &

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Techniques You Need to Narrow a
Product Backlog
by posted on
Pavel Kukhnavets March 1, 2021 (March 1, 2021)

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11/23/21, 8:56 AM 10 Prioritization Matrices & Techniques You Need to Narrow a Product Backlog

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Reaching the role of a leader in your company, you start facing extra responsibility and pressure
in terms of various aspects. From maintaining a positive reputation to prioritizing tasks and
features correctly on a daily basis.

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11/23/21, 8:56 AM 10 Prioritization Matrices & Techniques You Need to Narrow a Product Backlog

Each of us constantly faces the need to prioritize things in different life situations. For work
tasks, prioritization is a success engine that helps you quickly and efficiently cope with routine
and a bunch of unclaimed tasks. All project managers know that quality prioritization is an
essential tool in 2021.

The ability to set priorities may seem like a simple and accessible skill. However, for product
managers and project managers with no experience, this can be a real cause of failure.

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SHARES Product backlog prioritization is not only about making a stack of features in a certain order.

a This process contains juggling many stakeholders’ inputs and opinions. The truth is – narrowing
3 the list of product feature requests can be the most challenging part of a product owner/product

d manager’s job. Luckily, there are powerful prioritization techniques that are aimed to help
you deal with the different hierarchies and define urgent, important, necessary, and needless
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h items. They will be definitely helpful if you need to determine priorities for your project tasks,
objectives, requirements, and product features.
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k Contents
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What is a Product Backlog?
Why is it important?
Characteristics of a backlog
What is Prioritization?
Why is prioritization important?
How to Prioritize
What are the goals of the prioritization process?
Prioritization in Product/Project Management
Top-10 Prioritization Matrices And Techniques For Any Purpose
Prioritization Matrices
1. Eisenhower’s prioritizing matrix
2. Value vs Effort matrix
3. Value vs Risk matrix Support

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11/23/21, 8:56 AM 10 Prioritization Matrices & Techniques You Need to Narrow a Product Backlog

4. The Value vs Complexity matrix

Prioritization Techniques and Models
5. MoSCoW
6. Kano Model
7. Opportunity Scoring
8. Story Mapping
9. ICE Prioritization
10. RICE Prioritization

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What is a Product Backlog?
a
3 A product backlog is a set of items that should be done. These items should be ranked according

d to feature descriptions and broken down into user stories.

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h The Agile backlog gathers and prioritizes the task-level details on the strategic plan set forth in a
product roadmap. It should communicate what will be next on the development to-do list of the
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k team.

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The well-prioritized backlog is aimed to make release and iteration planning easier and systemize
everything the team intends to spend time on. The product backlog is the responsibility of the
product owner who cares about the content, availability, and priority of the backlog.

Why is it important?
Every feature can be estimated
It helps to plan the roadmap for the product
Helps to re-rank the features that influence on the product value
Helps teams to rank an item and then build value
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11/23/21, 8:56 AM 10 Prioritization Matrices & Techniques You Need to Narrow a Product Backlog

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a
3 Characteristics of a backlog
d There is an abbreviation that combines similar characteristics of good product backlogs. This is
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DEEP:

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0 Detailed appropriately

k Emergent
3 Estimated
Prioritized

Here we will dwell on the last point – on how to make backlog qualitatively prioritized and how
you can quickly achieve this.

What is Prioritization?
Looking for the prioritization definition, you will probably stumble upon several interpretations,
but they will all boil down to one thought. Prioritization means organizing things when the
most important thing is done or dealt with first.
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11/23/21, 8:56 AM 10 Prioritization Matrices & Techniques You Need to Narrow a Product Backlog

This may involve organizing a group of tasks or things that need to be completed, as well as
their ranking according to different factors (for example, criticalness). Prioritization helps us to
clearly define what should be focused on to accomplish more and achieve maximum productivity.

There are two common ways of defining prioritization:

what should be done first when you have a lot of tasks to complete.
when you prioritize throughout the day to make sure you have time for everything.
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Why is prioritization important?

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11/23/21, 8:56 AM 10 Prioritization Matrices & Techniques You Need to Narrow a Product Backlog

Setting priorities is necessary for completing everything that needs to be done. The process of
prioritizing allows you to focus on tasks that are important and urgent so that you can later
direct your attention to lower priority tasks.

If you ignore prioritization, you will have trouble getting things done on time and stress about
how you will finish everything on your to-do list.

Everyone has many things that need to be done. Often, people track their stuff by creating to-do
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SHARES lists. To-do lists can be really helpful to see a birds-eye view of your needs and figure out what

a you need to focus on right now, work efficiently, and save time and energy. This is probably one
3 of the most simple ways to deal with priorities.

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10 How to Prioritize
h In order to recognize what needs to be done here and now, you must go through all of your to-
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do’s and clarify the following moments:
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Is this a pressing priority with a deadline coming up and possible consequences if it is not
finished on time?
Is it a crucial priority, meaning that this item must be done, but without clear deadlines?
Is this a non-obligatory priority without possible consequences?

Trying to set priorities, you should also consider where each item ranks in comparison to other
items. There are many specific prioritization methods and frameworks which we will cover in
this article below to help you prioritize.

What are the goals of the prioritization process?

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Every person strives to accomplish as much as possible in their personal and work lives. For that
reason, it is quite important to determine which goals to tackle first.

In order to prioritize how your goals and objectives should be categorized, you first have to list all
of them. Define how long you would like to spend on every goal or objective, and when you
would like to achieve it. Remember, you are the only one who knows your goals better than
anyone.

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3 Which goal do I think about the most?

d Which goal can give me the most energy?

Is this in line with my true values?
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h Which goals do not depend on other people or circumstances?

Which goals give me a heavy sensation when I think about them?
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Which goals give me positive feelings when I think of them?
k In ten years from now, how important will the goal be to me?
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What achievements would make me feel proud of myself?
Which goals fit best within my current life context?

Prioritization in Product/Project Management

One of the core artifacts that are used in Agile software development is a product backlog.
Product teams compile it as a source of story points or tasks that must be completed in the next
sprint. Before joining the backlog, each task (or any item) must be prioritized to define what Support

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11/23/21, 8:56 AM 10 Prioritization Matrices & Techniques You Need to Narrow a Product Backlog

looks most reasonable or delivers the most value.

Besides, the skill of managing priorities definitely assists when you deal with Scope Creep,
trying to optimize and save your projects.

Top-10 Prioritization Matrices And

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Techniques For Any Purpose
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a Relying on a gut feeling often puts a project at risk. That’s why product and project managers
who are typically responsible for prioritizing tasks in a backlog should constantly empower their
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d professional skills and knowledge with the power of popular prioritization techniques and
frameworks.
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h Here’s the list of the most common prioritization techniques and methods, that will be definitely
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helpful in 2021. After the short description of each method, we will give our subjective
k assessment of how simple or complex the method is, ranging them in stars
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Prioritization Matrices
1. Eisenhower’s prioritizing matrix
Eisenhower’s matrix is a classic model in the prioritization matrices system. The matrix gets its
name from a thirty-fourth American president who knew how to prioritize things well. This
matrix typically consists of four squares for the following :

Square 1 contains the fundamentally important and the most urgent tasks and issues. They
should be finished as soon as possible. Support

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11/23/21, 8:56 AM 10 Prioritization Matrices & Techniques You Need to Narrow a Product Backlog

Square 2 includes a set of very important but not so urgent tasks. Based on this square, there
is the main workflow for each employee with his/her current duties and planned tasks.
Square 3 presents urgent but not very important activities. This part may look like a bunch of
distractions that should be considered carefully before their direct execution.
Square 4 involves the tasks of the lowest priority both for their urgency and importance.
These activities and tasks are certain parts of some more global processes and finally have to
be done, too.

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a utilization flexibility. It is actively used in product development, business strategy development,

3 work planning, and other high-level management processes.

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This simple structure matrix allows product specialists to operate their tasks in a more
comfortable way.

The matrix also has a classic view of four squares. Each of them defines the value of the group of
tasks and the approximate amount of effort for the task execution. Here is how this
prioritization matrix may look like in real life:

Square 1 represents Quick wins. These tasks are different by their high importance for the
entire workflow, they do not actually require a lot of effort.
Square 2 represents Big Bets. These tasks are quite valuable. They can bring an organization
to success, however, they often need more time and efforts to be done. Support

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Square 3 represents Maybes – the tasks and activities that are easy to be completed without
many efforts. However, they hardly have a big importance for the business processes.
Square 4 represents Time Sinks. Here you will find tasks with low priority with minimal
effort, so it is recommended not to pay attention to these tasks during the day.

3. Value vs Risk matrix

Another interesting and easy-to-implement way of task prioritization – is the Value and Risk
16 method. It helps specialists to divide the tasks into four categories by their value for the
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a workflow and also realize the real risk of a particular activity. The value of each task is
determined individually, but there are three different criteria for the risk scoring, as follows:
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d Schedule risk means that the risk can be defined by the time the task starts.
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Cost risk means a rather high amount of the task cost that exceeds the possibilities of the
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Functionality risk is a lack of technological possibility to do the task.
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4. The Value vs Complexity matrix

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11/23/21, 8:56 AM 10 Prioritization Matrices & Techniques You Need to Narrow a Product Backlog

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k This lightweight methodology is widely used by product and project managers to evaluate
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features on a product roadmap. Value vs Complexity requires a balanced approach to business
and tech aspects of development.

The framework is based on the Eisenhower matrix, where the features are allocated across four
quadrants with two dimensions: value and complexity. According to the technique, the most
value and least complexity tasks are performed first.

The product team estimates the features’ Value and the criteria are defined by the team
arbitrarily. They may represent customer engagement, retention, customer acquisition potential,
market demand, expected revenue, and so on.
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11/23/21, 8:56 AM 10 Prioritization Matrices & Techniques You Need to Narrow a Product Backlog

The team estimates the total cost of the feature and represents it as a proxy for the Complexity
necessary to realize it.

Pros Cons

Subjective nature.
Easy to conduct.
Can be hard to navigate when there’s an
Great for identifying quick wins and low-
extensive list of features.
16 hanging-fruit opportunities.
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Provides advanced flexibility.
a No detailed calculations need.
product teams.
3 Requires high-cost coordination expenses.

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h Simplicity for all the matrices:

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Prioritization Techniques and Models

5. MoSCoW

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for prioritizing products composes an acronym that combines four priority categories: Must,
Should, Could, and Would (or Won’t).

Using the method, you can easily evaluate the relative importance of every task. MoSCoW is
equally popular among both companies that adopt Agile software development practices and
Waterfall-focused teams.

The technique offers to break down all story points into the following categories:

“Must” is about mandatory items. When you abandon them, the current sprint most likely
fails. Support

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“Should” represents the items great to have, but with not the highest priority. They do not
have much impact on delivery, however, they must be implemented.
“Could” items represent the essential small-scale improvements. They do not require
considerable resources and their absence will not significantly affect the release.
“Would” is about the items with the lowest importance. You can easily omit or rescheduled
them for future releases.

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a Operational friendliness and simplicity.

3 The method doesn’t require deep Lack of big-picture focus.

d understanding or complicated calculations.

It promotes mutual understanding
Weak consistency of implementation.
The method does not introduce
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h between the team and stakeholders.

Fast and transparent scheduling.
sequencing of tasks and lacks planning.

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Simplicity:

6. Kano Model

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k The technique is based on different levels of users’ satisfaction with a product’s features and
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behavior. The author of the method is the Japanese researcher Noriaki Kano who described its
model in the 1980s.

There are different ways to implement the Kano model. One of the versions offers dividing user
backlog items by the following criteria: Must-be, Attractive, One-Dimensional, Indifferent, and
Reverse.

The technique that is based on user satisfaction, requires conducting surveys and user
interviews before prioritizing.

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Must-be features – a customer considers the product functional only if these features are
included.
One-dimensional features are not “must-have” for work, but they seem extremely desirable
to customers.
Attractive features are aimed to add extra satisfaction. They are typically unexpected but
nice-to-have.
Indifferent features have the least possible impact on customers’ satisfaction and actually
have no value.
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SHARES Reverse features are the most annoying. They usually have a negative effect on customer

a satisfaction.
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d Pros Cons
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h Highlighting the strengths and

weaknesses of a product.
No details about the required resources.
The model does not account for time and
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k Ranking product features by their value.

Ability to specify the product fit early in
costs.
The restriction by customers’ opinions.
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development. The need to discuss all tech concepts
Constant user feedback. separately.

Simplicity:

7. Opportunity Scoring

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comes from Anthony Ulwick’s Outcome-Driven Innovation concept. According to the famous
author’s theory, customers buy products and services to get certain jobs done.

Their feedback is still important, even although they are not very good at coming up with
solutions to their challenges. The team will use their feedback to come up with the desired
outcomes.

The Opportunity scoring approach uses two graphs to measure and rank opportunities:
Satisfaction and Importance.

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11/23/21, 8:56 AM 10 Prioritization Matrices & Techniques You Need to Narrow a Product Backlog

After completing the list of ideal outcomes, you will be able to survey your clients, asking them
the questions:

How important is a particular feature?

How satisfied are they with the solution?

Then you have to plot their answers on the chart, which will give you the opportunity to see the
features that matter the most to the clients but currently have low satisfaction scores within
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h Great for finding gaps in your value

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delivery.
k Can be easily applied in several areas of
In product management, it represents a
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business other than product management
Does not work for new products or
(IT, marketing, sales, IT management,
features due to the lack of customer data
investing, etc.)
and market research.
Helps to achieve a better return on
investment.

Simplicity:

8. Story Mapping Support

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k The Story Mapping technique has been first communicated in the article by Jeff Patton.
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According to this prioritization methodology, a product backlog is not enough to prioritize the
work. Jeff Patton thinks that in order to succeed, you need a more detailed structure. He
proposes the following mechanics:

The horizontal axis where the sequence of use is visualized. The tasks are placed in the
sequence in which they are performed by the client.
The vertical axis demonstrates criticality. The tasks are placed relative to how important
they are from top to bottom. There are also equally important tasks that may be visualized at
the same height.

Groups of related stories are grouped as activities. Support

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Story Mapping allows teams, partners, and clients to share a common understanding of what is
happening. The technique defines how to gradually release product iterations.

Pros Cons

It relies on the availability of internet

It is rather flexible and easy to conduct. access, and the scientific peer-review
Provides a holistic view of the customer process is not yet fully developed to
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a delivery. map content.

3 Allows introducing layers of complexity A large story map may span multiple

d and intricacy without taking away from

the top layer story map.
releases, likely over a long time period. It’s
challenging to keep it relevant and safe
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h enough to endure that full period.

k Simplicity:
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9. ICE Prioritization

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k The ICE score prioritization model is the concept described by Sean Ellis. To apply ICE
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scoring, you have to calculate the score per idea, according to the formula:

Impact*Confidence*Ease = ICE Score

where:

Impact shows how much a particular idea positively affects the key metric you’re trying to
improve.
Confidence demonstrates how sure you are about the Impact. It also reflects the ease of
implementation in some way.
Ease shows the easiness of implementation. Support

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According to the method, you rate the values on a relative scale of 1–10 so as not to over-weigh
any of them. You can choose what 1–10 means, as long the rating stays consistent.

Pros Cons

A convenient matrix format

Redundant subjectiveness.
The method is useful for sorting out the
The same feature can be scored differently
tasks that need to be realized but
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When people score a feature to test, they
a The method allows the best ideas to rise
will all score it differently.
3 to the top, wherever they came from.

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k 10. RICE Prioritization

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k The RICE technique seems quite a time-consuming but balanced prioritization approach for
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mature products. This rate-scoring method involves calculations that’s why it can not be
considered as a simple one. Besides, it is not applicable in every prioritization case.

RICE allows effective teams to take a detailed look at the product from different sides.

The acronym involves: Reach, Impact, Confidence, and Effort – the factors to estimate every
feature separately.

Reach demonstrates the number of people able to use it in a particular time period. This
parameter is assessed with Daily or Monthly Active Users metrics.
Impact reflects the feature contribution to the overall product promotion. Support

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Confidence comes to the rescue when If you think a project could have a huge impact but do
not have data to back it up. It helps you to estimate how sure you are about the given feature
benefit.
Effort demonstrates the time taken by the product and engineering teams. Depending on
needs, it is estimated as a number of “person-months”, weeks or hours.

You need to take the proposed features, rank each of them using Reach, Impact, Confidence,
and Effort criteria, and use the scores to decide which features will be cut. The formula looks
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3 RICE= Reach*Impact*Confidence/Effort

d The bigger the rate is, the higher the priority.

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0 Pros Cons

k The model is time-consuming.

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Providing a comprehensive picture. A lot of calculations.
Relevant metrics and numbers. It depends on the data that you may not
Considering user experience as very have.
important. It isn’t always clear who is in charge of
that.

Simplicity:

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11/23/21, 8:56 AM 10 Prioritization Matrices & Techniques You Need to Narrow a Product Backlog

By applying some of these prioritization methodologies, companies learn that setting and
changing priorities is an essential fact of organizational life. If implemented effectively,
prioritization frameworks fundamentally change companies, but only if top management deals
with tough choices.

Conclusion
A good idea is to bring and apply them all together. Be sure, if your backlog items are turning

16 into a line, then you’ve got a green light to prioritize.

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a Prioritization is not a complex science, it’s just your helper to get things done. With some
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experience, you will find out the best product prioritization technique or combination of methods
d that work best for your product and team.
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h If you want to know more about product management software with build-in prioritization,
0 you’ll find the insights in our future articles here. Feel free to explore modern project

k management software solutions as they often offer powerful prioritization frameworks.

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Which prioritization techniques have you applied? Was your experience successful? Please, share
your experience!

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