What is feature prioritization?

Prioritization is the ongoing process of deciding what should be built when, based on what will bring most value to the user and what is feasible.

Priorities sit on your product roadmap and should be continually reviewed and adjusted to reflect market changes.

As you develop a clearer picture of which ideas will bring the most value and how much effort they will take to implement, this information should be fed straight back into your calculations for what comes next.

Product Backlog Prioritization best practices

How do you effectively prioritize features?

Good prioritization requires balancing quick fixes that you expect will have an immediate impact on your customers, versus product evolutions, which will help you lead or disrupt the market.

The best way to prioritize features for your product is to evaluate ideas in your product backlog to see which ones are important, pressing or highly valuable. 

With the help of a priority chart, you can start to visualize your ideas in relationship to each other, which helps you identify:

• Quick Wins: Items up here are low effort (easy to do) and high impact (great positive impact for your company). Do these first!
• Time Sinks: Items down here are high effort (lots of work to do) and low impact (not really much value for your company). Proceed with caution.

Learn more about the priority chart.

Prioritization is always a balancing trick between finding high impact quick wins and the kinds of product evolutions that help you create or maintain your competitive lead.

How can ProdPad help?

ProdPad’s Priority Chart Tool maps out the ideas in your backlog on a color-coded chart to help you to spot quick wins and product opportunities. Try free today.