Feature Prioritization Guide For Product Managers in 2024

Feature prioritization is always a hot-button issue for product managers. It helps organizations focus on the

Determining which features to include in a product roadmap can be challenging with constantly evolving customer needs and several opportunities chasing scarce resources.

This article will dive deep into the concept of feature prioritization and introduce the top frameworks for successful product management.

TL;DR

• Feature prioritization is a process that involves ranking product features based on different factors, including customer value, business objectives, cost, and effort.
• A product manager or owner is responsible for prioritizing product features. They represent the customer’s voice and collaborate with product teams and stakeholders.
• There are different frameworks and methods for feature prioritization to make the job easier. Here are some of the most common:

1. The Kano model divides features into basic needs, performance features, and delight factors to prioritize based on customer satisfaction.
2. The RICE framework evaluates features by weighing their Reach, Impact, and Confidence against the Effort required for development.
3. MoSCoW classifies features into Must have, Should have, Could have, and Won’t have categories to prioritize based on necessity and desirability.
4. Story mapping helps teams prioritize features by mapping them along the user journey, ensuring alignment with user needs.
5. The Value vs. Effort matrix compares the positive impact of a feature against the resources and time needed to implement it, highlighting high-impact, low-effort features.
6. The Product Tree is a visualization tool that presents the hierarchy of features, from core systems to future enhancements.
7. The Cost of Delay technique prioritizes features based on the financial impact of not having the feature, calculating the cost associated with delayed implementation.
8. Buy a Feature is a prioritization game where participants “spend” virtual money on the features they value most, revealing user preferences.
9. Priority Poker is a collaborative game where team members score features and discuss to reach a consensus on their importance.
10. The Opportunity Solution Tree (OST) visualizes the connections between business goals, user pain points, and features, aiding strategic decision-making.

Userpilot helps product teams prioritize product features by collecting user insights and tracking feature engagement. Book a demo to learn in more detail how Userpilot can assist you in your feature privatization efforts.

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What is feature prioritization?

Feature prioritization is a product management process that determines the order in which product features are developed, released, and improved.

It takes into account the value of a feature, its cost implications, and the company’s broader strategic goals. The idea is to focus on the most impactful features that deliver value, ensure customer satisfaction, and create growth opportunities.

Who is responsible for prioritizing features?

Feature prioritization is an essential responsibility of product managers or product owners who have a deep understanding of customer needs and market trends.

They must also work with product teams to clearly define and prioritize product features to reflect the company’s goals and overall product strategy.

15 Top feature prioritization frameworks for product managers

Product managers utilize a range of feature prioritization frameworks to align product development efforts with the most current customer demands and market opportunities.

Here are 15 of the best framework techniques to consider:

1. Weighted scoring system

The weighted scoring model involves selecting categories to rank features and scoring the features based on their importance to each category.

The process begins by selecting the criteria for rating the features. Examples of these criteria include “user experience,” “strategic impact,” “sales value,” “user adoption,” or any other key product metric.

Next, assign a percentage value to each criterion based on its importance, ensuring the total adds up to 100%. For instance, in the early stages, you might prioritize UX features that make the MVP usable. Each feature is then scored in these categories, ranging from 1 (minimal impact) to 100 (maximum impact). Finally, calculate the overall score for each feature by combining these weighted scores.

The ultimate goal of this system is to facilitate objective and productive discussions about how to prioritize features.

Although it’s worth noting this method doesn’t come without its pitfalls. It’s not easy to assign specific values to score features objectively since we all have our biases.

2. RICE method

The RICE method is used to prioritize features based on four factors:

• Reach: How many people will benefit from the feature? Reach is measured by using real-life product metrics like “users per month” and “transactions per month” to avoid bias and build features you personally want.
• Impact: How will the feature affect individual users? Keep the goal you’re trying to achieve in mind every step of the way. Is it to reduce churn or drive positive reviews? To measure this, Intercom recommends a multiple choice scale where 3 = “massive impact”, 2 = “high impact”, 1 = “medium impact”, 0.5 = “low impact”, and 0.25 = “minimal impact”.
• Confidence: A confidence percentage reflects how certain team members are about their assessments of reach and impact. This metric helps to de-prioritize features that are deemed too risky. Typically, a confidence score above 80% is considered high, while anything below 50% is deemed unqualified.
• Effort: How much time and work will be required from the team to build and release the feature? Consider the amount of work one team member can accomplish in a month, which will vary between teams. The more time invested in developing the feature, the higher the impact needs to be to make the project worthwhile.

3. Value vs effort matrix

In this model, you evaluate a feature’s value to the customers or the company against the effort required to build it.

Another important factor is how a feature will affect other parts of the product. Will implementing this feature require updates to other areas? If so, those updates must also be prioritized.

Additionally, consider how this feature will impact your team’s ability to fulfill other commitments. Adding a new feature might require extra resources, potentially affecting your ability to meet deadlines for other features.

Using the value vs effort matrix, product teams can focus on high-impact, low-effort features or ideas to achieve maximum impact and growth.

4. Kano model

The Kano model prioritizes features based on their potential to boost customer satisfaction.

It is based on the idea there are 3 types of customer needs, such as:

• Basic features: These are must-have features that customers expect you to have to solve their pain points. Having these “threshold” features is necessary for your product to function, but that alone doesn’t guarantee customer delight.
• Performance features: These are features that improve the performance of your product in some way, whether it’s usability or a specific function. These features create delight when they are present and the opposite is also true – their absence causes dissatisfaction.
• Delighters: These are features that make the product more enjoyable to use. Customers might not notice if you do not have these features, but including them will yield dramatic customer delight.

5. Buy a feature

This is a simple and fun way to assess the value of a feature and how it impacts a customer. It involves engaging customers or stakeholders to place value on a set of potential features.

You can utilize this approach by listing the potential features and attaching a price to “each”. Give participants a fixed amount of play cash to purchase the features.

Participants will “spend” more money on features they are more passionate about. The result of this exercise is your backlog prioritization list.

6. Story mapping

Story mapping is a feature prioritization model that involves organizing features into a hierarchical tree to evaluate how each feature enhances user experience.

Here, you’ll create user stories that show the “usage” process of your product, from the start to the end of the customer experience. For example, you can map out the users’ product journey using typical stages like signup, trial, and adoption. List all the steps a user takes in each stage.

Then, your product development team can rank the most important features and tasks from top to bottom.

7. MoSCoW model

The MoSCoW framework classified features into four priority categories: Must have, Should have, Could have, and Won’t have.

• Must have: These are make-or-break features. They are a key part of the “why” behind the product and critical to its success.
• Should have: Features that are important, but not necessary for the product’s functionality.
• Could have: Features that are nice to have. They would be welcomed, but are not critical.
• Won’t have: Features that are not considered a priority for the product or project.

The MoSCoW method helps product teams determine features that are essential to the success of a project and what can be implemented later or excluded.

8. The product tree

Created by Bruce Hollman, this feature prioritization framework visualizes the product and its features.

It accounts for the existing features of your product as well as future features or new ideas that would ultimately provide business value.

Here’s how it goes:

• The Root: This represents the core systems, infrastructure, and technologies that support the basic functions of the product. They are fundamental to the functioning of the product.
• The Trunk: It represents the existing features or main functionalities of the product. It is the foundation that supports the continued growth of the product.
• The Branches: They represent future features, ideas, or enhancements that can contribute to the growth of the product.
• The Leaves: They represent specific features or enhancements that can directly contribute to the satisfaction of users.

9. Cost of delay

The cost of delay framework focuses on prioritizing features based on the risk associated with delaying its production.

To calculate the cost of delay, estimate the potential monthly revenue if the feature existed and the time needed to develop it. Then, divide the estimated revenue by the development time.

This method is highly effective for understanding the feature’s value in terms of ROI and prioritizing the feature backlog accordingly for maximum business benefit.

The downside is for new companies, revenue estimates are largely based on intuition, as there is no concrete data available to support these projections.

10. Priority poker

This is a very fun game used amongst Agile teams to prioritize features.

Each team member receives a deck of cards with numerical values, such as 1 to 5, where 1 represents very low priority and 5 represents very high priority. The team reviews each feature request one by one, and members individually select a card to indicate their priority rating, revealing their choices simultaneously.

The team members with the lowest and highest scores explain their reasoning, sparking a discussion. After considering all viewpoints, the team agrees on the final priority value for the feature.

11. ICE scoring system

ICE stands for Impact, Confidence, and Ease.

The idea behind this framework is to use these three parameters to score features based on their value. Rank each feature from 1-10 for each of the three parameters and multiply the values to derive the ICE score.

“Impact” represents how much the feature will affect the product strategy. “Confidence” represents the organization’s certainty that the feature will have its predicted impact. “Ease” represents the level of effort required to reach the business objectives.

12. Constraints framework

While prioritizing features based on what is most important, it can be as powerful to consider limiting factors that stand in the way of achieving your objective.

Constraints like people, processes, time, and money can make it difficult for you to focus on realistic, high-impact features.

You can identify and eliminate constraints using the Five Focusing Steps:

• Identify: Identify the part of the process limiting the rate at which you achieve your goals.
• Exploit: Use existing resources to make quick improvements to the processes limiting your progress.
• Subordinate: Ensure other parts of the process that are not constraints align with and provide support for the needs of the constraint.
• Elevate: If the constraint still exists, consider actions you can take to eliminate it. For example, you may need more people or resources to eliminate it.
• Repeat: This is a continuous improvement cycle. Therefore, once you have eliminated a constraint, immediately shift focus to the next constraint.

Every prioritized feature adds complexity to your product. Using the constraints framework can help you eliminate the limiting factors associated with these complexities and make your feature work.

13. Opportunity scoring system

In this framework, a “Satisfaction” and “Importance” graph is used to measure a feature based on its importance versus customer satisfaction.

To conduct an opportunity score, ask customers to score a feature based on its importance and then score the feature based on how satisfied they are with the feature.

If the feature has not been released, you can also create ideal outcomes for the feature and seek customer feedback.

14. The KJ method

Also known as the sorting method, this involves brainstorming to generate ideas and prioritize features.

The KJ method consists of the following steps:

• Brainstorming: At this stage, each individual brainstorms a list of features. Each feature is written on a card or piece of paper.
• Grouping: Individuals with similar ideas or concepts form a team. The team is usually named after the core concept underlying the group’s idea.
• Voting: The cards are shuffled and each member of the team randomly picks two cards. They compare the features on both cards and choose the feature they consider more important. The features are grouped based on their number of votes and the feature with the highest number of votes in each team is prioritized according to their importance.

15. Weighted shortest job first

The weighted shorted job first (WSJF) framework is used to sequence features according to their weight. Features with the highest weight are prioritized on the product roadmap.

WSJF is calculated by dividing the Cost of Delay (CoD) by job size (or level of effort). Features with the highest cost of delay will provide the best ROI and should be prioritized.

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Feature prioritization process best practices

For product managers to successfully determine what to build next, a structured, objective, and strategic approach is essential.

Here are feature prioritization process best practices to help you create a more valuable and successful product:

Avoid common pitfalls

• Isolated feature ROI: Evaluating a feature in isolation ignores the product’s wider context. For example, considering a feature with high ROI by itself may not align with the overall product strategy or customer needs. Features also have interdependencies. Implementing a feature in isolation can mean overlooking these interdependencies, leading to poor prioritization.
• Sales & Support requests (aka the loudest people at the table): Sales and support teams typically focus on urgent and specific user needs, which may not reflect the broader needs of your users. Prioritizing feature requests from them can lead to a skewed feature prioritization process that only satisfies a few users.
• Gut reactions: While using gut instinct can have its merits, successfully launching a product in the market demands a data-driven approach. Combining gut instinct with market research, user surveys, and feedback from team members can help you avoid confirmation bias and make objective decisions.

Prioritize features using a combination of methods

Blending different feature prioritization models can help you create the right balance between customer satisfaction and alignment with your product management goals.

For example, combining the opportunity scoring system with the Kano model can help product managers both create value for the company and satisfy customers.

Iterate your feature prioritization strategy based on feedback

Continue to iterate your feature prioritization strategy based on feedback from customers to ensure your product remains responsive to changing customers’ needs.

For example, if your customers requested a new trendy AI feature when generative AI peaked, but after a while, you find out that the excitement has faded and the overall sentiment has changed, you need to be proactive and de-prioritize the feature and focus on something more important instead.

Building a continuous feedback loop like this is essential to achieving product-market fit.

How can Userpilot help with feature prioritization?

Userpilot has the right tools to help product teams make informed decisions and deliver value.

Here’s how you can benefit from Userpilot:

Use in-app surveys to collect feature requests and other user insights

Userpilot allows you to create in-app surveys code-free and add different types of questions to collect feature requests.

You can embed either open-ended questions so users can lay out their suggestions easily or you can send them a survey with multiple choice-question containing different options of features to understand which feature most of your user base wants to see.

Track product engagement to understand customer preferences

Userpilot allows you to track different types of in-app interactions, such as hovers or clicks.

For example, you can track product usage to spot low engagement levels, which might reveal bugs, gaps in the feature or usability issues that require prioritization.

Run fake-door tests to validate feature prototypes

Fake door tests are a common method used to validate prototypes before investing in further implementation.

With Userpilot, you can trigger fake feature announcements and track which percentage of users clicked on the message. This behavioral data shows how much interest the feature generates and whether it’s actually worth building.

After that, you can trigger an automated follow-up message for users who clicked to inform users that the feature is not yet available and you will let them know once it is.

Conclusion

Feature prioritization is a critical part of the product lifecycle. Choosing the right framework aligns development efforts with the company’s strategic goals and objectives, maximizing business value.

Userpilot is a product growth platform that can help product managers in their prioritization efforts by collecting user feedback and tracking product usage.

If you want to learn more about how Userpilot can help in this process, book a demo with our team and we will show you!

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