Prioritise
Feature buckets
Sort ideas into metrics movers, customer requests, delighters and strategic bets, so each release has a balance of all four.
- Time30 to 45 minutes
- People2 to 8 people
- Steps3
What it's for
A roadmap built only from customer requests never surprises anyone; one built only to move metrics wears people out; one built only on the team's own ideas drifts away from what customers need. Sorting ideas into buckets shows the balance before anyone argues about the order.
Rank each bucket on its own terms: metrics movers by expected impact, requests by how many people ask and how much it hurts them, delighters by the team's conviction, and strategic bets by what they would teach you.
How to run it
Sort the ideas10 min
Put each idea in the bucket that best explains why you'd build it.
Rank each bucket10 min
Order each bucket on its own terms, best at the top.
Plan a balanced release10 min4 votes each
Vote for the ideas to take from the top of each bucket, then check the mix suits this moment.
Tips
- An empty bucket is the finding. A team with no delighters has stopped imagining.
- An idea that fits two buckets is usually a strong one.
Where it comes from
Adam Nash, a product leader at LinkedIn and later chief executive of Wealthfront, described three buckets (metrics movers, customer requests and customer delight) on his blog. A fourth, strategic, is a common addition.
Pairs well with
Kano model
Sort features by how customers react to them: basics they expect, performance they want more of, and delights they don't expect.
Systemico model
Lay the backlog out by the user goal each item serves and how engaged a user must be to care, from core needs to exploring further.
Now, next, later
A roadmap in three columns instead of dates: what the team is doing now, what comes next, and what's further out.