Prioritization Frameworks

---
name: prioritization-frameworks
description: Prioritize with RICE-class scoring applied honestly, cost of delay, and refusals that carry reasons. Use when ordering a roadmap or defending priority calls under stakeholder pressure.
---

# Prioritization frameworks

Frameworks do not make decisions; they structure arguments so the
real disagreements (about reach, about confidence, about strategy)
surface where they can be examined instead of hiding inside gut
rankings.

## Method

1. **Score with RICE/ICE as a conversation, not a calculator.**
   Reach (users per quarter, from data: see product-metrics),
   Impact (effect per user, on a coarse scale), Confidence
   (grounded in discovery evidence: see product-discovery's
   evidence grades: low confidence is a flag to run a cheaper
   experiment first), Effort (team-weeks from the team, not
   from hope). The output ordering matters less than the
   fights the inputs provoke: those fights are the work.
2. **Add cost of delay for time-sensitive calls.** What does a
   quarter's delay cost: compliance deadlines (cliff),
   competitive windows (slope), steady value foregone (linear)?
   CD3 (cost of delay / duration) favors short valuable work
   and exposes the "big important thing" that could ship as
   three small valuable things (see user-story-writing's
   slicing).
3. **Segment before scoring.** Growth bets, retention fixes,
   platform/debt (see tech-debt-register), and compliance are
   different currencies: allocate capacity across buckets
   first (a strategy call: see roadmap-communication), then
   rank within buckets. One list mixing currencies always
   starves the long-term bucket.
4. **Respect the qualitative overrides, in writing.**
   Strategic coherence (does this compound toward the
   vision?), enablement (unlocks other work), and pure
   conviction bets exist legitimately: record when a decision
   overrides the scores and why (see decision-journals);
   frequent overrides mean the scoring inputs are missing a
   real variable.
5. **Say no with the reason attached.** Every rejection names
   its category: "not this quarter (capacity: here is where it
   sits)", "not unless the evidence changes (here is what
   would change it)", "never (off-strategy, and why)": see
   feature-sunsetting for the removal sibling. A visible
   parked-list with reasons converts repeat lobbying into
   evidence-gathering.
6. **Re-rank on rhythm, not on noise.** Quarterly full pass
   (see quarterly-planning), lightweight monthly touch;
   mid-cycle insertions pay their way by displacing something
   *named* (the trade is the decision: see
   code-freeze-management's same discipline for releases).
   Loudness is not reach; the framework exists precisely so
   the loudest stakeholder's pet ranks like everything else
   (see stakeholder dynamics in exec-briefing).

## Boundaries

- Scores are made of estimates with error bars; treat close
  rankings as ties broken by judgment, and beware precision
  theater (a 47.3 vs 46.1 RICE difference is noise wearing
  decimals; see estimation-techniques).
- Frameworks rank options already on the table; generating
  better options is discovery's job (see product-discovery),
  and no ranking rescues a weak option set.
- Team morale and craft investment resist scoring but decide
  long-run throughput; leaders budget for them explicitly
  rather than making them compete with features.