How to Prioritize like a Champ

P.S. You can read my latest article now: What Exactly Is a Product?

Prioritization. I know that’s the most boring word with which to start off an article, but bear with me; that word is the difference between your team accomplishing great things and achieving only the average or, worse, little at all.

“If teams were graded on how they prioritize tasks, most would receive a big, angry F.”

If teams were graded on how they prioritize tasks, most would receive a big, angry F. Many just chip away at whatever they feel like doing that day. Others organize chronologically. But when working on a long list of user stories, bugs to fix, and other items to accomplish these “methods” are about as successful as an unrehearsed theater performance. They lead to teams completing low-impact tasks and allow people to continually push off what could be their most game-changing idea.

Google around for to-do list management ideas, and you’ll turn up little in the way of useful tips. Some methods are ineffective. Others, tedious and dull. Happily there’s one system of team task prioritization that’s highly effective and engaging: “The Decision Grid,” a.k.a. the Einstein of task prioritization. Here’s how it works:

Write all your tasks on post-it notes (the last article in this series also had great uses for post-its). Next, get yourself a big whiteboard and sketch a large X-Y axis on it. Write ‘High Value/High Risk’ in the upper right hand corner, ‘High Value/Low Risk’ in the lower right hand, ‘Low Value/High Risk’ in the upper left hand, and ‘Low Value/Low Risk’ in the lower left hand. Your graph should look like this:

‘Value’ refers to — you guessed it — the value it creates for the business.

‘Risk’ represents implementation risk. Are you uncertain if you can actually complete the task? How much time will it take? Consider these q’s to assess your implementation risk.

Now, remember those post-its you just wrote? Look at them one-by-one and think about what corner they belong in. Place them all accordingly.

To understand how the decision grid works, let’s take a look at an example. Say we’re building a “Puppies as a Service” app that has its user stories prioritized in the following manner:

“Prioritization will help you use your resources with kung-fu-like effectiveness.”

The grid puts tasks in perspective in relation to each other. Without this comparison, it’s hard to prioritize tasks in a successful manner. After all, all tasks are somewhat valuable; otherwise they wouldn’t be on your to-do list! But not all tasks are created equal, and prioritization will help you use your resources with kung-fu-like effectiveness.

Once you’ve post-it notes prioritized in your X-Y access, it’s time to write items down in your todo list. But not so quick! The order in which you should write tasks down is likely different from what you think.

Most people get the order wrong. Yes, those ‘High Value/Low Risk’ tasks are extremely tempting, but don’t cave to their siren call! The right strategy is to put the ‘High Value/High Risk’ tasks first. Why? Risky tasks are the ones you’re most apt to push off. They’re hard to complete and will try your patience. But ‘High Value/High Risk’ tasks are what will give you a competitive edge. Your competitors are probably also pushing those features into the future, so if you’re the first to accomplish them, you’ll be dusting your shoulders off for a long time to come.

After accomplishing the ‘High Value/High Risk’ tasks, tackle the ‘High Value/Low Risk’ ones. The reason why is a no brainer. ‘High Value/Low Risk’ tasks are like rigged lottery tickets; they’re quick ways to win big.

Once you’ve done all your high-value tasks, things get even more interesting. I know what you’re thinking: “So now I do the ‘Low Value/Low Risk” items. Not quite. Why would you waste resources on things that provide low value, right?

“To-do lists are like ivy — they never stop growing.”

But what to work on instead? Lucky for you to-do lists are like ivy — they never stop growing. By the time you’ve completed all your high-value tasks, your to-do list will likely be filled with new, more important tasks. At this point you should rinse and repeat; create a new decision grid with your recently thought-of tasks.

This means all items on the left side of your graph rarely get done — and that’s okay. You can do the ‘Low Value/Low Risk’ tasks if ever you miraculously run out of to-dos. And the ‘Low Value/High Risk’ ones? Your resources are too valuable to fritter away time one those unless you can think of absolutely nothing else to do (in which case you, you should probably just think harder!).

With the decision grid as your trusty sidekick, you’ll be able to prioritize masterfully and effectively. And your team — and company — will be better for it.

If you enjoyed reading this, please login and click “Recommend” below.
This will help to share the story with others.

Follow me @matthiaswagner

Thanks to Darren Cassidy, Kate Larsen, Hannah Rothstein, Chloe Bregman and Katherine Krug for helping with this.