Ah, the classic product management conundrum. I've been here—staring at two equally shiny objects, knowing I can only pick one.

I’ve had my fair share of these tough calls—from juggling compliance deadlines at A2Z Sync to navigating tight sprints where technical scope creep got a little too complex for comfort. At the end of the day, I use business value, user impact and level of effort as the guiding light for prioritization.

Simple Prioritization Framework: Business Value, User Impact, and Effort

When everything feels important, a structured framework can bring clarity. I often rely on a scoring system that evaluates features and projects across three core dimensions:

But let me back up—here’s how I built this framework from experience:

At the start of a major initiative at A2Z Sync, the head of product and head of engineering created a comprehensive list of projects and features they believed we could complete on our monolithic system before transitioning to microservices. My role? I took the reins and scored each project and feature on the list by business value, user impact and effort.

1. Business Value (1-3):

• I met with leadership to understand key objectives for the quarter/year (revenue growth, market expansion, customer retention).
• I worked with finance and sales teams to estimate revenue opportunities
• Looked at historical data to see if similar features boosted any revenue

2. User Impact (1-3):

• I conducted user discovery sessions and worked with our UI/UX designer for each feature and project to help understand
  • Does it solve a major user pain point
  • How significantly does this feature improve user experience
  • How many users will it affect?

3. Effort (1-3):

• I worked with engineers to T-shirt size each feature request and project to help understand
  • What level of engineering complexity is involved?
  • How many resources will it consume?
  • Are there critical dependencies?

Understand the Impact (a.k.a. The "Why Should I Care?" Test)

When faced with competing priorities, the first question to ask: Which initiative delivers the most value, fastest? At A2Z, we had a Mazda certification project with a hard deadline—missing it would have meant serious financial repercussions for all Mazda dealers using our DR tool. At the same time, there was a feature request promising long-term user satisfaction improvements.

The choice? Clear as day. The Mazda deadline took precedence because the immediate financial impact outweighed the long-term benefit. Lesson here? Quantify impact. Money talks, and deadlines shout.

Evaluate Dependencies

Prioritization isn’t just about choosing what you want; it’s also about identifying the work that unblocks the most others.

At A2Z Sync, we faced a challenging decision: On one hand, we had a long-overdue, complex 'Menu Redesign' project. Stakeholders were already frustrated by the extended timeline and multiple release delays. On the other hand, there was a highly anticipated feature request—enabling users to compare lender programs directly in our app. Not only was this feature supported by competitors, but it also had a clear value proposition: increased profit potential for our customers.

So, what’s the catch? Delivering the lender comparison feature required extensive data integrations and analytics work. The only engineer with the necessary subject matter expertise was the same engineer who was playing a critical role in finalizing the Menu Redesign.

The decision? I chose to prioritize the Menu Redesign. Despite the high value of the lender comparison feature, unblocking the Menu Redesign meant unblocking multiple teams and restoring stakeholder confidence. It created momentum, cleared bottlenecks, and set the stage for smoother delivery of future features.

💡 Lesson: Prioritize work that creates momentum across the board.

Rely on Data

Data isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s your best friend when making tough prioritization decisions. Real talk: your gut can only take you so far.

At A2Z, I led a feature deliverable that allowed users to add multiple automotive trade-ins to their deals in our software. Sounds simple, right? Not quite. The feature required massive database changes, a complete overhaul of customer onboarding processes, and came with a host of unexpected complexities.

Halfway through the project, I discovered a major oversight: our legacy tool lacked the capability to support multiple trades without a significant revamp. Cue panic? Not exactly. I leaned into the data. Analysis showed that less than 20% of our customers used the legacy tool, and only two customers relied on it daily. Armed with these insights, I reasoned with stakeholders that support for the legacy tool could follow shortly after the initial release.

The result? Stakeholders agreed, knowing the first release would meet the majority's needs while a fast-follow update would address the rest.

Communicate, Communicate, Communicate

You can’t make tough calls in a vacuum. Stakeholder alignment is your best friend. At A2Z Sync, when the menu redesign acceptance criteria changed mid-sprint, we had open conversations about the trade-offs. Transparency about why something gets prioritized builds trust. Priorities should not be driven by the loudest person in the room either.

Final Thoughts: Be Ruthless, Be Kind

Prioritization is as much an art as it is a science. I focus on being ruthless in cutting what doesn’t matter, but kind in how I communicate those decisions. Progress over perfection is the name of the game!

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