Prioritization with 10 Questions

Steve Johnson
1 min readSep 20, 2022

I created this simple 10-question technique after attempting to use Moscow, RICE, WSJF, and many others.

Simply answer “Yes” or “No” for every feature request or idea:

Innovation: A new way of solving a customer problem (yes/no)

Customer need: Most of our customers need this

New revenue: This will enable us to generate significant new revenue

Losing deals: We lose deals because we lack this solution

Product parity: Most of our competitors have this capability

Increases renewals: This will improve recurring revenue and/or renewals

Reduces costs: This will reduce our internal costs

Dissatisfaction: Customers are dissatisfied with the current solution

Easy to deliver: This is somewhat easy to deliver

Prerequisite: This is core functionality necessary for other stories

You can simply count each “yes” score or use a weighting system aligned with your company strategy. But remember, the feature list isn’t just a popularity contest. Make sure the features you’re prioritizing are aligned with your overall product strategy.

Another technique I teach in my Fundamentals of Managing Products class is IDEA/E — which is particularly helpful when comparing multiple ideas. Learn about this 10-question technique and many others in Turn Ideas Into Products.

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Steve Johnson
Steve Johnson

Written by Steve Johnson

author, speaker, consultant, guitar player. Removing chaos from product management since 1996. Learn how at www.productgrowthleaders.com

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