Nagesh Koritala

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Free tool for product teams

Prioritize with a North Star.

When everything is a priority, nothing is. Name your North Star, score your ideas with the method that fits the decision, check the guardrails, then make the call as a team, and share it.

A made-up value versus effort chart for the furniture store. Up: value to customers and the goal. Across: effort. High value, low effort, do first: the doorway-and-room check. Medium value, low effort: delivery date on the page. Lower value, low effort: room-size filter. High value, high effort, plan it: the 3D room planner. Lower value, higher effort, question it: the chatbot. Effort →Value → lowhigh Doorway-and-roomcheck Delivery dateon the page Room-size filter 3D room planner Chatbot do firstplan itquestion it made-up placements, before any scoring

Watch first, two minutes

The idea behind the tool.

0:00
Short film · 2:06Building the right thingNarrated by an AI voice. The furniture store is made up. With a point from Marty Cagan (SVPG) and Tim Herbig’s model of product discovery.
Read the transcript
  1. When everything is a priority, what do you build first?
  2. Setting direction is one of the most important parts of a product manager’s job: what matters, why it matters, and the value it creates for customers and the business.
  3. Marty Cagan of Silicon Valley Product Group sees many companies with 20 or 30 priorities, when they should pick the two or three that can truly make an impact.
  4. And direction only works when it’s shared.
  5. So agree on priorities with leadership, stakeholders, and the team. Out loud.
  6. AI has increased our ability to build faster than our confidence about what deserves to be built.
  7. Tim Herbig puts it as two questions. Is this a problem worth solving? And only then: which solution is worth pursuing?
  8. Picture a made-up furniture store. Eight ideas. Every single one is top priority.
  9. So name your North Star. For this store: orders that arrive, and stay.
  10. Now score every idea. How much closer does it get us, for the effort?
  11. The pop-up upsell wins on paper. But it breaks shopper trust. A great score can still be the wrong call.
  12. That’s where judgment comes in. The score suggests. You decide. And you say no, out loud.
  13. Every decision is a step. Toward the North Star, or away from it.
  14. So, what will your team say no to this quarter? Try the prioritizer, and make the call yourself.

The tool

Try it with an example, then with your own list.

Every example is made up. Change any number; the ranking updates as you type.

1 Start

Pick an example, or start blank.

2 Score

Choose the method that fits the decision.

    3 Decide

    The score suggests. You decide.

    Ideas that break a guardrail wait, however well they score. Fill in a first draft from the current method, then move anything you disagree with.

    Top two go to Now, the next two to Next, the rest to Not now.

    4 Share

    Explain the call, and send it before the meeting.

    Your list stays in this browser. A share link carries the list inside the link itself; nothing is sent to a server. Anyone with the link can see what’s in it.

    With your team

    Run it together in 45 minutes.

    1. Agree the goal first.One goal, one period, one list. Write the problem each idea solves, not just its name.
    2. Score in your own area.Engineers estimate effort. Designers and researchers judge value. Bring the data on reach.
    3. Talk about the surprises.Close scores are ties. A score that feels wrong is a guess to test, or a gut feeling to drop.
    4. Check the guardrails.Name what you won’t trade away, like trust or security, before anything gets scored.
    5. Make the call, out loud.Share the note before the meeting, with what you’re not doing and what would change your mind.

    Which method, when

    SituationReach for
    A long list, a first pass, little timeValue vs effort
    Choosing a few bigger projects for a quarterRICE
    Many small experiments to run quicklyICE
    Unsure which features customers expect and which they’d loveKano
    A fixed date, and a release to scopeMoSCoW

    Want the full lesson, with worked examples and a worksheet? Prioritization, lesson 3 of Product basics.

    Sources

    Keep learning

    Learn the methods
    behind the tool.

    The Prioritization lesson walks through each method with worked examples, the mistakes to avoid, and how to explain the result.

    Open the lessonAll courses and guides

    Used it with your team? Tell me how it went. I read every note.

    The RICE score: reach times impact times confidence, divided by effort. Reach: how many people in a set period. Impact: how much for each person, scored 3, 2, 1, 0.5, or 0.25. Confidence: how sure you are, 100, 80, or 50 percent. Effort: person-months from the whole team. The result is total impact per time worked. ReachHow many peoplein a set period? ImpactHow much foreach person?3, 2, 1, 0.5, 0.25 ConfidenceHow sureare you?100%, 80%, 50% ×× Effortperson-months,whole team = total impact per time worked