Comparing Different Opportunity Prioritisation Frameworks

RICE, Kano, Cost of Delay or your home grown ranking method. What is the best way to prioritise different opportunities?

Unfortunately there is no perfect way. Product development is an ill-structured problem. There is no right or wrong answer when choosing which opportunities to explore, but there are better or worse options.

When we try to reduce opportunities to a mathematical scoring method we lose nuance. So what can we do instead? It is really hard for people to rank a long list of priorities but people are pretty good at comparing two options. That is why it is better to debate the merits of opportunities. You can get into the nuance.

After multiple rounds of comparison, you end up with the opportunity that the group thinks can best achieve the current product goals.

In this week's article I go into more detail and give 4 different perspectives to debate the merits of different opportunities.

This Week’s Updates

Enabling the Team

What Happens When You A/B Test Hybrid Work? by Pim de Morree
An A/B test at Trip.com revealed that hybrid work led to no change in productivity but increased job satisfaction and reduced quit rates by 35%.

4 Listening Skills Leaders Need To Master by Debra Schifrin
Effective leaders practice active listening, paraphrase to confirm understanding, ask open-ended questions, and provide feedback to foster trust and collaboration.

Product Direction

Evaluating Product Managers by Jeff Patton
There are seven critical areas for evaluating product managers: industry expertise, collaborative leadership, strategic focus, risk management, planning, and outcome measurement.

The Benefits Of Using A User Segmentation Matrix by Talke Hoppmann-Walton
In order to be strategic with your efforts to have the most impact, having a clear view of who your key external user groups/segments are, how they are different from each other, and how much they matter to your overall business success is crucial.

Continuous Research

Comparing Different Opportunity Prioritisation Frameworks by Rory Madden
With limited resources and time, how do you choose between multiple promising opportunities? While there are various frameworks and formulas available, the reality of prioritisation is more nuanced than plugging numbers into a spreadsheet.

Are You Doing Too Much Research? by Carol Rossi
The article introduces a practical framework to evaluate research needs based on clarity, risk, and cost, ensuring efforts deliver real impact without unnecessary delays.

Continuous Design

Rethinking Cognitive Friction: The Answer To AI Overreliance by Silvia Podesta
Examine the concept of cognitive friction (design elements that encourage users to engage critically with AI outputs) proposing it as a solution to prevent overreliance on AI systems.

How To Build Your User Research Strategy From Scratch by Krish Arora
A structured user research strategy has key elements such as vision, goals, planning, collaboration, and a defined processes to align teams and achieve product objectives. [Sponsored Content]

Continuous Development

Software Architecture is Hard by Oz Anani
Explore the difficulties in software architecture with issues like: varying abstraction levels, inconsistent diagramming techniques, and the decentralization of architectural roles, which can lead to communication gaps and design challenges.

Building Effective Agents by Anthropic
Build effective agents by enhancing LLMs with augmentations such as retrieval, tools, and memory. Starting with simple, composable patterns and progressively increasing complexity from workflows to autonomous agents.

Speaker Announcement UXDX USA 2025
Chris Wiggins, Chief Data Scientist, The New York Times

We’re thrilled to welcome Chris Wiggins, Chief Data Scientist at The New York Times and Associate Professor at Columbia University, to UXDX USA 2025!

Chris will share how The New York Times uses machine learning to maximize paywall efficiency, balancing data-driven insights with reader engagement to drive growth.
With a career spanning groundbreaking research, tech innovation, and co-founding initiatives like hackNY, Chris brings invaluable expertise at the intersection of data and business impact.

Take this chance to learn from one of the brightest minds in data science!

THE UXDX MAJOR EVENTS

FREE COMMUNITY EVENTS 

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Video of the Week
From Silos to Synergy: Cross-Functional Mechanisms for Design, Product, and Engineering Leaders

In this witty talk, Andrew Birgiolas (Head of Product Design & Research at Sephora) shares how you can reduce meetings, increase alignment, and ship quality faster with practical, repeatable tactics that will transform your team’s efficiency. With 12 practical ideas he explores the small, actionable steps we can take to eliminate siloed work and make teamwork more effective.

Watch the full video to get insights on creating a better, more collaborative work culture. Check out Andrew’s full talk here 👇

The Results of Last Week’s Poll

The question: How often do you find your Opportunity Solution Trees (OSTs) becoming too messy to use effectively?

When it comes to managing Opportunity Solution Trees (OSTs), 59.8% of you find them always or frequently becoming too messy to use effectively. Only 5.9% of you are able to keep your OSTs neat and organised.

This is a significant challenge because the primary purpose of using OSTs is their actionability. I’d love to hear from people who try out the tactics that we covered last week so see if they work for you. You can reply to the email to share your stories.

The messy nature of OSTs might be an opportunity to rethink how we organize and maintain these tools. If you find this issue hindering your team’s ability to make decisions, check out our course on Continuous Research.