The practical application of "Rocks, Pebbles, Sand"

Jason Cohen's 'Rocks, Pebbles, Sand' framework provides a three-level approach to strategic work prioritization: Rocks (3-12 months) maximize strategic impact through long-term transformative projects that require executive decision-making and are limited to 'one or more Rocks in a year'; Pebbles (1-4 sprints) maximize ROI through tactical wins with measurable impact, primarily decided by Product Managers and requiring 'objective measures of impact'; Sand (≤1 sprint) maximizes throughput of small tasks, handling numerous quick improvements that are prioritized intuitively and often driven by engineering needs. Engineering leaders will learn to schedule work in priority order: time-critical items, current Rock stories, current Pebble stories, then Sand tasks. The framework ensures that 'when we write it down as simply as possible, and try to honor it, we'll make better decisions sprint by sprint, which in turn creates the most impact year by year.'