TBM 245: The Magic Prioritization Trick

John Cutler presents a three-step prioritization framework that addresses how 'humans are not very good at' separating urgency from value. The magic trick involves: 1) Urgency Mapping—categorizing initiatives purely by urgency (Whenever, Soon, ASAP) while challenging perceptions of what truly constitutes 'urgent'; 2) Value Assessment—starting with the premise that 'nothing is valuable' then vertically moving initiatives on a matrix with labels like 'Game Change', 'Optimizer', and 'Tweak'; 3) Duration Evaluation—converting the matrix into a 9-box grid with time columns (1-3 months, 1-3 quarters, 1-3 years) to place initiatives within their cells. Engineering leaders will learn how this structured approach forces teams to decouple urgency from value, challenge cognitive biases, and consider initiatives' strategic impact systematically. The technique reveals hidden assumptions about what teams consider urgent versus valuable, enabling more objective decision-making by making these distinctions explicit and visual.