TBM 381: Stop Trying To Make Prioritization Easy

Overview The article argues that making prioritization easy can mask important trade-offs and lead to shallow decision-making. It encourages leaders to embrace the difficulty of prioritization as a way to surface constraints, align teams, and drive better outcomes.

Key Takeaways

• Prioritization should be intentionally difficult to surface trade-offs.
• Simple scoring systems often hide complexity and lead to suboptimal decisions.
• Embrace frameworks that surface constraints and encourage dialogue among stakeholders.

Who Would Benefit

• Engineering managers
• Product leaders
• Technical founders

Frameworks and Methodologies

• Opportunity Scoring
• RICE (used critically)
• Decision-making matrices