Your Bugs Aren't Special: Real Talk on Prioritisation

When it comes to prioritisation, everyone in your organisation has an opinion - your sales team, your marketing team, your CEO and, of course, your product development team itself! This session will discusses how to think about prioritisation, and the do's and don'ts along the way.

Transcript

1. Real Talk on Prioritisation Emily Tate @thedailyem Your Bugs Aren’t Special
7. @thedailyem I had my priorities wrong
8. @thedailyem I had my priorities wrong PRIORITY
9. Source: Giovanni Herom Santos via LinkedIn Priority Priorities
10. FOCUS @thedailyem
11. @thedailyem Your roadmap is where you are headed
12. @thedailyem Your backlog is how you get there
13. @thedailyem Feature Work Bugs Maintenance Tech Debt Spikes/Research
14. How do you prioritize? @thedailyem
16. @thedailyem Emily’s Grand Unified Theory of Prioritisation
17. @thedailyem Capture Everything
19. Features •Story 1 Things in the Backlog •Story 2 •Story 3 •Story 4 •Story 5 •Story 6 •Story 7
20. Features Bugs •Story 1 •Bug 1 Things in the Backlog •Story 2 •Story 3 •Story 4 •Story 5 •Story 6 •Story 7 •Bug 2 •Bug 3 •Bug 4 •Bug 5
21. Features Bugs Maintenance/Tech •Story 1 •Bug 1 •Tech initiative 1 Things in the Backlog •Story 2 •Story 3 •Story 4 •Story 5 •Story 6 •Story 7 •Bug 2 •Bug 3 •Bug 4 •Bug 5 •Tech initiative 2 •Tech initiative 3 •Tech initiative 4
22. Features Bugs Maintenance/Tech •Story 1 •Bug 1 •Tech initiative 1 Things in the Backlog •Story 2 •Story 3 •Story 4 •Story 5 •Story 6 •Story 7 •Bug 2 •Bug 3 •Bug 4 •Bug 5 •Tech initiative 2 •Tech initiative 3 •Tech initiative 4 Research •Research 1 •Research 2 •Research 3
23. Features Bugs Maintenance/Tech •Story 1 •Bug 1 •Tech initiative 1 Things in the Backlog •Story 2 •Story 3 •Story 4 •Story 5 •Story 6 •Story 7 •Bug 2 •Bug 3 •Bug 4 •Bug 5 •Tech initiative 2 •Tech initiative 3 •Tech initiative 4 Research •Research 1 •Research 2 •Research 3 Other Stuff •Other 1 •Other 2 •Other 3 •Other 4 •Other 5 •Other 6 •Other 7 •Other 8
24. @thedailyem Combine them
25. Features Bugs Maintenance/Tech •Story 1 •Bug 1 •Tech initiative 1 Things in the Backlog •Story 2 •Story 3 •Story 4 •Story 5 •Story 6 •Story 7 •Bug 2 •Bug 3 •Bug 4 •Bug 5 •Tech initiative 2 •Tech initiative 3 •Tech initiative 4 Research •Research 1 •Research 2 •Research 3 Other Stuff •Other 1 •Other 2 •Other 3 •Other 4 •Other 5 •Other 6 •Other 7 •Other 8
26. Features Bugs Maintenance/Tech •Story 1 •Bug 1 • Tech 1 Things in the Backlog •Story 2 •Story 3 •Story 4 •Story 5 •Story 6 •Story 7 •Bug 2 •Bug 3 •Bug 4 •Bug 5 •Tech initiative 2 •Tech initiative 3 •Tech initiative 4 Research •Research 1 •Research 2 •Research 3 Other Stuff •Other 1 •Other 2 •Other 3 •Other 4 •Other 5 •Other 6 •Other 7 •Other 8
28. Simple does not equal Easy @thedailyem
29. Prioritisation is an Art
30. The Do’s and Don’ts of Prioritisation
31. @thedailyem DON’T Try to “Math” your way into Art
32. Feature User Value Effort Confidence % Total Share with friends 3 3 60% 0.6 Publish to Twitter 5 1 75% 3.75 Bookmark for later 3 2 40% 0.6 Personalized recommendation 4 3 90% 1.2 User value 1-5 Effort 5-1
34. @thedailyem DO Use research and be able to explain your reasoning
35. @thedailyem DON’T Prioritise alone
36. @thedailyem DO Prioritise together if possible
37. @thedailyem DON’T Let your tools do the talking
40. Communication is your job @thedailyem
41. @thedailyem DO Talk to your stakeholders regularly
42. @thedailyem DON’T Just assign a portion of each sprint to different categories
43. @thedailyem DON’T Give others a percentage of your capacity to prioritise independently
44. Opportunity Cost
45. Feature Work Bugs Maintenance Other Feature Work Bugs Maintenance Feature Work Bugs Maintenance Other Bugs Maintenance
46. @thedailyem DO Always prioritise the “Next Most Important Thing”
47. Always prioritise like your budget could go away tomorrow
48. @thedailyem DON’T “Squeeze in little things” that aren’t prioritised
49. There is no Magic Queue
50. @thedailyem DO Add them to the backlog, and decide where it fits
51. @thedailyem DON’T Avoid hard conversations with stakeholders
52. @thedailyem
53. @thedailyem DO Work toward alignment early and often
54. @thedailyem DON’T Let maintenance and tech initiatives languish
55. Maintenance Feature Work Business Sees: Waste of Time and Money Stuff I Can Actually Sell Technology Sees: @thedailyem
56. @thedailyem DO Be your team’s advocate
58. Embrace the Messiness
59. Enjoy the Process
60. Prioritise Your Way to Greatness
61. Emily Tate Mind the Product Twitter: @thedailyem LinkedIn: /thedailyem