Part 3 · 2 chapters · ~12 min

Roadmaps and Prioritisation

Now, next and later roadmaps, RICE and its limits, cost of delay and weighted shortest job first, opportunity cost, saying no without burning bridges, handling stakeholder requests, and balancing features, debt and platform work.

7

Scoring, and its limits

Prioritisation frameworks are useful because they make assumptions explicit and arguable, not because they produce the answer.

RICE, WORKED
reach × impact × confidence ÷ effort, for four candidate projects
self-serve clearance letter1,280 = 4,000 × 2 × 0.8 ÷ 5dark mode188 = 1,500 × 0.25 × 1.0 ÷ 2loan top-up flow1,000 = 3,000 × 2 × 0.5 ÷ 3new onboarding animation208 = 5,000 × 0.25 × 0.5 ÷ 3
swipe the figure sideways, or tap expand for full screen
1/5
the formula
RICE = Reach (users per quarter) × Impact (0.25 to 3) × Confidence (50-100%) ÷ Effort (person-months). It forces each input to be stated and argued.
reach × impact × confidence ÷ effortmakes assumptions visible
8

Cost of delay and saying no

tooluse
cost of delaywhat each week of not having it costs (lost revenue, support cost, regulatory penalty); urgent items have steep curves
WSJFcost of delay ÷ duration: do short, valuable things first
capacity allocationa fixed share for debt and reliability (say 20%), protected from feature pressure
a "not now" listpublished, with reasons, so requests are acknowledged rather than ignored

Saying no well: restate the request and the problem behind it, show what it would displace, offer a cheaper alternative or a later slot, and write it down. "No" to a solution is often "yes" to the problem, solved differently.