- 1. What Is Product Management?
- 2. What Is a Software Product?
- 3. Software Product Manager
- 4. Product Owner
- 5. Product Management Life Cycle
- 6. Product Management Roadmap
- 7. Product Management Software and Tools
- 8. Product Backlog
- 9. Product Management OKRs
- 10. Product Requirements Documents
- 11. Product Management Metrics and KPIs Explained
- 12. Product Analytics
- 13. Comprehensive Guide to Lean Product Management
- 14. Best Product Management Resources for Product Managers
- 15. Practical Product Management Templates
- 16. FAQ
- 17. Glossary of Product Management Terms
- 1. What Is Product Management?
- 2. What Is a Software Product?
- 3. Software Product Manager
- 4. Product Owner
- 5. Product Management Life Cycle
- 6. Product Management Roadmap
- 7. Product Management Software and Tools
- 8. Product Backlog
- 9. Product Management OKRs
- 10. Product Requirements Documents
- 11. Product Management Metrics and KPIs Explained
- 12. Product Analytics
- 13. Comprehensive Guide to Lean Product Management
- 14. Best Product Management Resources for Product Managers
- 15. Practical Product Management Templates
- 16. FAQ
- 17. Glossary of Product Management Terms
What Is the Product Management Prioritization Matrix?
What Is the Product Management Prioritization Matrix?
Managers need to prioritize if they want to build a successful product.
While they juggle multiple product priorities, the focus has to be on solving real customer problems. Funding may be limited, priorities may change, and resource allocation may not be constant.
An organized process to help prioritize product tasks can be a life-saver.
What is prioritization in product management?
Prioritization in product management is a planned process that evaluates the relative importance of ideas, requests, and tasks to deliver the greatest customer value in the shortest time.
A successful product prioritization exercise gains stakeholder confidence and creates a holistic team vision while minimizing wasteful activities.
Product management prioritization matrix definition
The product management prioritization matrix is a visualization exercise that guides product teams on the relative importance of product responsibilities. By using these principles, teams can decide what to work on next.
A product management prioritization matrix helps teams find answers to questions such as:
- Is the team working on the tasks that deliver the greatest business value?
- Are the available resources being utilized in the best possible manner?
- Are the product activities actively contributing to the team and organizational goals?
- Is the team ready and prepared to take the product to market?
- Is the team focusing on activities that deliver customer value?
Why is a product management prioritization matrix needed?
49% of product managers are unsure if their product meets customers’ needs.
Half the product managers surveyed don’t know how to prioritize product tasks without real market feedback. Teams may get pulled in different directions. They may prioritize based on support requests, gut reactions, or feature popularity.
While one stakeholder may request a specific feature, another may put forth a completely different product direction. The product manager may fall into the feature superiority battle and lose sight of delivering value to the end-user. Product prioritization frameworks can help with this.
Value and complexity product prioritization matrix framework
A value and complexity quadrant is one of the most widely used product management prioritization matrix frameworks.
Value is defined as the benefits consumers will get from a product feature. The feature should help:
- Solve customer problems
- Simplify the customer workflow
- Add to the company’s bottom line revenues
- Support end-users in achieving the desired outcome.
Complexity is the level of company effort required to deliver a specific product feature. It includes:
- Reviewing the time, cost, and resources required to build a feature
- Calculating the number of hours in weeks, months, or years to produce a specific product functionality
- Identifying the time, training, and resources required to train the product team
- Arranging technology and infrastructure needs
Here’s a look at how this works:
- A simple 2x2 grid matrix is plotted with ‘value’ on one axis and ‘complexity’ on the other.
- Teams assign complexity and value to each product update, feature, fix, or initiative.
- Four different sections are created in the matrix. These include:
- Quick wins to be executed first — features with high business value that is easy to complete
- Potential product features that are risky to execute — valuable projects with high cost/resource needs
- Nice-to-have features — ideas for small product improvements
- Timesink features — potential features/improvements that waste time and resources (these should be avoided completely)
Measuring value and complexity helps determine priority for product features and allows teams to make more effective product decisions.
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Anna Grigoryan
Anna is a Director of Product Management at Wrike and a seasoned product leader with over 15 years of experience in the tech industry. She has successfully led multiple engineering teams, ensuring the delivery of high-quality products featuring mobile and web experiences, seamless integrations with other platforms, and innovative white-labeled solutions.
Product Management Team And Roles
- Product Management Hierarchy
- Product Management Team and Roles
- Role of a Product Management Lead
- Role of a Product Management Specialist
- Product Manager vs Software Engineer
- Technical Product Manager vs Product Manager
- How to Become a Product Owner
- Project Manager vs Project Owner
- Importance of The Product Owner