Software Development Better, Faster, Stronger with Feature Prioritization

Software Development Better, Faster, Stronger with Feature PrioritizationA guide to save time and align your stakeholders

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A world without feature prioritization

Contents

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What is feature prioritization?

4 reasons feature prioritization can boost your software project

Improving the team dynamic with feature prioritization

The alternative: A case of battling stakeholders

So you’ve decided feature prioritization is for you

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Introducing a more scientific development method

Step-by-step feature prioritization

Reading your matrix weights

Using the matrix

Scoring the feature list

A world without feature prioritization is a noisy, disorganized place fraught with frequent conversations around “value” and “timeline”. So frequent — in fact — that far less actually gets done.

In this world, the stress barometer reads “off the charts.” Tempers flare and decisions are made with wanton abandon. Often the players with the loudest voice or most organizational pull win out — not the players with a rational understanding of relevance, business value and reasonable timelines.At the expense of what? Cohesive user flows. A hodgepodge of features that feels more like a digital consignment shop than a well-thought out user experience.

A world withoutfeature prioritization

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Feature prioritization defined

Feature prioritization is the process of identifying business goals and weighting them to be used in scoring the priority of features being considered for development. Best used to align stakeholders balancing diverse departmental perspectives, feature prioritization helps teams to prioritize X feature over Y. A team may decide in-app messaging is more important than calendar functionality that syncs with Google if increasing communication with the target audience has been identified as a key business driver. Feature prioritization can also be used to inform the product release roadmap.

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What isfeature prioritization?

You don’t have to live in this world. (We certainly don’t.) A world WITH feature prioritization feels by comparison like a totally different universe. Frustration arising from fielding and balancing development requests from different departments is diminished. While at the same time, the business value derived from that development is amplified. How could this be? By identifying the business goals and assigning value-related development asks, it ensures all stakeholders understand the vision and rationale behind the priority assignments in the feature prioritization matrix.

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4 reasonsfeature prioritization

can boost yoursoftware project

From preserving your bottom line to increasing team cohesion, featureprioritization is the industry’s best kept strategy for smarter, moreeffective development.

1. Savings all around 2. A clear direction for all

Feature prioritization saves on time, frustration and wasted breath by aligning stakeholders around the “value” that can be gained from development early on. This understanding of value is then used to weight features being considered for development later in the process eliminating the need to rehash the conversation (read: argument) each time a new feature is proposed.

Prioritization, which can be translated into a product roadmap, provides sequential direction to your development team ensuring the features most critically needed are the features in progress, first. Clear direction for your development team cuts down on inefficiencies too — all but eliminating effort expended building the wrong features. Less inefficiencies mean greater potential productsuccess overall.

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3. Time is money 4. Everyone approaches time-lines and deliverables with eyes wide openFewer inefficiencies mean fewer resources wasted.

Enough said.

Feature prioritization is an integral component todetermine medium and long range planning — the app or platform additions that can be expected this week, this month and on.

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Improving the team dynamic withfeature prioritization

Even beyond savings in time and money, featureprioritization preserves or improves on the existing team dynamic by facilitating collaborative not combative decision-making. Look for instance at the successful software ventures founded in dorm rooms across the country — from the most notable example Facebook to the microfinance network PoverUP, which coordinates providing small business loans to entrepreneurs worldwide.

What makes developing these ventures so much more effective than the typical software projectcoordinated and run within a company?

The simple answer — many times the productowner and the development owner areone-in-the-same. Now when coordinating a larger scale development project, it’s usually not feasible for one person to perform both roles. When,the solution may impact such a wide swatch ofthe business it’s not realistic for one person to have acquired all the necessary knowledge to make informed decisions. Though, feature prioritization brings us one step closer to this ideal.

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The alternative:A case of battling stakeholders

Each has a fundamentally opposed business goal. As many have seen, in cases where objectives are so different often all three suffer when developed since the effort it takes to realize each to its optimum potential in a limited timetable isn’t realistic.

Without stakeholder alignment businesses risk not delivering on any of the stated goals. On top of this, when development is spread thin to accomplish three diverse goals, it can create the perception your team isn’t delivering. This added pressure isn’t good for moral. And it certainly isn’t good for revenuegeneration as a result of your completed or refurbished app.

Avoid it with feature prioritization.

Take for instance this scenario:

Three stakeholders have gathered in a room to talk about the next development tasks in an app they’re creating. Stakeholder A values aesthetics. He wants the app to be as functionally beautiful as possible. Stakeholder B is concerned with lead generation. She is interested in exposing as many new users to the app as conceivable. Stakeholder C values retention. She would rather afford value to the app’s already large user base.

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So you’ve decidedfeature prioritizationis for you

Effective feature prioritization starts with a clearunderstanding of the business problem you intend to solve, the business goals and the intended usersof your solution.

Ask yourself these six clarifying questions before you embark on a feature prioritization exercise. (At right)Better yet — email them to the stakeholders who will be participating in your prioritization meeting. Ask them to come to the meeting with answers to the questions identified. Let that serve as a springboard for your discussion. During your meeting with stakeholders, seek to gain alignment in answering the question list.

• What is the criteria to assess the value?• What are the business goals of the application?• How are you going to monetize it?• What is your user base?• What are the size and demographics of the user base?• What’s the business problem you’re trying to solve?

Tailoring the question list

Know that you may have others more appropriate to your specific business problem. Don’t be afraid to add your own or adapt the list. For example, asking, “What’s your user base?” might not be valid if you are creating firmware or an automatic backup capability — anything users don’t interact with directly.

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Introducinga more scientificdevelopment method

Consider feature prioritization the conductor of the development world helping to harmonize a choir of perspectives ranging from 5 to 100. How?

By discussing value first and features second, itcreates a layer of abstraction between the features and the people suggesting them. It’s a collectiveapproach that better separates personalities andfeelings from the estimations of features andtheir importance.

It all starts with discovery.

Step-by-stepfeature prioritization

Compile your prospective feature set.

We call this first step discovery, because that’s the goal. Comb through any existing user stories orrequirement documents to source your list. This may involve conducting customer or stakeholderinterviews for inspiration.

Determine business goals.

What’s most important — adding reliability,increasing marketing share or something totallydifferent that your committee decides? It’s important your stakeholders participate in identifying and are aligned around the relevant criteria that will comprise the framework to assess the relative value of eachfeature. Now is the time to put a stake in the ground. Poll your department heads. Whatever it takes to reach a clear vision. The business goals andcorresponding criteria you identify will inform how you weight the business drivers in the next step.

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Step-by-stepfeature prioritization

Weight your assessment criteria.

Here is where you assign a weight to the business goals you identified for further development of your mobile app. Let’s assume you’ve identifiedthe following business goals:

Weighting the objectives spurs discussion between stakeholders about what’s most important for the business and the priority of satisfying each objective. By assigning relative weights to the criteria, you’re creating numeric priority you will then use to score and rank the goals.

Establish a stronger brand identity

Increase app adoption and usage

Gain users

Increase reliability of the app

A

B

C

D

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Reading your matrix weights

Maneuvering the give-and-take

Assigning weights to the criteria allows you to bypass difficult conversations around the features that should be developed first. Instead, it acknowledges that some goals have a higher priority. The actual order of the feature list should be guided by these weight assignments. Rather than, “What do you mean the brand identity of the app ISN’T IMPORTANT?” Conversations will sound something like this, “Yes gaining market share is important, I think it’s outranked slightly by our need to increase the existing reliability of the app.

A

D

Establish a stronger brand identity

10%

BIncrease app

adoption and usage

30%

CGain Users

20%

Increase reliabilityof the app

40%

Reading the weights

According to the example above, increasing the reli-ability of the app is most important and establishing a stronger brand identity is least important.

Scoring the feature list

It’s decision time. The good news? All the stakeholders must do is rank each of the features on a scale from 1 to 5 for their success moving the dial on each of the business goals identified. We’ve found the following process works best:

Project the matrix or view it on a large screen as a group. Work from the top of the matrix down. Identify a meeting leader. This person will serve as thespeaker of sorts running the process. Though this person has no more deciding power than any other attendee. The power remains with the group.The leader will ask the individual who sponsored or identified the feature to propose a score. Then, the leader will open the discussion to the group.Discuss and adjust scores as a group untilconsensus is gained. The exercise can be slow initially. It’s a learned process that speeds as the group gains experience proposing a score andfinding consensus.

Establishing a more defined color scheme might be ranked as follows:

Move through our complete feature listdocumenting the values in the matrix. The tool does the rest, ultimately enabling a more value-drivenconversation compared to one mired in details and personal opinion.

Establish a stronger brand identity - 5A

Increase app adoption and usage - 3B

Gain users - 2C

Increase reliability of the app - 1D

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Using the matrix

The feature prioritization process is best understood through the lens of an example. Imagine an artists’ cooperative has decided to create a mobile app to better communicate with and understand theirmembership along with the art lovers they serve in a large metropolitan area. Let’s call it New York.

The cooperative has both studio and pop-up retail locations around the city. They host events at these locations and also hope their app can facilitate better connection between artists and art appreciators. Here is how to visualize their feature prioritization process.

Click here to access the matrix.14

http://mentormate.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/MentorMate-Feature-Prioritization-Matrix.xlsx

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• Feedback system for events• Simple, beautiful UX• Adjust settings for color or font size• Built-in analytics• Messaging from event hosts within the app• Accumulation of points for events attended within a predetermined tier system• Push notifications• In-app scheduling to meet with artist in studio space• Social media integration with Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram• One touch contact• Integration with email system like My Emma or MailChimp• In-app coupons

Step 1:Compile the prospective feature set

After a discovery phase that included talking with membersand past event attendees, stakeholders in the cooperativecompile the following features for consideration.

Social media integration with Facebook, LinkedIn,Twitter, Instagram

Integration with email system like My Emma orMailChimp

Push notifications

One touch contact

Coupons

Option for Spanishtranslation

Accumulation ofpoints for eventsattended withina predetermined tierfor system

In-app scheduling to meet with artistin studio space

Feedback system forhosted events

Application MajorFeature/Service Theme

1stBusiness

Driver

4thBusiness

Driver

2ndBusiness

Driver

5thBusiness

Driver

3rdBusiness

Driver

6thBusiness

Driver

7thBusiness

Driver

8thBusiness

Driver

Weight

Communication

Communication

Consumer insight

User experience

Brand identity

Communication

Communication

Communication

Awareness

Customerexperience

Customerexperience

Adoption

Awareness

Adjust settings for colorof font size

Simple, beautiful UX

Built-in analytics

Messaging from hosted events within the app

TotalScore

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

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• Increase engagement with users• Disseminate information• Promote the cooperative• Gain users• Establish a strong brand identity

Step 2:Determine the business goals

These are the tactics that will help drive new business for the cooperative, help them retain their existing membership or maintain attendance levels at events. The sample goals they chose listed in grey at the top of the chart are:



Push notifications



Coupons


One touch contact



Built-in analytics



Communication

Communication

Consumer insight

User experience

Brand identity

Communication

Communication

Communication

Awareness

Customerexperience

Customerexperience

Adoption

Awareness

Application MajorFeature/Service Theme

Increaseengagement

with usersDisseminateinformation

Promote thecooperative

Establish a strong brand

identityGain users

6thBusiness

Driver

7thBusiness

Driver

8thBusiness

Driver

Weight

TotalScore

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

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Step 3:Weight your assessment criteria

Assign priority with a given weight to the business drivers listed horizontally across the top of your matrix. The higher you weight the priority of each driver, the more heavily it will assign importance to related features.




Push notifications


Coupons



One touch contact



Built-in analytics


Communication

Communication

Consumer insight

User experience

Brand identity

Communication

Communication

Communication

Awareness

Customerexperience

Customerexperience

Adoption

Awareness

Increaseengagement




identityGain users

6thBusiness

Driver

7thBusiness

Driver

8thBusiness

Driver

TotalScoreApplication Major

Feature/Service Theme

Weight 25 40 15 10 10 0 0 0 100

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

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Step 5:Scoring the feature list

Score each feature for its ability to positively impact each business driver on a scale of 1 to 5. Scores of 5 heavily influence the business driver. Scores of 1 have a minimal impact on the business driver.After this has been completed, reorder the list to see the features prioritized in order of importance.

Step 4:Reading the weights

According to the weights assigned in the chart, business drivers for the cooperative in order of importance are:Disseminate information, increase engagement with users, promote the cooperative with gaining users and establishing a strong brand identity tied for least important.

Push notifications







Coupons


One touch contact


Built-in analytics


Communication

Communication

Consumer insight

User experience

Brand identity

Communication

Communication

Communication

Customerexperience

Customerexperience

Adoption

Awareness

Awareness

Increaseengagement




identityGain users

6thBusiness

Driver

7thBusiness

Driver

8thBusiness

Driver

TotalScoreApplication Major

Feature/Service Theme

Weight 25

5 5 5 4 3

5 5 4 2 2

5 5 5 4 3

5 5 4 2 2

5 5 2 4 1

4

4 3 2 2 1

4 3 2 2 1

4 5 4 2

3 4 2 25

5 1 3 1 2

3 1 2 2 5

4 1 1 4 1

2 1 1 1 5

40 15 10 10 0 0 0

94.00

94.00

85.00

85.00

81.00

79.00

69.00

56.00

56.00

48.00

43.00

41.00

33.00

100

mentormate.com | 3036 Hennepin Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55408 | (855) 977-9089

Talk with an expertOur takeWant help discovering, ideating around and

prioritizing your features? We’re experts

at roadmap development and project strategy.

Give us a call. We can help.

Feature prioritization and the advance planning it

requires is a way teams can manage time and risk

while maximizing business value by making

more effective decisions.

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Software Development Better, Faster, Stronger with Feature Prioritization

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