How do you prioritize user stories based on value and effort?

1 What is value and effort?

Value and effort are two dimensions that can help you evaluate and compare user stories. Value refers to the benefits that a user story will bring to your customers, your business, or your product. Effort refers to the resources, time, and complexity that a user story will require from your development team. Ideally, you want to focus on user stories that have high value and low effort, as they will give you the most return on investment.

2 How to measure value and effort?

Measuring value and effort can be done in various ways, depending on context and goals. Customer feedback, business impact, product vision, story points, time, and cost are all methods that can be used to assess user stories. Customer feedback can help to determine how well a user story solves a customer problem or satisfies a customer desire. Business impact can be determined using metrics such as revenue, retention, acquisition, or engagement. Product vision can be used to assign a value score to each user story based on how much it supports your product goals or direction. Story points are relative units of measure that estimate the size and complexity of a user story. Time is a more concrete and objective measure of effort, while cost is another way to express the effort of a user story. All these methods can help you measure the value and effort of your user stories.

3 How to prioritize user stories based on value and effort?

Once you have measured the value and effort of your user stories, you can use different frameworks and tools to prioritize them. For instance, the Value vs Effort Matrix plots user stories on a two-by-two matrix, with the x-axis representing effort and the y-axis representing value. This allows you to prioritize user stories from the top left quadrant to the bottom right quadrant, focusing on Quick Wins first. Alternatively, you can use the MoSCoW Method to classify user stories into four categories from Must Haves to Won't Haves. Lastly, you can also use the RICE Score, which is a formula that combines Reach, Impact, Confidence, and Effort factors to prioritize user stories from the highest RICE score to the lowest.

4 How to validate and communicate your prioritization?

Prioritizing user stories based on value and effort is an essential skill for technical product managers, as it enables them to deliver the most value to customers, business, and product, while optimizing resources, time, and complexity. To properly prioritize user stories, you should test your assumptions with real data and feedback, adjust your prioritization based on the results of the validation and context changes, and communicate your prioritization transparently with users, stakeholders, and developers. Experiments, prototypes, or beta versions can be used to validate user stories with users. Reviews, demos or retrospectives can be used to validate user stories with developers. Agile methodologies such as Scrum or Kanban can be used to iterate and adapt user stories based on feedback and learning. Backlog grooming or sprint planning can be used to review and update user stories based on new information. Visualizing tools such as user story maps or roadmaps can be used to share user stories and their value and effort. Methods such as user personas, storyboards or acceptance criteria can be used to explain and justify user stories and their benefits and trade-offs.