SUNDAY REWIND: Embracing the art of prioritisation by Emily Tate

This week’s Sunday Rewind is a ProductTank London talk from MTP Managing Director Emily Tate that looks at the steps product managers can take to embrace prioritisation.

Prioritisation is an art not a science, she says. What works for one person might not work for another, and there is no magical framework you can use. Her advice is to bring stakeholders into the process and communicate with them regularly. Don’t be afraid of hard conversations.

Emily also says you should use your backlog and don’t scrimp on maintenance. You should always prioritise like your budget could go away tomorrow, because it might.

In summary:

• Don’t try to math your way into art
• Do research, and be able to explain your reasoning
• Don’t prioritise alone
• Do prioritise together if possible
• Don’t let your tools do the talking
• Do talk to your stakeholders regularly
• Don’t just assign a portion of each sprint to different categories
• Don’t give others a percentage of your capacity to prioritise independently
• Do always prioritise ‘the next most important thing’
• Don’t “squeeze in little things” that aren’t prioritised
• Do add them to the backlog, and decide where it fits
• Don’t avoid hard conversations with stakeholders
• Do work towards alignment early and often
• Don’t let maintenance and tech initiatives languish
• Do be your team’s advocate

Emily says that prioritisation is a messy process and you should embrace that messiness rather than trying to find a way to make it easy. Having the conversations and figuring out what the next most important thing is is fun, you should enjoy the process.

Read the original post and watch the video: Embracing the Art of Prioritisation by Emily Tate