Understanding Why Feature Prioritisation Matters
When building a product, it’s easy to get excited about adding every great idea that comes to mind. But trying to do everything at once usually leads to burnout, bloated products, and unhappy users. Feature prioritisation helps you avoid that.
By focusing on the features that truly matter—both to your users and your business—you can deliver real value early on. It helps teams stay on track, cut down on distractions, and move fast without losing focus. This is especially important in agile environments, where time is tight and feedback loops are constant.
Prioritising also helps you align what you’re building with what users actually want. Instead of packing your product with features just because competitors have them, you’ll be creating something that solves real problems—leading to better retention, stronger engagement, and a clearer product-market fit.
Skipping this step often results in feature overload: too many half-baked ideas, poor user experience, and development teams that are spread too thin. That’s why successful founders lean into frameworks like MoSCoW or the Value vs Effort Matrix to bring structure into their product thinking—and stay focused on what really matters.
Choosing the Right Prioritisation Framework
There’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to prioritisation frameworks, but knowing your options helps you choose what works best for your team.
- MoSCoW Method: Breaks features into Must-haves, Should-haves, Could-haves, and Won’t-haves. It’s great for MVP planning but requires clear communication to avoid confusion.
- RICE Scoring: Looks at Reach, Impact, Confidence, and Effort to give each feature a score. It’s especially useful when you’re juggling lots of options and want to stay data-driven.
- Kano Model: Focuses on customer satisfaction by classifying features as Basic, Performance, or Delighters. It’s more emotional than mathematical, but great for understanding how features affect user happiness.
Each framework has strengths. You might even combine two or more depending on your stage, team size, and product goals. The key is to stay consistent and honest about what you can build and what you should build.
Listening to Users (and Knowing What to Ignore)
You can’t prioritise well without real input from the people who’ll use your product. That’s where user feedback comes in. It helps you move from assumptions to facts.
Start with surveys to gather broad insights. They’re useful for spotting trends in what users say they want. But don’t stop there—interviews can reveal the “why” behind what users do, not just what they say. They’re perfect for digging into pain points and motivations.
Then there’s usability testing—watching how real people use your product. This helps you identify friction points and features that aren’t intuitive, which might otherwise go unnoticed.
The real magic happens when you combine all this feedback and look for patterns. What do users really struggle with? Which features would actually improve their experience? Use that to guide your roadmap—and don’t be afraid to say no to ideas that don’t serve your core users.
Keep Iterating: Your Roadmap Should Breathe
Prioritisation isn’t a one-time decision—it’s an ongoing conversation. Your roadmap should evolve as your product grows and new data comes in.
Make time for regular roadmap reviews. Check in on what’s working, what’s not, and what users are saying. Use tools like product analytics, user feedback, and market research to guide updates.
Also, keep an eye on your business goals. Are you building to hit a growth target? Improve retention? Enter a new market? Your roadmap should reflect those shifts—without losing sight of your users.
Balance is key. Mix in small wins that boost team morale with longer-term initiatives that move the needle. Stay flexible, keep your feedback loops tight, and don’t be afraid to rethink your priorities as new information emerges.
Final Thoughts
Founders who prioritise features wisely don’t just move faster—they build better. By staying focused on what matters most, listening to users, and adapting along the way, you’ll be well on your way to building a product people actually want to use.