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Critical thinking definition

Critical thinking, as described by Oxford Languages, is the objective analysis and evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgement.

Active and skillful approach, evaluation, assessment, synthesis, and/or evaluation of information obtained from, or made by, observation, knowledge, reflection, acumen or conversation, as a guide to belief and action, requires the critical thinking process, which is why it's often used in education and academics.

Some even may view it as a backbone of modern thought.

However, it's a skill, and skills must be trained and encouraged to be used at its full potential.

People turn up to various approaches in improving their critical thinking, like:

• Developing technical and problem-solving skills
• Engaging in more active listening
• Actively questioning their assumptions and beliefs
• Seeking out more diversity of thought
• Opening up their curiosity in an intellectual way etc.

Is critical thinking useful in writing?

Critical thinking can help in planning your paper and making it more concise, but it's not obvious at first. We carefully pinpointed some the questions you should ask yourself when boosting critical thinking in writing:

• What information should be included?
• Which information resources should the author look to?
• What degree of technical knowledge should the report assume its audience has?
• What is the most effective way to show information?
• How should the report be organized?
• How should it be designed?
• What tone and level of language difficulty should the document have?

Usage of critical thinking comes down not only to the outline of your paper, it also begs the question: How can we use critical thinking solving problems in our writing's topic?

Let's say, you have a Powerpoint on how critical thinking can reduce poverty in the United States. You'll primarily have to define critical thinking for the viewers, as well as use a lot of critical thinking questions and synonyms to get them to be familiar with your methods and start the thinking process behind it.

Are there any services that can help me use more critical thinking?

We understand that it's difficult to learn how to use critical thinking more effectively in just one article, but our service is here to help.

We are a team specializing in writing essays and other assignments for college students and all other types of customers who need a helping hand in its making. We cover a great range of topics, offer perfect quality work, always deliver on time and aim to leave our customers completely satisfied with what they ordered.

The ordering process is fully online, and it goes as follows:

• Select the topic and the deadline of your essay.
• Provide us with any details, requirements, statements that should be emphasized or particular parts of the essay writing process you struggle with.
• Leave the email address, where your completed order will be sent to.
• Select your prefered payment type, sit back and relax!

With lots of experience on the market, professionally degreed essay writers , online 24/7 customer support and incredibly low prices, you won't find a service offering a better deal than ours.

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Does anyone use the Critical Thinking Co curriculum?

I have kids who are 3, 6, 9 and 12 and am looking into beginning this curriculum next year. Which of the books do you use or have you used and for what age groups? Thoughts on your and your children's experience/s? Have you done the entire curriculum (every book) for any particular grade and what was your experience? I'm looking into all of them, but I wonder if there's particular series that stand above the rest? It looks great, the reviews look great, and I may buy some of them used to just thumb through and get a better idea of what I hope is a a great thing I stumbled upon.

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The Critical Thinking Co. Daily Mind Builders: Science Workbook - Quick, Fun Brain Energizers (Grades 5-12) Paperback – January 1, 2009

Additional details.

• Reading age 8 - 14 years
• Print length 144 pages
• Language English
• Dimensions 11 x 8.5 x 0.25 inches
• Publisher The Critical Thinking Co.
• Publication date January 1, 2009
• ISBN-10 1601442025
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Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ The Critical Thinking Co. (January 1, 2009)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 144 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1601442025
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1601442024
• Reading age ‏ : ‎ 8 - 14 years
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.4 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 11 x 8.5 x 0.25 inches
• #1,272 in Children's Puzzle Books (Books)

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Critical Thinking: Where to Begin

• For College and University Faculty
• For College and University Students
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If you are new to critical thinking or wish to deepen your conception of it, we recommend you review the content below and bookmark this page for future reference.

Our Conception of Critical Thinking...

"Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action. In its exemplary form, it is based on universal intellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness..."

"Critical thinking is self-guided, self-disciplined thinking which attempts to reason at the highest level of quality in a fairminded way. People who think critically attempt, with consistent and conscious effort, to live rationally, reasonably, and empathically. They are keenly aware of the inherently flawed nature of human thinking when left unchecked. They strive to diminish the power of their egocentric and sociocentric tendencies. They use the intellectual tools that critical thinking offers – concepts and principles that enable them to analyze, assess, and improve thinking. They work diligently to develop the intellectual virtues of intellectual integrity, intellectual humility, intellectual civility, intellectual empathy, intellectual sense of justice and confidence in reason. They realize that no matter how skilled they are as thinkers, they can always improve their reasoning abilities and they will at times fall prey to mistakes in reasoning, human irrationality, prejudices, biases, distortions, uncritically accepted social rules and taboos, self-interest, and vested interest.

They strive to improve the world in whatever ways they can and contribute to a more rational, civilized society. At the same time, they recognize the complexities often inherent in doing so. They strive never to think simplistically about complicated issues and always to consider the rights and needs of relevant others. They recognize the complexities in developing as thinkers, and commit themselves to life-long practice toward self-improvement. They embody the Socratic principle: The unexamined life is not worth living , because they realize that many unexamined lives together result in an uncritical, unjust, dangerous world."

Why Critical Thinking?

The Problem:

Everyone thinks; it is our nature to do so. But much of our thinking, left to itself, is biased, distorted, partial, uninformed, or down-right prejudiced. Yet the quality of our lives and that of what we produce, make, or build depends precisely on the quality of our thought. Shoddy thinking is costly, both in money and in quality of life. Excellence in thought, however, must be systematically cultivated.

A Brief Definition:

Critical thinking is the art of analyzing and evaluating thinking with a view to improving it. The Result: 

  A well-cultivated critical thinker:

• raises vital questions and problems, formulating them clearly and precisely;
• gathers and assesses relevant information, using abstract ideas to interpret it effectively;
• comes to well-reasoned conclusions and solutions, testing them against relevant criteria and standards;
• thinks openmindedly within alternative systems of thought, recognizing and assessing, as need be, their assumptions, implications, and practical consequences; and
• communicates effectively with others in figuring out solutions to complex problems.

Critical thinking is, in short, self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitored, and self-corrective thinking. It requires rigorous standards of excellence and mindful command of their use. It entails effective communication and problem-solving abilities, and a commitment to overcoming our native egocentrism and sociocentrism. Read more about our concept of critical thinking .

The Essential Dimensions of Critical Thinking

Our conception of critical thinking is based on the substantive approach developed by Dr. Richard Paul and his colleagues at the Center and Foundation for Critical Thinking over multiple decades. It is relevant to every subject, discipline, and profession, and to reasoning through the problems of everyday life. It entails five essential dimensions of critical thinking:

At the left is an overview of the first three dimensions. In sum, the elements or structures of thought enable us to "take our thinking apart" and analyze it. The intellectual standards are used to assess and evaluate the elements. The intellectual traits are dispositions of mind embodied by the fairminded critical thinker. To cultivate the mind, we need command of these essential dimensions, and we need to consistently apply them as we think through the many problems and issues in our lives.

The Elements of Reasoning and Intellectual Standards

To learn more about the elements of thought and how to apply the intellectual standards, check out our interactive model. Simply click on the link below, scroll to the bottom of the page, and explore the model with your mouse.

Why the Analysis of Thinking Is Important If you want to think well, you must understand at least the rudiments of thought, the most basic structures out of which all thinking is made. You must learn how to take thinking apart. Analyzing the Logic of a Subject When we understand the elements of reasoning, we realize that all subjects, all disciplines, have a fundamental logic defined by the structures of thought embedded within them. Therefore, to lay bare a subject’s most fundamental logic, we should begin with these questions:

Going Deeper...

The Critical Thinking Bookstore  

Our online bookstore houses numerous books and teacher's manuals , Thinker's Guides , videos , and other educational materials .  

Learn From Our Fellows and Scholars

Watch our Event Calendar , which provides an overview of all upcoming conferences and academies hosted by the Foundation for Critical Thinking. Clicking an entry on the Event Calendar will bring up that event's details, and the option to register. For those interested in online learning, the Foundation offers accredited online courses in critical thinking for both educators and the general public, as well as an online test for evaluating basic comprehension of critical thinking concepts . We are in the process of developing more online learning tools and tests to offer the community.  

Utilizing this Website

This website contains large amounts research and an online library of articles , both of which are freely available to the public. We also invite you to become a member of the Critical Thinking Community , where you will gain access to more tools and materials.  If you cannot locate a resource on a specific topic or concept, try searching for it using our Search Tool . The Search Tool is at the upper-right of every page on the website.

Brainstorming: 24 Techniques for Effective Brainstorming [+ How-to]

Home » Brainstorming   | 🕑 

Gust de Backer

June 25, 2024.

👉🏻    Workshop    /    Keynote    /    Consultancy

Every company does brainstorming , but some companies are better at it than others….

So why is that?

I’m going to show you:

• What different brainstorming techniques there are.
• How to prioritize brainstorm ideas.
• And how to be creative during your brainstorming sessions.

Let’s start..

Table of Contents

What is brainstorming?

Brainstorming is a technique for working with a group to find creative ideas for a specific problem.

In short, brainstorming is a method to creatively solve a problem . In this, it is important that everyone has a good understanding of what the problem is in order for people to brainstorm accurate solutions.

Do’s and don’ts

Why is brainstorming important?

Creative thinking shows us that there are multiple solutions to a problem and multiple ways to look at a problem.

People are often stuck in their ways of thinking because of the patterns they see, which is extremely bad for innovation.

Creative thinking helps to challenge our assumptions, discover new things, see from new perspectives and keep us mentally sharp.

24 brainstorming techniques

Brainstorming is not about the quality, but about the quantity of ideas.

You’re going to come up with as many ideas for a problem as possible, possibly with a group of people, for a set amount of time.

There are 24 methods you can use to make brainstorming more effective:

1. Brainwriting / Purge

Each member of the group has a certain amount of time to write down all his/her ideas. This has two main advantages:

• Introverts get a chance to share their ideas.
• It ensures that no one or two ideas dominate the brainstorming.

The result is a wide range of ideas that would not have surfaced if a few ideas had been discussed from the beginning.

2. The 5 Why’s Analysis

The 5 why’s analysis has become popular because Toyota used it as a standard process for root-cause analysis.

By asking “why?” 5 times in response to an answer you will get to the root of the problem or solution which allows for a broader perspective and better dialogue.

3. Starbursting

The starbursting technique pushes you to think about the who, what, where, when, why and how of an idea. Place your idea or problem in the center of the star diagram and at the ends put the questions:

4. Mind mapping

You place your problem or idea in the center of the board and start adding to it with new parts:

This also directly ensures that there is structure and that everything is broken down into certain topics.

5. Rolestorming

Try to imagine yourself as another person, it may be someone familiar or someone you know from your immediate environment.

If you can imagine yourself to be another person, ask yourself again how that would solve your problem?

6. Gap filling

See what situation you are in now (ready state) and see where you want to go (target state). Then ask yourself the question, how do we go from the ready state to the target state? What is needed for that?

The gap filling way is a good brainstorming technique to get from A to B.

7. Brain-netting

Using online software, write down ideas that belong to a particular problem or issue.

This is especially useful in preparation for a brainstorm so that people have enough time in advance to think about possible solutions without a lot of email traffic.

8. Round robin brainstorming

In round robin brainstorming, there is one person responsible for bringing up a question or several questions…

In this process, everyone must answer one at a time. In doing so, no feedback may be given or a second idea shared until everyone has shared his or her idea.

This brainstorming technique is ideal for medium to large teams where there are introverted team members or where there is a poor balance of creative input.

Tip : If someone shares an idea that has already been, give that person time to come up with a new idea.

9. Rapid ideation

Parkinson’s law shows us that we spend as much time on our work as we have available

Putting a time limit on brainstorming can increase the quality of the brainstorm. This allows team managers to maximize productivity and results.

Especially for teams with little time, who have little desire for meetings, or who are easily distracted, Rapid Ideation can be a good brainstorming technique.

10. Reverse brainstorming

Brainstorming sessions are often aimed at solving a problem. Reverse brainstorming sessions are aimed at causing problems.

Instead of asking “how can we solve this problem?” you ask “how can we make [problem] happen? From the answers you get, you can start to find solutions to possible problems that a concept or idea might pose.

Thinking of problems first ensures that the team then has a better perspective in solving the problems.

11. Stepladder brainstorming

In stepladder brainstorming, a problem is presented to the group where all but one or two people must leave the room….

The one or two people must then share their ideas after which a third person may enter the room to share his or her ideas, then a fourth, then a fifth and that until everyone has been.

The advantage to this brainstorming technique is that it does not involve thinking as a group, but allows everyone to share their own individual unique ideas without being influenced by the group.

12. SWOT Analysis

A SWOT analysis is not directly a brainstorming technique, but it can provide additional perspective during brainstorming.

SWOT stands for:

• Strengths : what are the strengths?
• Weaknesses : what are the weaknesses?
• Opportunities : where do the opportunities lie?
• Threats : what are the threats?

The SWOT analysis can also be the basis of brainstorming on how to assess a concept.

13. Eidetic image method

In the Eidetic image method, the group starts by closing their eyes to illustrate the current product in their minds…

Then they can start discussing what it looks like, close their eyes again and start visualizing what an improved version would look like, what features it would contain, what color it is, how big it is, etc.

This brainstorming technique works best when improving an existing product or solution.

14. Change of scenery

If you are constantly brainstorming with the same people in the same space, it can feel like repetition, which is obviously not good for inspiration.

By regularly changing the scenery or space and perhaps also the team composition, it is possible to tap into new sources of inspiration.

15. Drivers analysis

In the drivers analysis brainstorming technique, you focus on the causes of a problem.

Ask yourself or your team of brainstormers, “What causes [problem]?” and then “What causes [answer previous question]?

The deeper you can go the more likely you are to find the root of a problem.

16. Collaborative brainwriting

With this method of brainstorming, there is no need to dedicate a specific session to it….

For example, a facilitator hangs up a large sheet in an office with a problem-statement and possibly already some brainstorming ideas and everyone can contribute ideas in his or her own time.

This way everyone can contribute anonymously, just make sure it is clear to everyone when the deadline is to contribute.

17.  SCAMPER

The SCAMPER brainstorming technique helps brainstormers look at a problem from multiple perspectives, SCAMPER is an acronym that stands for:

• Substitute : evaluate what would happen if you swapped one facet or solution for another.
• Combine : evaluate what would happen if you combined one facet or solution with another.
• Adapt : assess what would happen if you placed one idea or solution in a different context.
• Modify : think about how you could change an idea or solution to make even more impact.
• Put to another use : think about how you could still use your idea in other ways.
• Eliminate : assess what can be removed from your idea or solution to make it simpler.
• Reverse effective : finally, you can look at how you can reorganize an idea to make it more effective.

During a brainstorm, it is helpful to use a SCAMPER template:

18. The idea napkin

The Idea Napkin brainstorming technique allows a broad topic to be broken down into tangible solutions.

Each brainstormer has an ‘Idea Napkin’, on which they write one idea and an elevator pitch of that idea. They also write down who they are trying to solve a problem for and what problem they are solving.

When everything is written down, the idea is for everyone to present their ‘Idea Napkin’ to the others, then all ideas are prioritized on an impact and effort matrix to determine which ideas are worthwhile:

19. 6 thinking hats

In the 6 thinking hats brainstorming technique, you need at least 6 people who are going to wear thinking hats. These different ‘thinking hats’ are going to allow them to look at a problem or idea from one specific angle.

There are 6 different thinking hats:

• Blue hat (Conductor’s hat) : manage the decision process, ask for summaries and come to conclusions.
• Green hat (Creative hat) : the green hat comes up with creative ideas and thinks in terms of possibilities.
• Red hat (Hat for the heart) : go out of your feeling and instinct, you don’t necessarily have to think logically.
• Yellow hat (Optimist’s hat) : with the yellow hat you look at problems with an optimistic view, you see advantages in everything.
• Black hat (Judge’s hat) : the black hat is very critical and sees problems in everything, it is important to see risks and dangers quickly.
• White hat (Fact hat) : neutral and objective, shares lots of statistics and facts.
• + Royal hat (Owner hat) : guides the brainstorm, looking for the balance between subjectivity and objectivity.

This brainstorming technique is useful to get an overall picture of one or more ideas.

20. ‘What if’ brainstorming

The ‘What if’ brainstorming technique is a good technique to bring out all possible solutions to a problem.

By asking questions like “What if this problem occurred in the 1800s?” or “What if our president would have to solve this issue?”.

By approaching it this way you can look at the problem and the solutions from different angles.

21. Random word picker

You pick a random word or animal and start brainstorming about how the word or the characteristics of the animal can help you solve your problem.

This brainstorming technique is really about getting new ideas in a creative way.

22. Storyboarding

Storyboarding is a brainstorming technique where you start sketching the problem and possible solutions. In doing so, you are going to visualize different parts of the problem and the solution which works extremely well for physical challenges.

23. Wishing

You start by wishing for something ‘I wish our company would make 10 million euros in profit’ and then you start thinking about how you can achieve this.

Try to set really ambitious goals, this ensures that you start thinking bigger and you will encounter other problems and solutions.

24. Crazy eights

In the crazy eights brainstorming technique, each participant is given a template with 8 empty boxes. The timer is set for 8 minutes during which time each participant must fill the boxes with 8 sketches of possible ideas. Repeat this process so that they can build on each other’s ideas.

How do you prioritize ideas?

There are several ways to prioritize ideas:

1. Dotmocracy

To prioritize ideas, it is possible to give all participants X number of stickers that they can divide on the ideas they have.

You can be creative with this by handing out different colored stickers to also vote on ideas that absolutely should not be implemented or perhaps an order in the ideas based on the colors.

2. How Now Wow

The How Now Wow technique is more about categorizing ideas based on how unique they are and how easy they are to accomplish.

After a team has written down ideas, they can be prioritized in the How Now Wow matrix:

• How ideas : original but difficult to implement.
• Now ideas : unoriginal and easy to execute.
• Wow ideas : unique ideas that are easy to execute.

Obviously, you want to have as many “Wow” ideas as possible because they are unique from the competition.

3. Impact-Effort Matrix

The impact-effort matrix allows you to determine the ratio of effort to results and then prioritize the best ideas:

You can write down where an idea belongs on the matrix or you can give points to ideas and use those points to determine where an idea will be placed.

4. I.C.E. / P.I.E.

ICE and PIE are well-known prioritization frameworks; they are acronyms that stand for…

• Impact : what is the potential impact if the idea works?
• Confidence : how confident are we that the idea will work?
• Ease : how easy is it to set up this idea?
• Potential : how potential is this solution to our problem?
• Importance : how important do we think solving this problem is?
• Ease : how easy is it to implement this solution?

From these scores you can get an average, it is also possible to add a multiplier to certain parts of ICE or PIE that you think are important.

5. Feasibility, Desirability and Viability Scorecard

These 3 pillars are topics on which you can rank an idea:

• Feasibility : is it actually achievable?
• Desirability : how much would we like this solution?
• Viability : how confident are we that this will work?

This is very similar to the ICE / PIE framework, but the questioning changes a little bit.

MoSCoW is a very well known prioritization framework, it is widely used to set up requirements for a particular thing and prioritize them.

MoSCoW is an acronym that stands for:

• Must have : What really needs to be in it?
• Should have : what should actually be included?
• Could have : nice to have, is nice to add, but has no priority.
• Would have / Will not have : we’re not going to do anything with this for now.

7. Multi-criteria Decision Making

In multi-criteria decision making, you write down what you think is important about a solution and prioritize different ideas based on that:

8. The Value Matrix

Also called the Value and Effort matrix, this involves weighing the costs against the benefits:

How to brainstorm effectively?

How do you set up the brainstorm effectively?

The better the problem statement is the better the brainstorming will go. It is easier to focus ideas on a situation when that situation is enormously clear.

By just starting to do anything you will probably not find the desired solution. Make sure you have a clear agenda with times when you want to do something exactly. It is also important to make clear in advance what the desired end result of the brainstorm is.

Each brainstorming technique fits a different type of situation, evaluate which brainstorming techniques exist and choose some to come up with solutions from multiple angles.

By just talking and thinking about ideas a lot will be lost, document the ideas so they can be looked back at later.

Not every idea has the same potential to be used, therefore it is important to choose which ideas can be taken up, which ones will be interesting at a later date and which ones can be thrown in the garbage can.

Make sure you have time available in the coming period to start working on good ideas.

What is creativity in brainstorming?

Creativity is the ability to think outside of traditional ways and come up with new, original ideas, methods or objects.

It is often thought that the left part of the brain is for creativity and that the right part of the brain contains analytical ability:

In creativity, it is about the networks between the different parts in the brain. There are 3 types of networks that are important here:

• The executive attention network : allows you to maintain your attention and focus.
• The imagination network : allows you to daydream or imagine yourself in someone else’s shoes.
• The salience network : allows you to identify certain things based on old information stored in your brain.

A video that goes into some detail here:

What types of creative thinking are there?

At work, there are several types of creative thinking you may encounter:

• Divergent Thinking : a brainstorming session where you write down as many solutions as you can think of.
• Convergent Thinking : gathering facts and finding the most used and complete solution to the problem.
• Inspirational Thinking : focus on the best-case scenario to find a new solution to a problem.
• Lateral Thinking : reorganize information to come up with creative solutions to move from the ready state to the target state.
• Aesthetic Thinking : solutions that we actually like, with a focus on structure, knowledge, composition, color and shape.

What is critical thinking in brainstorming?

A critical thinker does not simply assume ideas and assumptions, but will always be looking for more ideas, arguments and insights to get the full picture.

Critical thinkers will identify, analyze and solve problems in a systematic way rather than thinking from intuition or instinct.

A critical thinker is able to:

• Make the connection between ideas and in them determine how important and relevant arguments and ideas are.
• Recognize, build and evaluate arguments.
• Find errors and inconsistencies in reasoning.
• To approach problems in a consistent and systematic way.
• Reflect on his own assumptions, beliefs and values.

Discover your creativity

You are now armed with knowledge to set up the best creative brainstorming sessions….

I’m curious, what do you think is the best brainstorming technique?

Let me know in a comment.

P.S. Want more help? Send an email to [email protected]

Frequently asked questions about brainstorming

A design sprint is a limited-time process that uses design thinking. The goal is to find an answer to a critical business question or a specific problem within that limited timeframe.

During a design sprint, design thinking is used.

To lead a brainstorm session it is important that you understand the problem, that you set a clear agenda, that you use the right brainstorm techniques and that you stimulate new ideas and don’t criticize ‘bad’ ideas.

First come up with a clear problem-statement, then choose matching brainstorm techniques, plan a clear agenda and at the end prioritize the outcomes of the brainstorm session.

There should be a purpose for the brainstorm, it should be with others, you should stimulate each other’s ideas, there should be no criticism of ideas, and make sure there is enough creativity.

Before brainstorming, the right questions should be asked, this can be done using Starbursting. Starbursting asks questions such as: how, what, where, when, who and why.

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The Ultimate Guide to Product Prioritization + 8 Frameworks

Lisa Dziuba

Updated: August 21, 2024 - 26 min read

One of the most challenging aspects of Product Management is prioritization. If you’ve transitioned to Product from another discipline, you might already think you know how to do it. You choose which task to work on first, which deadline needs to be met above all others, and which order to answer your emails in.

Priorities, right? Wrong!

In product management, prioritization is on a whole other level! The engineers are telling you that Feature A will be really cool and will take you to the next level. But a key stakeholder is gently suggesting that Feature B should be included in V1. Finally, your data analyst is convinced that Feature B is completely unnecessary and that users are crying out for Feature C.

Who decides how to prioritize the features? You do.

Prioritization is an essential part of the product management process and product development. It can feel daunting, but for a successful launch , it has to be done.

Luckily, a whole community of Product experts has come before you. They’ve built great things, including some excellent prioritization frameworks!

Quick summary

Here’s what we’ll cover in this article: 

The benefits and challenges of prioritization

The best prioritization frameworks and when to use them 

How real Product Leaders implement prioritization at Microsoft, Amazon, and HSBC

Common prioritization mistakes

Frequently Asked Questions

Benefits and challenges of prioritization

Before we dive into the different prioritization models, let’s talk about why prioritization is so important and what holds PMs back.

Benefits of effective feature prioritization

Enhanced focus on key objectives: Prioritization allows you to concentrate on tasks that align closely with your product's core goals. For example, when Spotify prioritized personalized playlists, it significantly boosted user engagement, aligning perfectly with its goal of providing a unique user experience.

Resource optimization: You can allocate your team’s time and your company’s resources more efficiently. Focusing on fewer, more impactful projects can lead to greater innovation and success.

Improved decision-making: When you prioritize, you're essentially making strategic decisions about where to focus efforts. This clarity in decision-making can lead to more successful outcomes, avoiding the pitfalls of cognitive biases like recency bias and the sunk cost fallacy .

Strategic focus: Prioritization aligns tasks with the company's broader strategic goals, ensuring that day-to-day activities contribute to long-term objectives.

Consider the example of Apple Inc. under the leadership of Steve Jobs. One of Jobs' first actions when he returned to Apple in 1997 was to slash the number of projects and products the company was working on.

Apple refocused its efforts on just a handful of key projects. This ruthless prioritization allowed Apple to focus on quality rather than quantity, leading to the development of groundbreaking products like the iPod, iPhone, and iPad. 

Stress reduction : From customer interactions to executive presentations, the responsibilities of a PM are vast and varied, often leading to a risk of burnout if not managed adeptly. For more on this, check out this talk by Glenn Wilson, Google Group PM, on Play the Long Game When Everything Is on Fire .

Challenges of prioritization

Managing stakeholder expectations: Different stakeholders may have varying priorities. For instance, your engineering team might prioritize feature development , while marketing may push for more customer-centric enhancements. Striking a balance can be challenging.

Adapting to changing market conditions: The market is dynamic, and priorities can shift unexpectedly. When the pandemic hit, Zoom had to quickly reprioritize to cater to a massive surge in users, emphasizing scalability and security over other planned enhancements.

Dealing with limited information: Even in the PM & PMM world, having a strong data-driven team is more often a dream rather than a current reality. Even when there is data, you can’t know everything. Amazon’s decision to enter the cloud computing market with AWS was initially seen as a risky move, but they prioritized the gamble and it paid off spectacularly.

Limited resources : Smaller businesses and startups don’t have the luxury of calmly building lots of small features, hoping that some of them will improve the product. The less funding a company has, the fewer mistakes (iterations) it can afford to make when building an MVP or figuring out Product-Market Fit.

Bias: If you read The Mom Test book, you probably know that people will lie about their experience with your product to make you feel comfortable. This means that product prioritization can be influenced by biased opinions, having “nice-to-have” features at the top of the list.

Lack of alignment: Different teams can have varying opinions as to what is “important”. When these differences aren’t addressed, product prioritization can become a fight between what brings Product-Led Growth, more leads, higher Net Promoter Score, better User Experience, higher retention, or lower churn. Lack of alignment is not the last issue startups face when prioritizing features.

Prioritization Frameworks

There are a lot of prioritization models for PMs to employ. While it’s great to have so many tools at your disposal, it can also be a bit overwhelming. You might even ask yourself which prioritization framework you should…prioritize. 

In reality, each model is like a different tool in your toolbox. Just like a hammer is better than a wrench at hammering nails, each model is right depending on the type of prioritization task at hand. The first step is to familiarize yourself with the most trusty frameworks out there. So, without further ado, let’s get started.

The MoSCoW method

Known as the MoSCoW Prioritization Technique or MoSCoW Analysis , MoSCoW is a method used to easily categorize what’s important and what’s not. The name is an acronym of four prioritization categories: Must have, Should have, Could have, and Won’t have .

It’s a particularly useful tool for communicating to stakeholders what you’re working on and why.

According to MoSCoW, all the features go into one of four categories:

Must Have These are the features that will make or break the product. Without them, the user will not be able to get value from the product or won’t be able to use it. These are the “painkillers” that form the why behind your product, and often are closely tied to how the product will generate revenue.

Should Have These are important features but are not needed to make the product functional. Think of them as your “second priorities”. They could be enhanced options that address typical use cases. 

Could Have Often seen as nice to have items, not critical but would be welcomed. These are “vitamins”, not painkillers. They might be integrations and extensions that enhance users’ workflow.

Won’t Have Similar to the “money pit” in the impact–effort matrix framework, these are features that are not worth the time or effort they would require to develop.

Pros of using this framework: MoSCoW is ideal when looking for a simplified approach that can involve the less technical members of the company and one that can easily categorize the most important features.

Cons of using this framework: It is difficult to set the right number of must-have features and, as a result, your Product Backlog may end up with too many features that tax the development team.

RICE scoring

Developed by the Intercom team, the RICE scoring system compares Reach, Impact, Confidence , and Effort.

Reach centers the focus on the customers by thinking about how many people will be impacted by a feature or release. You can measure this using the number of people who will benefit from a feature in a certain period of time. For example, “How many customers will use this feature per month?”

Now that you’ve thought about how many people you’ll reach, it’s time to think about how they’ll be affected. Think about the goal you’re trying to reach. It could be to delight customers (measured in positive reviews and referrals) or reduce churn.

Intercom recommends a multiple-choice scale:

3 = massive impact

2 = high impact

1 = medium impact

0.5 = low impact

0.25 = minimal impact

A confidence percentage expresses how secure team members feel about their assessments of reach and impact. The effect this has is that it de-prioritizes features that are too risky.

Generally, anything above 80% is considered a high confidence score, and anything below 50% is unqualified.

Considering effort helps balance cost and benefit. In an ideal world, everything would be high-impact/low-effort, although this is rarely the case. You’ll need information from everyone involved (designers, engineers, etc.) to calculate effort. 

Think about the amount of work one team member can do in a month, which will naturally be different across teams. Estimate how much work it’ll take each team member working on the project. The more time allotted to a project, the higher the reach, impact, and confidence will need to be to make it worth the effort.

Calculating a RICE score

Now you should have four numbers representing each of the 4 categories. To calculate your score, multiply Reach, Impact, and Confidence. Then divide by Effort.

Pros of using this framework:  

Its spreadsheet format and database approach are awesome for data-focused teams. This method also filters out guesswork and the “loudest voice” factor because of the confidence metric. For teams that have a high volume of hypotheses to test, having a spreadsheet format is quick and scalable.

Cons of using this framework: 

The RICE format might be hard to digest if your startup team consists mainly of visual thinkers. When you move fast, it’s essential to use a format that everyone will find comfortable. When there are 30+ possible features for complex products, this becomes a long spreadsheet to digest.

Impact–Effort Matrix 

The Impact-Effort Matrix is similar to the RICE method but better suited to visual thinkers. This 2-D matrix plots the “value” (impact) of a feature for the user vs the complexity of development, otherwise known as the “effort”. 

When using the impact–effort matrix, the Product Owner first adds all features or product hypotheses. Then the team that executes on these product hypotheses votes on where to place the features on the impact and effort dimensions. Each feature ends up in one of 4 quadrants:

Quick wins Low effort and high impact are features or ideas that will bring growth. 

Big bets High effort but high impact. These have the potential to make a big difference but must be well-planned. If your hypothesis fails here, you waste a lot of development time. 

Fill-ins Low value but also low effort. Fill-ins don’t take much time but they still should only be worked on if other more important tasks are complete. These are good tasks to focus on while waiting on blockers to higher priority features to be worked out. 

Money pit Low value and high effort features are detrimental to morale and the bottom line. They should be avoided at all costs.

Pros of using this framework:  It allows quick prioritization and works well when the number of features is small. It can be shared across the whole startup team, as it’s easy to understand at first glance.

Cons of using this framework:  If two product hypotheses are “quick wins”, which should go first? For this reason, it’s not the best framework when there are a lot of features. Also, beware of “fill-ins”, as they can take much more time and resources than expected and create loss of focus.

Professor Noriaki Kano, a Japanese educator and influential figure in quality management, developed the Kano model in the 1980s. Since then, it has been widely used by organizations seeking to prioritize customer satisfaction.

Delighters: The features that customers will perceive as going above and beyond their expectations. These are the things that will differentiate you from your competition.

Performance features: Customers respond well to high investments in performance features.

Basic features: The minimum expected by customers to solve their problems. Without these, the product is of little use to them.

The main idea behind the Kano model is that if you focus on the features that come under these three brackets, the higher your level of customer satisfaction will be.

To find out how customers value certain features, use questionnaires asking how their experience of your product would change with or without them.

As time goes along, you may find that features that used to be delighters move down closer towards ‘Basic Features’ as technology catches up and customers have come to expect them, so it’s important to reassess periodically.

Pros of using this framework: Because the model differentiates between basic needs and features that can delight customers, it prioritizes more customer-focused products and services.

Cons of using this framework: The categorization of features into Kano’s categories can be subjective, leading to inconsistencies. It doesn't directly address other crucial aspects like cost, time-to-market, or feasibility, which can also significantly impact product success.

Feasibility, Desirability, and Viability scorecard

Developed by IDEO in the early 2000s, this scorecard takes three core criteria — feasibility, desirability, and viability. It scores each criterion from 1 - 10 for every feature and takes a total to decide on the priority. 

Feasibility Can we build this feature with the skills and resources available? Is it possible to make this particular product hypothesis fast and without hiring extra people? Do you have an available tech stack/tools/cloud storage to do it?

Desirability Does this solve the pain for the customers? Do they want this feature enough to consider paying for it?

Viability How much will users pay for this feature? What’s the (ROI)? Is there any unit economy behind this feature?

Using this framework, your team creates a spreadsheet with product features and puts a score for each parameter. Another way to use this framework is to evaluate MVP ideas for feasibility, desirability, and viability via a team discussion. 

Ideas that have the most support from the team on those parameters can go right into the design sprint . Use the relevant people to help with the evaluation. For example, developers to look at feasibility or Product Marketing Managers to discuss desirability. This scorecard is pretty straightforward with clear pros and cons:

Pros of using this framework: The flexibility of the FDV scorecard means it can be used for evaluating marketing initiatives, hypotheses for customer success teams, or MVP concepts. It works well for teams that don’t find rigid frameworks helpful or for a workshop, or discussion on the executive level. 

Cons of using this framework: This approach relies a lot on knowledge of what the customer wants and how complex new features are. That is not always data that is readily available. 

Weighted Scoring Prioritization

This method follows a similar pattern to other frameworks on this list but with the significant addition of weighting how much of each category counts towards the final total. 

The process starts by selecting the criteria/categories you’ll be using to rate the features. For example, you might select “user experience”, “sales value”, “strategic impact”, “user adoption” or any of the Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, Revenue (AARRR) metrics.

Next, you need to decide what importance you give to each category, adding a percentage value to each criterion (up to 100%). For example, during the early stages, you might focus on UX features that make an MVP usable. Each feature will have a score in those categories, from 1 (min impact) – 100 (max impact). Then you can now calculate the final score for each feature.

Pros of using this framework: The framework is customizable, which allows you to utilize the framework throughout an organization’s lifetime.

Cons of using this framework: Sometimes the weighting percentages can be hard to decide on. It requires PMMs & PMs to understand how each feature will influence user adoption across the whole product ecosystem. 

Cost of Delay

The Cost of Delay framework is unique in that it focuses exclusively on monetary value. The framework is designed to calculate the cost of not producing the feature immediately. It’s relatively straightforward to understand, although the calculation itself does require careful consideration. 

The calculation is as follows:

Estimated revenue per unit of time , for example, how much could be billed over a month-long period if the feature existed.

Estimated time it will take to complete the development of the feature.

Divide the estimated revenue by the estimated time to give you the cost of delay.

Pros of using this framework: This is a highly effective way of prioritizing feature backlogs. It is also useful in helping team members align around the value of features in terms of ROI.

Cons of using this framework: For new companies or brand-new features, the revenue estimate is very much based on a gut feeling as there is no hard data to base the estimates on.

Product Tree

Luke Hohmann introduced the concept of ‘Prune the Product Tree’, in his book Innovation Games: Creating Breakthrough Products Through Collaborative Play . During a Product Tree session, stakeholders use stickers, markers, or digital equivalents to place features, ideas, and enhancements on different parts of the tree according to where they think they belong in terms of product development priorities. 

Roots : Represent the core technologies, systems, and cap

abilities that support and enable the product's basic functions. These are fundamental aspects without which the product cannot function.

Trunk : Symbolizes the product's main functionalities or the current set of features. It is the stable and established part of the product that supports further growth.

Branches : Illustrate different areas of the product that can grow and expand, such as new feature sets, product lines, or major enhancements.

Leaves : Stand for specific features, ideas, or small enhancements that can be added to the product. These are often more visible to the end-users and can directly contribute to user satisfaction and product value.

Which model should I use?

Knowing which prioritization framework to use is tough! The Kano model is useful for making customer-centric decisions and focus on delight, but it can take time to carry out all the questionnaires needed for your insights to be accurate and fair.

Many people like the RICE scoring system as it takes confidence into account in a qualitative way, but there are still a lot of uncertainties.

MoSCoW focuses on what matters to both customers and stakeholders, which is particularly useful for Product Managers who struggle with managing stakeholder expectations. However, there’s nothing stopping you from putting too many items in ‘Must have’ and overextending your resources.

Of course, these aren’t the only prioritization techniques out there, and many talented Product Managers have their own ways of doing things. All you can do is test, test, and test again!

How to prioritize individual tasks: Tips from busy product leaders

Microsoft: applying the eisenhower matrix to a busy inbox.

Microsoft Product Manager Anusha Bahtnagar, uses a prioritization technique called The Eisenhower Matrix to prioritize what comes into her inbox. As a Product Manager working with cross-continental teams, it’s common to wake up to a full inbox.

The Eisenhower Matrix effectively sorts your tasks/emails into four categories, and presents a solution.

Important and Urgent: Top priority tasks that require your urgent attention (eg, crisis management tasks.)

Urgent and Not Important: Time-sensitive tasks that could be handled by someone else. Delegate these tasks.

Important and Not Urgent: Tasks that you definitely need to do, but they can wait. Schedule these for the future.

Not Important and Not Urgent: Declutter and eliminate tasks.

Amazon and Google: Making customer-focused prioritization decisions

A common theme across many companies is that the customer comes first. The same goes for prioritization.

Asal Elleuch, a Senior Product Manager for Amazon Prime, calls prioritization “a never-ending and iterative process.”

Focusing on the customer gives you an incredibly useful yardstick for prioritization. After all, your company’s values should already be customer focused. And most of your stakeholders should also be aligned on The Why. 

The Product vision should also be heavily influenced by customer needs.

Being customer-focused in your prioritization will help keep your decisions aligned with everything else. Like one big customer-centric puzzle!

Google product teams achieve this by using North Star Metrics . Your North Star Metric can be any metric or action that provides the most value to the customer. For instance, Spotify’s North Star Metric might be clicking ‘play’ on a song. Google Search’s North Star Metric might be clicking on a search result.

You can then base your prioritization decisions around that metric. Whichever updates/features/bug fixes will have a greater impact on that metric has priority.

HSBC: The art of making impossible product decisions

To help make decisions, with so many outside influences and an interlocking web of things to consider, Product Leader Mariano Capezzani came up with his own prioritization system.

Broken down into 4 steps, it gives you a solid footing for making quality prioritization decisions.

Know the context . Understand things like how this task/feature fits with the KPIs of the company, the market trends, and related upcoming regulations.

Understand the need. Learn to differentiate between what customers are asking for and what they really need.

Consider the execution. Are you aware of the intricate network of dependencies and their interlock that are needed to deliver something?

Arrange the sequence. Apply a quick acid test to ensure it fits your criteria (contributes to company goals, benefits a market, etc.)

Common Product Prioritization Mistakes

Mistake 1: no agreed-upon scoring guide.

What does an impact score of “5” mean? A 1% growth or 10%? In conversion rate or MRR? Do other teammates think the same?

Without an agreed-upon scoring guide, you can’t make an apples-to-apples comparison between initiatives. This makes prioritization pointless. To make matters worse, it increases the likelihood of conflicts between team members, as you are essentially disguising opinions as objective decisions. 

How to fix it

Develop a shared scoring guide for your prioritization criteria. Define what each level entails with a concrete description and examples. Here’s an example guide for determining the confidence level:

A scoring guide can be created for any prioritization method, as long as it is:

Specific to your product and team context

Objective and clear

It’s important to point out that even with a guideline, there will still be disagreements — and that’s okay. Team members should be comfortable explaining their decisions and giving feedback to others. These discussions will help your team uncover blind spots and build alignment.

Mistake 2: Mixing discovery and delivery

Software development isn’t the only thing that takes time when building a product. So do problem analysis and solution design, commonly referred to together as product discovery .

However, discovery tasks usually get either:

Lumped in with development work → Creates messy dependency issues.

Left out of the prioritization process → Introduces a selection bias from the start.

Divide your product development into discovery and delivery, and prioritize the two backlogs separately. This is called Dual Track Development . 

Do note that having separate tracks doesn’t mean you should have separate teams. For any given project, the same team should carry out both discovery and delivery work to maximize quality and velocity. 

Mistake 3: Recency bias

Your team will always add items to the backlog faster than it will clear them. Over time, you will build up a long backlog with items from the previous century (year). Because it’s human nature to favor shiny new ideas (a.k.a. recency bias), old items tend to get forgotten for no good reason. 

As new evidence emerges, situations change, and your team’s estimation skills improve, you must constantly review old items to correctly prioritize the backlog.

Track the “freshness” of each item. When something has not been updated for longer than X period of time, groom it again using the latest information. If it’s no longer relevant, it’s time to remove it permanently.

Mistake 4: Not considering constraints 

Product development is inherently messy. Besides the core value-vs-cost consideration, there are also dependencies, deadlines, skill fit, strategic fit, and other constraints that influence your prioritization decisions.

No matter how ruthless you are with prioritization, you can’t simply dismiss these constraints. However, you also shouldn’t let them override your core prioritization criteria every single time. 

Teams that lack a good system to deal with these external factors often end up losing confidence in their prioritization processes altogether. 

Define a set of rules to work with these constraints, and make them part of your prioritization system.

Here are a few examples:

Time-sensitive projects → Set aside a fixed amount of resources each month to fast-track projects with non-negotiable deadlines (e.g., scheduled launch events, seasonable campaigns). Everything else will follow the regular process, even if it means not getting done at all.

Dependencies → A project blocked by other tasks will resume its position in the backlog as soon as the blocker is removed. However, it shouldn’t interrupt projects that have already started.

Strategic alignment → Assign more weight to projects that align with the company’s strategic priorities. This can be done with the Weighted Scoring method.

When you have consistent guidelines, people will trust the system, knowing that every decision is made objectively. 

Mistake 5: Over-complicating the process

Perfect prioritization does not exist. The information you use for prioritization is simply a set of estimations and estimations are always wrong . There is no need to treat your prioritization process like you’re planning a rocket launch. 

Prioritization is an exercise that helps you maximize your execution value. If you constantly direct more resources toward prioritization than execution, you are doing it wrong. 

Sometimes product teams spend months debating the relative value between small features when they could have shipped them all in the time lost.

Timebox your prioritization discussion. If your team gets stuck comparing initiatives, introduce a tie-breaker rule. For example, items that entered the backlog first go first. 

The point is, trivial differences will not matter in the long run, and if you never decide what goes first you’ll never get started.

Mistake 6: Not iterating the prioritization system 

No one gets prioritization right the first time. Even if you are satisfied with your current system, there will always be room for improvement if you look hard enough. Additionally, just because something works today doesn’t mean it’ll continue to work as the company scales. It’s dangerous to think you can create a prioritization system that requires minimal iterations. 

Treat your prioritization system (and other internal processes) like your product. Monitor how it’s working and iterate continuously. Because the “users” in this case are your team members, there should be an open channel for everyone to give feedback.

Generally speaking, frequent and small iterations are better than drastic revamps. However, be aware that:

It takes time for a new process to show its effects.

A new process can hurt productivity in the short term.

Not every problem has an easy solution.

To avoid interrupting team momentum with ad-hoc fixes, I recommend doing a quarterly or bi-yearly process review to go over all the feedback and discuss solutions as a team.

Bonus: Management interference

Having to rearrange your backlog due to management input, usually without a convincing reason, is one of the most frustrating yet common things that can happen to a product team. This is often due to a disconnect between company strategy and product strategy.

Such a discrepancy exists for a combination of reasons:

Management mistakes tactics for strategies. It dictates solutions instead of creating a direction for potential solutions.

Management doesn’t explain the “why” behind a strategy.

There is no clear process for teams to share learnings and evidence (both horizontally and vertically).

There is no agility in the company strategy, even when it no longer makes sense.

If you are a product leader (CPO, director, team lead, etc.), you have a critical responsibility here to bridge the gap between individual teams and senior management. Make sure to communicate information bi-directionally and fix misalignment proactively. A good way to start is by examining:

How are we sharing insights other teams should know?

Does every team have the same access to key information (ICP, positioning, data dashboard, etc.)?

What information does my team want to know but is out of their reach?

What is the best framework for prioritizing product features?

There is no ‘best framework’. There is only the best framework for a given prioritization task. Now that you’re familiar with the frameworks that product experts use day-to-day, look back at your OKRs and decide which model will turn your backlog into the right product at this moment in time. 

Who prioritizes the backlog?

The Product Manager is typically responsible for finalizing the prioritization, balancing stakeholder interests, user value, and feasibility.

Developers provide input on feasibility and effort estimates to help the PM. Stakeholders help PMs and developers understand business value and promote strategic alignment.

What is the best prioritization tool? 

There are tons of great prioritization tools out there, like our free template pack , which includes templates for 5 prioritization models. 

Whatever tool you use, the most important thing is to align around the model you’ll use and make sure everyone is using the same model in pursuit of the same OKRs, and make sure to clarify priorities within the timeline of your product roadmap so everyone is aligned.

What are the steps involved in using a prioritization framework?

Follow these general steps whenever using a prioritization model: 

Identify the moment: Identify the tasks in the backlog, strategy, and current OKRs.

Decide on a framework that will help you reach your team’s goals and apply it to the tasks in the backlog.

Try other frameworks and see if the same features came in first place.

How often should you review your prioritization framework?

Your team should review its priorities regularly. The cadence of that review depends on your team’s needs. How often is not important as long as it’s consistent. Always re-evaluate your prioritization framework if business objectives change. 

Can you use multiple prioritization frameworks?

Yes! In fact, some frameworks pair together as well as a nice chablis and fresh oysters:

Pair subjective and quantitative frameworks for contrast. For example: Cost of Delay + Kano model will balance revenue and customer delight.

Pair bird’s eye views with detailed analysis. Some frameworks are based on a general sense of the market and user trends while others on careful research. Cover your bases by using both. For example: Weighted Scoring + MoSCoW.

Prioritization in product management is less about ticking off tasks and more about leading your product in the right direction. It is a crucial part of framing the priorities within your product roadmap. It is a continuous process of assessment, reassessment, and realignment with your product goals and market needs. 

Product Roadmapping Micro-Certification (PRC)™️

Product School has partnered with Productboard to create a micro-certification on how to build and maintain effective Roadmaps. Enroll for free to learn how to communicate the product vision and strategy to your stakeholders and customers.

Updated: August 21, 2024

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