A better way to prioritize: Value-squared/Effort

GettingStuffDone uses a priority weighting based on three factors: Value, Effort, and Urgency.

Value is a rating from 1 to 5, with 5 being the higher value. Something rated with a high value should have a good rationale. A descriptive rationale is key here. The task brings in money or saves money for the company. Tasks related to corporate initiatives and mission statements should have greater value than those that do so indirectly. High value tasks might be something related to the company code of ethics or individual's governing values. Lower value tasks bring in or save lower amounts of money. Those "it might be nice sometime" types of things are also lower valued tasks. Also keep in mind any hard costs related to a task (like equipment, materials, etc.) that would offset the value.

Effort is also a rating from 1 to 5. Look at the total amount of time that it would take to complete a task across all those working on it. If that total is a a few days then the effort would be a 5. Tasks that take more than a few days really need to be broken down a bit. Tasks taking less than 30 minutes would be an effort of 1.

Urgency is simply the planned delivery date. For most tasks this is not specified. Only specify a due date if there is, in fact, a due date.

Now the magic! The basic priority weighting of a task is the Value number squared divided by the Effort number: V²/E.

For example, a new feature on the website would increase conversion by 2% - Value = 5. After some discussion with the development team it looks like the effort will be a 4 (a day or so). The calculated priority weighting would be (5²)/4 = 25/4 = 6.25. Another feature would save customer service a couple hours a month, Value: 4 and would take an hour to implement, Effort: 2 for a weighting of (4²)/2 = 8. The president would also like to change the color of the "Buy" button, Value: 2 (maybe?), Effort: 1, weighting = 4.

In our example we'd start with the task weighted 8 and then do the 6.25 before moving on to the 4. Perhaps you can see how this system might differ from the 1-100 number or A,B,C methods that are in use?

Urgency, or due date, when specified adds to the weighting dynamically based on the effort and number of days till due. Tasks get weighted higher and higher as the due date draws near. Higher effort tasks get weighted even higher as the due date approaches.

This system also effectively communicates to staff and requesters why one task is being worked on before something else. It gives something more concrete for the requesters to work with; they can't change the effort but they may argue for a different valuing in order to change priority.

Keep in mind that all prioritization systems are really just a starting point. You'll always need to have managers and employees using good judgment - there are, of course, other factors we're not including. Managers will still need to review larger and longer term projects and make sure all the pieces are coming together at the right times. Some staff's time costs more than others. Often Value is a bit subjective. To include all the factors would make it too difficult to work with.

Some of you analytics out there might complain that the value and effort scales are too limiting; you want to make something a value of 3.7 and an effort of 2.3. Yikes, it's just a guideline. You will likely have a few tasks that all receive the same weighting using this method. You'll need to evaluate the list and make some judgment calls. You can always change the numbers later on. Perhaps you initially thought it was a high value but, after thinking a bit, it actually doesn't have such good rationale.

The Value/Effort numbers are also limited into order to help make decisions fast. If you have a good understanding of what makes your organization successful it should only take a second or so to determine the Value of a task. You may need to do a quick check on the Effort value but it's usually a quick answer to the "minutes, hours, or days?" question - not a committee to research resource allocation.

We hope this approach will really help you and your staff focus on tasks that have a high return on effort and avoid those that do not. Give it a try for a bit at least, it might not be perfect but it's often better than current methods.

GettingStuffDone.com now in Alpha

Yes, I know that Alpha means nothing but I still content that it's getting real close to a launch (and yes, I know I've said that before too). I guess it's somewhat ironic that a site dedicated to productivity and execution of projects struggles to get itself done.

Soon, real soon.