You're launching a new product with limited resources. How do you decide which features to prioritize?

Whatever feature brings in the most revenue should be prioritized. Period. Cash flow is king. You can only focus on the shiny stuff when you have the boring money making features settled.

As a product manager, my ability to prioritize features has always relied on a thorough comprehension of user requirements. I have discovered that actively including our users in beta testing and feedback sessions is quite useful. This strategy has enabled us to focus precisely on what is genuinely important to them, ensuring that every feature we create addresses a genuine and urgent need. The focus is on simplifying the core elements that provide the greatest benefit rather than incorporating features that may appear impressive but do not connect with our users' daily interactions.

By doing the following: 1. Get a pulse check of the need from the primary personas who are going to use the product. 2. Usually by interviewing 3-4 users from different companies, it is easy to figure top most pain point and 4-5 surrounding pain points. 3. Try to validate this across a bit broader set of companies(atleast 5-10) to validate the common pain-points. 4. Build a lean version of the solution by validating with them.

Even when I have enough resources, I often choose to go with a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and define the target customer or job to be done. This ensures we focus on delivering core value quickly and efficiently. By understanding the most critical needs of our target audience, we can prioritize features that solve their primary pain points, gather feedback, and iterate rapidly. This approach maximizes impact while conserving resources and sets a strong foundation for future enhancements.

By engaging directly with potential customers through surveys, interviews, or user testing, you can gather actionable insights that prioritize ‘must-have’ features aligned with solving real problems. It’s important to maintain focus on addressing core needs to ensure the product delivers immediate value and resonates with your target audience.

When deciding which features should be part of the MVP, you should always consider the impact of each feature. Evaluate the negative impact of not including a particular feature in the MVP. Assessing the negative impact often helps determine whether a feature is critical. Answering the question, "What percentage of early adopters will be negatively impacted?" generally helps resolve this dilemma.

MVPs and PMFs are often tied together in today's market. It is best to define both MVPs and PMFs to start with. Then comparing and contrasting, you fundamentally sit with team, stakeholders, and mentors to see where it fits and where it leaks. Either you fix the leak and include it for v1 release or you focus on just the fits when studying the MVP and PMFs for your launch.

Throughout my experience of launching products, placing emphasis on an MVP has been crucial.  The goal is to provide a sufficient amount of content or features to engage first-time users and get essential feedback.  This approach not only preserves resources but also guarantees that we are developing solutions that genuinely connect with people before committing more resources.  I prioritize features that directly improve the fundamental user experience, while postponing the less essential ones for future releases.  This strategy mitigates risks and optimizes our capacity to adjust according to genuine feedback, propelling both the product and the business forward with outstanding efficiency.

Your minimum viable product (MVP) should reflect a test-and-learn approach. You can create the MVP by researching customer pain points. It is equally important to consider the overall business vision and key performance indicators (KPIs).

Building out a MVP for your product is the way to go. Not only will you be able to launch and put a product in front of users and or testers, but you will be able to focus on key functionality and features versus a broader development process. This will allow for more specific and quality user feedback that can then be used to improve and enhance each iteration of your product. First identify key features Next get it in front of users/testers Finally analyze user feedback and iterate accordingly.

As a product manager, I understand the critical importance of managing resource constraints effectively. As an additional idea: automate where possible: Identify repetitive tasks that can be automated, freeing up team members to focus on high-value activities. Tools for automation in testing, deployment, and monitoring can significantly reduce manual effort and improve efficiency.

When introducing new items with limited resources, I have achieved success by using a thorough evaluation method. Our first step is to create a visual representation of the relationship between the cost and impact of each proposed addition. We will prioritize features that offer significant value to our users without requiring a large amount of resources. This approach not only simplifies the development process but also guarantees that we maintain our agility, allowing us to adjust rapidly without exceeding our capabilities. The concept revolves around intelligent allocation, prioritizing actions that genuinely have a significant impact on our customers and our business objectives.

A lot of time a major roadblock in terms of resource constraints that effect product managers can be engineering and or development resources. Meaning that when teammates are OTOO, on leave or even leave the company, there are gaps left in the development of the product at hand. This calls for onboarding of new engineers and developers and tight coordination with the product & project managers to get them up to speed. This can cause timelines and release dates to change. Adjusting to this type of roadblock and learning from similar challenges has helped me a lot as a PM.

It's always a good reflex to check if your feature have a good ROI, but sometime is also a good start to just follow your gut (and your user itw 😉). If you want to check the estimated ROI of a feature, you can use systems like RICE, ICE, Weighted Shortest Job First, Opportunity Scoring, ... RICE is pretty good in most of the case and very simple to apply: Reach * Impact * Confidence / Effort = score RICE In the formula, you retrieve the 3 main voices you want to ear: - voice of the customer (reach, impact) - voice of the business (impact, effort) - voice of the product team (confidence, effort)

Recognizing that resources are always limited, regardless of the work environment, is crucial. Prioritize features that address the most representative use cases and eliminate optional and nice-to-have features from the roadmap. Focus on features that deliver quick wins for customers. Additionally, stay vigilant about the competition to ensure feature parity.

In my experience, when there is a scarcity of resources, it is crucial to focus on aspects that distinguish and establish a unique position versus competitors. We have discovered that comprehending and exploiting the distinctive advantages of our goods can greatly impact our position in the market. By focusing our efforts on developing features that not only distinguish us from others but also provide superior solutions to specific challenges, we establish a strong incentive for customers to select our product or service. This strategic focus not only improves the efficiency of our resources, but also amplifies their influence, effectively attracting and keeping consumers.

The "showoff" features, for a competitive edge. Focusing our resources on the features that provide a clear competitive edge to our product is a great start. While entering a new market or making a position in the current market, products and companies need to have a competitive edge. This competitive edge separates our product from the competition and defines a clear value hypothesis that makes the product stand out. In simple terms - "What features does our product have that drives users more towards our company than the competition?" Keeping this in mind can be highly valuable while allocating limited resources and prioritizing features.

People come to solve a problem, they might come at first if you're doing the same thing as your competitors, but they won't stay if you don't do it better. In general, if you have done your user itw correctly, you already have your USP. Early adopter come for that even if the feature is not (yet) well-built or 100% finished. Keep in mind what your users are trying to solve, because that's your USP. And as mentioned above, as you integrate new personas into your cycle, you'll be able to add new USPs.

In my practice I made a mistake, when we didn't add feedback form when we implemented a huge new feature, so we didn't have any feedback on it. That is why it was hard for us to understand, why this feature failed and how to improve it. Gathering feedback is crucial for product development.

Feature development comes with managing the risk they are associated with. These risks can be anything such as a lengthy testing phase, heavy development time, higher resource demand, or niche user targets. Keeping in mind the business goals, external factors such as regulations and laws, and the deadlines for the market reach, one can prioritize features based on their risk factor and impact.

The same has above, you can use RICE if you want to have "data" driven decision here. But don't let it go to your head. You're building a new product, you'll iterate, you'll discover new things every day, and you'll realize there's a problem as often as you talk to your users. Focus on their problems, apply the principles of "The mom test" and you should be fine :)

Prioritizing a product backlog is essential for ensuring that the most valuable features are developed first. Techniques are a must to do this effectively. Two effective techniques for backlog prioritization are the MoSCoW method and the Kano model. The MoSCoW method categorizes backlog items into Must have, Should have, Could have, and Won't have, helping teams focus on the most critical tasks. The Kano model, on the other hand, differentiates between basic needs, performance features, and delighting features, allowing teams to prioritize items that will most significantly impact user satisfaction. Both techniques help streamline decision-making and maximize product value.

1. MVP Focus: Identify and prioritize features essential for a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to launch quickly and gather user feedback. 2. Core Value Proposition: Ensure the prioritized features deliver the core value and address the primary user needs and pain points. 3. User Feedback Loop: Engage with potential users early to validate which features are most desired and impactful. 4. Competitive Analysis: Analyze competitor offerings to include features that differentiate your product and provide a unique advantage. 5. Resource Allocation: Prioritize features based on available resources, balancing development time and cost with potential user impact.

When launching a new product with limited resources, prioritization becomes even more critical. Focus on delivering the best product possible by identifying features that offer the highest business impact. If everything is urgent, then nothing is urgent. Gather input from all stakeholders to discuss your roadmap and backlog. Make decisions based on factors such as market demand, customer value, and alignment with your strategic goals. This way, you ensure that your limited resources are used efficiently to maximize the product’s success.

For a new product, the prioritization strategy differs from that of an existing product. The primary focus should be on completing the user journey loop as quickly as possible: 1.Create complete User Journey: Design the user journey for the most common type of user. Prioritize by ruthlessly eliminating as many nodes as possible (or rerouting) to create the 'shortest route'. Use a waterfall approach to build this route and then quickly shift to agile once the shortest route is launched. 2.Differentiate and Iterate: After establishing the shortest route, focus on features that make the product stand out and provide a competitive advantage. Meanwhile, keep collecting user feedback and analyze user data to prioritize the next set of features.

I could not emphasize more on the Eisenhower Matrix. This is not the only way to prioritise features but can be the most simple yet the most brilliant way to do so. After the team has gone through all the methods from RICE to MoSCoW and so on, simple matrices can be plotted with multiple iterations on various factors. For example - a basic matrix of Urgency vs Impact, a second matrix of Risk and Impact, next of Impact vs Time to Develop, another one of Cost vs Impact, and so on.