“If You Can’t Rank It, You Can’t Reduce It” – Why Product & Project Prioritization Matters More Than Ever
Many organizations today are faced with the same challenge: doing morewith less.
This isn’t just a question of trimming back on projects or postponing initiatives. It’s a deeper issue — a question of whether we truly understand the value, purpose, and priorityof the products, services, or projects we deliver.
And this challenge affects businesses, charities, and governmentsalike.
Reintroducing the Boston Matrix
Most people in strategy or product management are familiar with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Matrix, also known as the Boston Matrix. It classifies products or services into four categories based on market growthand market share:
Cash Cows: Low growth, high share — your reliable revenue generators. Milk them, but don’t overinvest.
Stars: High growth, high share — your future. Nurture them to secure tomorrow’s success.
Problem Children (Question Marks): High growth, low share — risky bets. Invest carefully or reassess.
Dogs: Low growth, low share — these are often products to divest or deprecate.
While this model is still valuable for portfolio management, it’s often underused in non-commercial sectorslike the public or charitable domains — where instead of profit, we might evaluate social impact, mission alignment, or strategic contribution.
The Real Challenge: Agreeing What Matters
In practice, ranking projects or services sounds simple… until you try it.
I’ve worked with organizations juggling 50+ simultaneous projects, and often the hardest part isn’t execution — it’s deciding what matters most. Because “importance” means different things to different stakeholders:
For some, it’s profitability.
For others, it’s compliance, strategic infrastructure, political alignment, or social good.
And in many cases, it’s a complex blendof multiple criteria.
That’s why the first essential stepis defining your scoring system:
What do you value, and how will you measure it?
Some use simple prioritization models. Others use weighted scoring systems where each criterion (e.g. ROI, risk, stakeholder benefit, urgency) is assigned a percentage weight, and projects or services are scored accordingly.
It’s not always comfortable — but it forces clarity.
Tools That Help Prioritize
Here are a few models that go beyond the Boston Matrix:
MoSCoW Prioritization
Used in agile and project environments to classify:
Must have
Should have
Could have
Won’t have (for now)
Simple, visual, and useful when time or budget constraints hit.
Weighted Scoring Models
Assigns numerical value to multiple criteria (e.g. risk, cost, impact). Helps avoid gut-feel decisions by forcing transparency and logic into prioritization.
> Example: A local government might score a transport initiative as 8/10 for political alignment, 5/10 for environmental impact, 2/10 for affordability — creating a composite score to compare it with healthcare or housing programs.
Eisenhower Matrix
Urgent vs. Important— helps teams sort the truly strategic from the operational noise.
While often used for time management, it can apply to product or policy prioritization.
Kano Model
Especially useful in service design or customer experience:
Basic Needs(expected)
Performance Needs(increase satisfaction linearly)
Exciters/Delighters(unexpected but valued)
This helps avoid overengineering products with features no one values.
Why Prioritization Matters More Than Ever
When resources tighten — and they will — you willbe forced to make trade-offs.
The problem is: if you don’t have a clear, transparent, and agreed prioritization framework, what gets cut may not be the right thing.
Too often, organizations:
Cut the expensivewithout realising it’s also critical
Keep the popularwithout evaluating impact
Drop the difficultwithout seeing the long-term value
Prioritization isn’t just cost-cutting. It’s strategic clarity.
Final Thought: Strategy Is Saying “No” — With Justification
The best program management offices (PMOs) do this rigorously for projects. But too few organizations apply the same discipline to their products or services.
Without this, you’re left vulnerable to:
Political expediency
Short-term thinking
Missed opportunities
Unintended consequences
So whether you’re running a business, charity, or public service — ask yourself:
> “What’s my scoring system for success? And how do I know what not to do?”
I’d love to hear your experiences with prioritization frameworks — what’s worked for you? What models have you found helpful (or unhelpful)?
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