“Prioritizing without Mercy: A Must for High-Performing Teams” by Brandon Chu

Prioritizing Projects: Developing a Ruthless Mindset

Prioritizing between projects can be a challenge for any team. Teams have to weigh multiple factors and make tough decisions about what project to focus on next. In this article, we’ll discuss the importance of helping new teams get started with small wins before tackling more complex projects. We will also explore the need for a ruthless mindset to determine what work is necessary and must be prioritized.

Starting with Small Wins

As a new team, it’s essential to start with small wins. Completing small projects successfully can help build team morale and confidence. Once a team has several production features under their belt, they can move on to more complex projects. This approach can help avoid feeling overwhelmed and increase the likelihood of project success.

Developing a Ruthless Mindset

The nature of prioritization changes as a project progresses from planning to execution. During execution, decisions need to be made quickly, and there’s no time to analyze each one in-depth. The team needs to have a ruthless mindset that challenges the necessity of every task.

Accepting Reality

Developing a ruthless mindset means accepting the reality that hard choices must be made every day on where to focus. It’s recognizing that shipping the perfect product is an illusion, and trade-offs are always necessary. This mindset has to be about the will to ship, and not sweating the small stuff, but keeping a focus on what matters, the customer value created over time.

Building Prioritization Systems

Not every bug that crops up requires a prioritization meeting; otherwise, it can waste valuable team time. Developing a system that determines when to address bugs or let them slide can keep a team focused on the most critical work.

Using Product Assumptions to Make Quality vs. Speed Trade-offs

During the early days of a product, founders care more about speed and the validation of their idea than code quality. A good way to balance the spectrum of speed vs. quality is to base it around product assumptions. Product assumptions are fundamental beliefs about the customer problem or solution, and they determine what essential quality aspects of a product should be prioritized.

The Time Value of Shipping

Time is of the essence when it comes to product development. The longer it takes to launch a product, the more likely it is to become irrelevant. Product development is a journey, and shipping is an essential part of getting there.

Conclusion

Prioritizing between projects can be a daunting task for any team. A good place to start is with small wins before tackling more complex projects, building prioritization systems, using product assumptions to make quality vs. speed trade-offs, and developing a ruthless mindset. Remember, the time value of shipping is critical in today’s fast-paced environment. By balancing the need for quality with speed, teams can deliver successful products that meet customer needs.