A product steering committee has been charged with prioritizing features for a new product. Unfortunately there is no consensus. This describes a technique for reaching a group consensus on priorities.
2. Problem
• A Steering Committee has been
created by your customer to
oversee the creation of a new
product.
• The Business Analysts have identified a list of
features for the product.
– Too many features to implement in a single project.
• We need to determine the order in which
features will be implemented and delivered.
– This requires input from the Steering Committee
3. Challenge
• Ensure that everyone’s
opinion is taken into
account.
• Make the ranking process
quick, easy and enjoyable.
• Assist the Steering Committee in reaching
consensus on the relative priority of the
product’s features.
4. Feature Shopping
-Overview-
• Each Steering Committee member is given a fixed
number of feature bucks.
– For example: A feature buck for each feature.
• Steering Committee members use their feature
bucks to buy product features.
– Participants buy features based on their own
perspective of the feature’s value.
• After all participants have spent their
bucks the total spent for each feature is
calculated.
• Features are sorted in descending order
by value.
5. Feature Shopping
-Steps-
• Step 1:
– Documentation is provided to Steering Committee members that
describe the features.
– Opportunity for discussion is provided to ensure that everyone has a
reasonably similar understanding of the feature.
• Step 2:
– Each participant is given a fixed number of feature bucks
to spend.
– Play money can be used if this is being done in a
workshop setting.
6. Feature Shopping
-Steps-
• Step 3:
– Participants spend their feature bucks with as little discussion or
negotiation as possible.
– Everyone must spend all their bucks.
– Spreading the bucks evenly across all features is equivalent to not
participating and must be strongly discouraged.
• Step 4:
– Calculate the total spent on each feature.
– Sort the feature list by the total number of bucks spent.
– Distribute the sorted feature list to participants.
– Discuss and socialize the exercise results.
7. Feature Shopping
-Options-
• The number of feature bucks does not necessarily
need to be tied to the number of features.
• It may be desirable to provide participants with their
feature bucks in denominations.
– This forces participants to spend their bucks unevenly.
• The number of feature bucks given to each
participant may be varied based on political realities.
– For example: The “boss” may be given more bucks than
anyone else.
• Anonymity may be desirable in some organizations.
8. Feature Shopping
-Options-
• Multiple shopping rounds may be necessary when:
– There are large numbers of features to be prioritized.
• It may be desirable to use the technique for feature categories, initially.
– The results from the first round are not ideal.
• A subsequent round can be conducted on a narrower, more focused list.
• Feature shopping can be repeated subsequent to a
release.
– Address new features and changing priorities.
Editor's Notes
Order of delivery may be influenced (perhaps strongly) by dependencies between features. However,
Who makes up the steering committee?
Representatives from different functional areas.
Individuals with different personal agendas.
Individuals with varying amounts of political clout.
Loud mouths and blowhards.
Wall flowers and shrinking violets
Bullies and those easily intimidated.
Typical Approach
Establish a numerical priority ranking and assign features to the ranking
Typical response: Everything is a #1
Numerical priorities are abstract and difficult to use.