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.

1. Tutorial:
Feature Shopping
Presented by: Steve Essich
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sessich/

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.