Prioritization

Matrix

Submitted by:
Akansha Verma
Priyal Kaka
Tejaswini Kavya
Yashwant Mithilesh
 What is a prioritization matrix?
 A Prioritization Matrix is a
useful technique to identify
which problems are the most
important to work on solving
first.
 The Matrix helps us rank
problems or issues generated
through brainstorming, using
weighted criteria that are
important to our project
and/or organization.
 Useful in Define and Improve
phases when we need to
prioritize problems, or to
achieve consensus about an
issue or proposed solution.
Criteria

 Frequency: How frequent is the problem? Does it occur

often or only on rare occasions?
 Importance: From the point of view of the users, what
are the most important problems? What are the
problems that you want to resolve?
 Cost
 Time
 Potential Benefits
 Ease of Implementation
 Feasibility: How realistic is it that we can resolve the
problem? Will it be easy or difficult?
We can choose other criteria if they better fit the situation
we are discussing.
Types of priority matrix
•Full
analytical criteria
•Consensus criteria
•Combination matrix

Full analytical criteria

This method is by far the most complex type of prioritization matrix, as it
involves using multiple matrices to compare different pairs of options
before a final matrix is produced.
It is best reserved for your most important decisions, and works best
with smaller teams (three to eight people) due to the nature of a wider
scope making it harder to reach consensus with more people involved.
 Consensus criteria
When all your options appear to be roughly equal, this method is a
simplified version of the full analytical criteria.
It also uses weighted voting, where a number value is given to each
option to rank priority.
Works best with fewer (less than 10) items and criteria, in order to keep
things simple.
Combination matrix
For prioritizing options based on a cause-and-effect
relationship, use a combination matrix.
Unlike the other methods, which are based on criteria, the
combination matrix is causal-based, which means you’ll need
an experienced team with in-depth knowledge of the process
you’re optimizing your priorities for.
5 steps to simple prioritization
matrix

In its simplest form, it’s a 2×2 grid that plots simple, direct concepts like
“urgency” and “importance”
 Step 1: List your tasks
You may or may not have already done this, but the
first step for any prioritization matrix is to make a
list of all of your tasks, or whatever it is you’re
trying to prioritize.

 Step 2: What are the consequences?

Ask yourself what might be the consequences for not
doing each of your tasks, or more generally, not
prioritizing a certain option
 Step 3: What’s important?
Split your list into two categories: high and low
importance. Then, considering all consequences you
listed in the previous step, place each of your
options into the category you deem most fit.

 Step 4: What’s urgent?

Now, for all “high importance” and “low importance”
options, split each into a further sub-category of
“high urgency” and “low urgency”. You should now
have four groups in total
 Step 5: Assign number values
Now, assign number values 1 to 4 to each of your options, where a lower
number means a higher priority.
Like so:
1. High importance and high urgency: 1
2. High importance and low urgency: 2
3. Low importance and high urgency: 3
4. Low importance and low urgency: 4

This quick, simple method can help you cut through mental noise and start
getting things done with basically zero setup time.
 Example
 In the example above (a screenshot of Product Plan’s Planning Board), a product
team has used the Planning Board for weighing a set of initiatives (shopping cart
improvements, a mobile mockup, etc.) against each other across a custom set
of benefits and costs.
 As you can see here, the team determined that developing a “mobile mockup”
was the top priority at the time—but only after weighing the benefits (increased
adoption, strategic value, and customer delight) against the costs for working
on this initiative (effort, operational costs, and risk), AND against other
initiatives, such as a new admin console and a self-service portal.
 Also, because they built this prioritization framework in a web app designed
for crafting and sharing strategic plans, this product team will be able to
quickly and easily update this scoring model as often as
 As you can see from the screen above, a marketing team can use this
prioritization framework to figure out how to deploy its limited resources for
the greatest return on investment. This team has created a custom set of
benefits (such as brand awareness and new leads), and potential costs (such
as operational costs and implementation effort), and assigned scores to each
for a number of potential initiatives like creating new lead-generation assets
and hiring a social media manager.
 This weighted scoring approach can work for a department’s ongoing efforts
as well as for any specific initiative.
Finally, to show you just how useful the weighted scoring model
can be across your organization, here is an example of how an IT
department can use such a framework for prioritizing its own
initiatives.
As you can see here, the IT team has a different set of benefits
from those of other groups in the company—benefits such as how
much a given initiative could save the organization, and whether
implementing it will help improve the company’s overall digital
security and compliance with privacy regulations.
Uses of a prioritization matrix
This tool can also help you make a decision in situations where the
criteria for a good solution are known or accepted, but their relative
importance is either unknown or disputed. For example, a prioritization
matrix might be used to help decide the purchase of a major piece of
equipment or the selection of a single-source supplier. Depending on how
much time you have and how complex your problem is, there are a
number of options for constructing a prioritization matrix.
 It allows you to organize your work visually
 It can collaborate with others on your team no matter where they are
located
 It allows you to see what assignments you have to prioritize and what
you can save for later
 It can check in on what is happening with other members of your
team and communicate with them quickly and efficiently
 It can organize your work with notes, due dates, attached files, and
helpful links. You will never loose a project again
Benefits of using a prioritization
matrix

 In principle, the benefits of a prioritization matrix are

quite straightforward. In support of structured decision-
making, they make it easy to:
 Break down and prioritize complex issues when there
are multiple factors influencing the decision
 Objectively and unambiguously rank your priorities
 Determine most crucial focus areas
 Establish a basis for discussion about what is important
 Garner team/stakeholder support for important buy-ins
Limitations
 Prioritization matrices are unable to produce a rank
ordered list of projects in a portfolio. At best, such a
matrix can provide a categorical ranking of projects in
the portfolio, but this won’t help prioritize projects
within the same category.
 Prioritization matrices cannot do a good job of
evaluating projects based on multiple criteria, and
therefore cannot do a thorough job of distinguishing
important projects from less important projects. When
evaluating multiple large projects, a scoring system will
provide a more accurate analysis over a prioritization
matrix.
Bibliography

 https://appfluence.com/productivity/prioritization-
matrix/
 https://www.process.st/prioritization-matrix/
 https://www.processexcellencenetwork.com/lean-six-
sigma-business-performance/articles/process-
excellence-methodologies-using-prioritizat
 https://uihc.org › sites › default › files › documents ›
asset-3733
Thank You!