Roadmap & Prioritization — Product Management

A product roadmap is a prioritized sequence of bets, not a project plan. The hardest part isn't deciding what to build — it's deciding what not to build this quarter. RICE scoring turns gut feel into a defensible number: Reach — Impact — Confidence — Effort.

RICE Scoring ? Now/Next/Later Roadmap

5 feature boxes float in the backlog. Press Prioritize RICE to sort by score and fly into roadmap columns. Press Add OKRs to attach success rings above each column.

drag — scroll to zoom

Code example

A RICE scoring calculator and OKR format template.

PRIORITIZATION FRAMEWORKS

// RICE Scoring: Reach — Impact — Confidence / Effort
// Score = how much value per unit of effort

function riceScore({ reach, impact, confidence, effort }) {
  // reach: users/month affected (e.g. 500)
  // impact: 0.25=minimal, 0.5=low, 1=medium, 2=high, 3=massive
  // confidence: 0—100% as decimal (0.8 = 80% confident)
  // effort: person-months (0.5 = 2 weeks, 3 = one quarter)
  return (reach * impact * confidence) / effort;
}

const features = [
  { name: 'Email digest',    reach: 3000, impact: 1,   confidence: 0.9, effort: 0.5 },
  { name: 'AI summary',      reach: 800,  impact: 3,   confidence: 0.5, effort: 4   },
  { name: 'CSV export',      reach: 1200, impact: 1,   confidence: 1.0, effort: 0.5 },
  { name: 'Dark mode',       reach: 5000, impact: 0.5, confidence: 1.0, effort: 1   },
  { name: 'SSO login',       reach: 200,  impact: 3,   confidence: 0.8, effort: 2   },
];

const scored = features
  .map(f => ({ ...f, score: riceScore(f) }))
  .sort((a, b) => b.score - a.score);

// Result: Email digest (5400), CSV export (2400), Dark mode (2500)
// High-reach, low-effort features beat high-impact, risky ones
console.table(scored.map(f => ({ name: f.name, score: Math.round(f.score) })));

// MoSCoW for quick triage (before scoring)
const moscow = { Must: [], Should: [], Could: [], Wont: [] };
// Must = without this, the product fails; Should = important but workaround exists
// Could = nice to have; Won't = not this quarter, maybe never
# OKR Template — Objectives & Key Results
# Objective: qualitative, ambitious, memorable
# Key Results: measurable outcomes (not outputs — outcomes)

quarter: Q3 2026
team: Growth

objectives:
  - objective: "Make onboarding so good that users complete it in one session"
    key_results:
      - metric: "Onboarding completion rate"
        baseline: 34%
        target: 70%
        owner: @maya

      - metric: "Time-to-first-value (minutes)"
        baseline: 18
        target: 5
        owner: @kai

      - metric: "Day-7 retention of new signups"
        baseline: 22%
        target: 40%
        owner: @nina

# Key rules:
# 1. Key Results measure outcomes, not outputs
#    ? "Retention increases to 40%"
#    ? "Ship onboarding v2" (that's an output)
# 2. 70% achievement = success (stretch goals)
# 3. No more than 3 objectives per team per quarter

# Now/Next/Later (time-horizon roadmap)
roadmap:
  now:  ["Email digest", "CSV export"]       # this sprint / quarter
  next: ["Dark mode", "SSO login"]           # next quarter
  later: ["AI summary", "Mobile app"]        # future / when validated
      

Key concepts

🌾

RICE Scoring

reach — impact — confidence — effort

Reach — Impact — Confidence — Effort. Produces a score to compare features objectively. High-reach, low-effort features often beat high-impact bets because confidence and effort matter as much as impact.

🏷

MoSCoW

Must — Should — Could — Won't

A fast triage method: Must = product fails without it; Should = important but a workaround exists; Could = nice to have; Won't = explicitly descoped this cycle. Useful for stakeholder alignment.

📅

Now/Next/Later

time-horizon — flexibility — communication

A roadmap format with three time horizons instead of fixed dates. "Now" = this quarter; "Next" = next quarter; "Later" = future. Communicates direction without over-committing to timelines that will shift.

🎯

OKRs

objective — key results — outcomes

Objectives are qualitative and ambitious. Key Results are measurable outcomes — not output (we shipped X) but impact (retention rose to 40%). 70% achievement is considered success; 100% means you set too easy a goal.

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