Every prioritisation session reaches the same question: "What's the score?" We put impact, effort and confidence in a table, and out come numbers that look neutral and final. After years of these sessions, I see the score differently.
What does the score actually measure?
The score doesn't measure a feature's value. It measures our assumptions about that value, written as numbers. When sales gives a feature an impact of five and engineering gives it a two, the problem isn't the arithmetic. We have two different stories about the customer.
How I use it today
Instead of ranking the list by final score, I look for the items where estimates diverge the most, and start the conversation there.
- Ask each person to explain their estimate, not just state it.
- Separate what we know from what we assume.
- Find the smallest experiment that settles the most important assumption.
When this doesn't apply
When the data is clear and the decision is easy to reverse, skip the long session. The score is enough to move fast. The conversation earns its time when a decision is expensive or hard to undo.