How to Prioritize Feature Requests: A Product Manager's Guide
You have dozens of feature requests. How do you decide what to build next? Here's a practical framework combining customer demand, impact, and effort.
1. Use voting as a demand signal
Let customers vote on feature requests. Vote count is a direct signal of demand—what many users want is often worth building. Tools like FeedbackHub make this easy with a public voting board.
2. RICE: Reach, Impact, Confidence, Effort
RICE scores each idea: Reach (how many users), Impact (1–3), Confidence (%), Effort (person-months). Higher RICE score = higher priority. Good for balancing intuition with structure.
3. Impact vs effort matrix
Plot each request on a 2x2: high/low impact, high/low effort. Quick wins are high impact, low effort. Big bets are high impact, high effort. Avoid low impact, high effort.
4. Strategic alignment
Some requests support your strategy (e.g., enterprise features, retention). Prioritize those even if vote count is lower. Others are nice-to-have—deprioritize or backlog.
5. Show progress on a roadmap
Once you prioritize, put it on a public roadmap. Customers see what's Next, In Progress, and Shipped. Transparency builds trust and reduces repeat requests.
Ready to collect and prioritize with votes? Try FeedbackHub free.