Prioritize Features
Rank a messy feature backlog with impact, effort, risk, and strategy lenses and walk away with five concrete bets to build next.
Overview
Prioritize Features is an agent skill most often used in Validate (also Build PM) that ranks backlog ideas by impact, effort, risk, and alignment and recommends the top five to pursue.
Install
npx skills add https://github.com/phuryn/pm-skills --skill prioritize-featuresWhat is this skill?
- Structured workflow: confirm objectives, score each idea, deliver top 5 ranked recommendations
- Frames problems with Opportunity Score (Importance × (1 − Satisfaction)) before solution picking
- Supports ICE and RICE-style initiative scoring for quick solo-team tradeoffs
- Ingests spreadsheets and backlog files when the user attaches them
- Points to prioritization-frameworks skill for deeper framework selection
- Top 5 feature recommendations as explicit output
- Opportunity Score formula: Importance × (1 − Satisfaction), normalized 0–1
Adoption & trust: 1k installs on skills.sh; 12.3k GitHub stars; 3/3 security scanners passed (skills.sh audits).
What problem does it solve?
You have dozens of feature ideas but no defensible order for what moves your stated outcomes before you commit engineering time.
Who is it for?
Solo builders or two-person teams deciding MVP scope, quarterly roadmap, or what to cut from a spreadsheet of requests.
Skip if: Pure engineering estimation with no product outcome defined, or enterprises that already run a formal portfolio tool the agent must not override.
When should I use this skill?
Prioritizing a feature backlog, making scope decisions, or ranking product ideas.
What do I get? / Deliverables
You receive a ranked backlog with explicit scoring rationale and five prioritized features aligned to your objective and metrics.
- Scored feature evaluations
- Ranked backlog with top 5 recommendations
- Rationale tied to impact, effort, risk, and strategy
Recommended Skills
Journey fit
Spans multiple journey phases - primary shelf plus alternate fits below.
Canonical home is Validate when you cut scope before a full build, but the same ranking ritual repeats during Build roadmap grooming. Scope decisions and outcome alignment map directly to Validate → scope for solo PMs choosing what not to ship.
Where it fits
Rank ten MVP candidates after a competitor review so only five ship in the first release.
Decide which premium features justify a higher tier versus free scope.
Re-score the backlog mid-sprint when a partner integration request arrives.
Choose between onboarding improvements versus referral features for the next growth sprint.
How it compares
Structured prioritization workflow for backlogs—not a analytics dashboard skill and not automatic code generation.
Common Questions / FAQ
Who is prioritize-features for?
Indie founders and PM-curious developers who own roadmap decisions and need agent help scoring a feature backlog against clear goals.
When should I use prioritize-features?
At Validate when scoping an MVP or pricing tier, during Build PM when grooming a sprint backlog, and at Grow when choosing which retention or analytics features deserve the next cycle.
Is prioritize-features safe to install?
It processes backlog content you provide and does not mandate external APIs; review the Security Audits panel on this Prism page and avoid uploading confidential data you cannot share with your agent.
SKILL.md
READMESKILL.md - Prioritize Features
## Prioritize Feature Backlog Evaluate and rank a backlog of feature ideas to identify the top 5 to pursue. ### Context You are helping prioritize features for **$ARGUMENTS**. If the user provides files (spreadsheets, backlogs, opportunity assessments), read and analyze them directly. ### Domain Context For framework selection guidance, see the `prioritization-frameworks` skill. Key recommendations: **Opportunity Score** (Dan Olsen, *The Lean Product Playbook*) is recommended for evaluating customer problems: Opportunity Score = Importance × (1 − Satisfaction), normalized to 0–1. High Importance + low Satisfaction = best opportunities. Prioritize **problems (opportunities)**, not solutions. **ICE** is recommended for quick scoring of initiatives: Impact (Opportunity Score × # Customers) × Confidence × Ease. **RICE** adds Reach as a separate factor for larger teams. ### Instructions The user will describe their product objective, desired outcomes, and provide feature ideas. Work through these steps: 1. **Understand priorities**: Confirm the product objective and success metrics. 2. **Evaluate each feature** against: - **Impact**: How much does it move the needle on desired outcomes? Consider Opportunity Score if customer data is available. - **Effort**: How much development, design, and coordination is required? - **Risk**: How much uncertainty exists? What assumptions need testing? - **Strategic alignment**: How well does it fit the product vision and current goals? 3. **Recommend the top 5 features** with: - Clear ranking (1-5) - Brief rationale for each selection - Key trade-offs considered - What was deprioritized and why 4. **Present as a prioritization table** if helpful. Think step by step. Save as markdown if the output is substantial. --- ### Further Reading - [Kano Model: How to Delight Your Customers Without Becoming a Feature Factory](https://www.productcompass.pm/p/kano-model-how-to-delight-your-customers) - [The Product Management Frameworks Compendium + Templates](https://www.productcompass.pm/p/the-product-frameworks-compendium) - [Continuous Product Discovery Masterclass (CPDM)](https://www.productcompass.pm/p/cpdm) (video course)