RICE scoring example: prioritization frameworks for PMs

Ian

The founders scored the spreadsheet themselves over the weekend. Loyalty points: ten out of ten. Can we just use their scores?

You

Ten out of ten for what, though? Nobody said what a ten means.

Alex Tutor

That's the gap. A prioritization framework is an agreed, repeatable way to rank items against the same criteria, so anyone can see how a score was reached.

You

Where do I start? There are dozens of them.

Alex Tutor

With the simplest: value against effort. Picture a grid. High value and low effort are quick wins; high value and high effort are big bets.

Low value and low effort are fill-ins for spare time. Low value and high effort are money pits: avoid them, however exciting they sound.

You

So each corner of the grid comes with its own instruction.

Alex Tutor

Question 1

Match each corner of the value vs effort grid to what a team should usually do with items there.

Tap an answer, then tap the row it belongs to. You can also drag.

Quick win: high value, low effort
Big bet: high value, high effort
Fill-in: low value, low effort
Money pit: low value, high effort

Answers left to place

You

But “high value” is still a feeling. How do I make it less of one?

Alex Tutor

Score value against your objectives: for each one, give a candidate 0 to 2, meaning no effect, some or a lot. Add them up. That's the value side of a value vs effort scorecard.

Lucy

And effort? Please don't ask me for days. I can tell you small, medium or large.

Alex Tutor

That's all a scorecard needs. T-shirt sizing: XS, S, M, L and XL, counted as 1 to 5. Relative sizes, with no calendar attached.

Divide value by effort, then multiply by confidence as a risk discount. The online order form: 2 for clinics, 0 for subscribers, size S, 80% sure. That's 2 ÷ 2 × 0.8 = 0.8.

Brandon

Here's a cheaper idea: let clinic orders skip the warehouse queue. Clinics would get their boxes a day sooner.

Alex Tutor

Good for clinics, but subscriber boxes would wait longer, and running out is their top complaint. A scorecard allows negatives for exactly that: −1 for subscribers. Score it.

Alex Tutor

Question 2

Score Brandon's idea with the value vs effort scorecard: clinic orders skip the warehouse queue. Clinics: +2. Subscribers: −1. Size: S (2). Confidence: 80%. Value is the sum of the objective scores; the score is value ÷ effort × confidence.

Your answer

Units: score, e.g. 1.5

You

The scorecard still mixes both objectives into one value. Is there something more specific?

Alex Tutor

RICE: Reach × Impact × Confidence ÷ Effort. Reach is how many customers an item touches in a quarter. Impact is how far it moves each of them towards one objective's key results.

Impact uses fixed steps: 3 massive, 2 high, 1 medium, 0.5 low, 0.25 minimal. Confidence: 100% for tested results, 80% for a clear pattern in data, 50% for a few requests or a hunch.

You

Lucy and I filled in the nine candidates. Effort is in person-months, for everyone involved.

Alex Tutor

Good. And the pilot has already moved one number: both clinics placed their last two weekly orders through the online form, without a call. That's why the form has 80%.

Alex Tutor

Dataset · 9 rows

CatChow candidate solutions, scored in November

Nine candidates from CatChow's roadmap with the RICE inputs Sofia and Lucy agreed in mid-November. Reach is per quarter; effort is in person-months for everyone involved. Synthetic data made for this course.

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Columns
id: Candidate ID
candidate: Candidate solution
theme: The roadmap theme it serves (none = no theme)
objective: 1 = grow subscription revenue by keeping subscribers longer; 2 = grow the vet clinic channel
reach_per_quarter: How many customers it touches in a quarter
reach_unit: Who is counted in reach
impact: Effect on each customer towards the objective's key results: 3, 2, 1, 0.5 or 0.25
confidence: How sure we are about reach and impact: 1.0, 0.8 or 0.5
effort_person_months: Total work for everyone involved, in person-months

Data

id	candidate	theme	objective	reach_per_quarter	reach_unit	impact	confidence	effort_person_months
C1	One-click reorder	Subscribers never run out	1	1200	subscribers	1	0.8	1
C2	Flexible delivery dates	Subscribers never run out	1	1500	subscribers	2	0.8	4
C3	Food-picker quiz	New owners pick the right food	1	1800	first-time buyers	1	0.5	2
C4	Loyalty points	Long-term subscribers stay beyond price	1	5000	subscribers	1	0.5	8
C5	Apple Pay and Google Pay at checkout	none	1	3000	buyers	0.25	0.8	0.5

Show 4 more rows

C6	Online order form for clinics	Clinics restock without phoning	2	54	clinics	1	0.8	1
C7	Automatic reorders for clinics	Clinics restock without phoning	2	54	clinics	2	0.5	3
C8	Clinic ordering portal	Clinics restock without phoning	2	54	clinics	2	0.5	6
C9	Warehouse system replacement	Every clinic order picked and delivered correctly	2	54	clinics	0.25	0.8	6

Before reading the whole table, work out one row by hand: flexible delivery dates.

Alex Tutor

Question 3

Using the dataset CatChow candidate solutions, scored in November, calculate the RICE score of flexible delivery dates (C2).

Your answer

Units: RICE score, e.g. 250 or 42.5

You

All nine are scored. Top of the list: Apple Pay and Google Pay at checkout, with 1,200. Something's off.

Alex Tutor

The math is right. It's cheap, reaches many buyers and barely moves your key results. A quick win can top a ranking without being strategic.

You

And every clinic item scores below 50. The portal gets 9.

Alex Tutor

Reach counts 54 clinics against thousands of subscribers, so the numbers don't compare. Rank within each objective. How to split capacity between objectives is a strategy decision, not a score.

You

The warehouse is dead last: 1.8.

Alex Tutor

Of course: on its own, it changes little for clinics. It's the enabling work from last time. Judge it by what it unlocks; in time, it goes first anyway.

Alex Tutor

Question 4

Apple Pay and Google Pay at checkout tops objective 1 with a RICE score of 1,200, but its impact is 0.25 and it serves no theme. What should Sofia do with it?

Choose one answerPut it first in Now: the highest score winsTreat it as a fill-in for spare capacity, not as progress on a themeCompare it with the clinic items, since all RICE scores share one scaleMove it under “Subscribers never run out” so the theme looks stronger

Ian

I asked the founders to fill in your RICE columns. For loyalty points: impact 2, 100% confidence, two months of work. Why is yours so much lower?

You

Our evidence is a few comments from long-term subscribers. That's 50%, not 100%.

Alex Tutor

And impact 1, because points also reward people who were staying anyway. Much of the effect lands on subscribers you weren't going to lose.

Lucy

And two months is only my team's part. Add the points rules, finance, emails, support training and marketing, and it's eight person-months.

Alex Tutor

That's why effort counts everyone. Same formula, honest inputs: work out the score from the table and compare it with theirs.

Alex Tutor

Question 5

Using the dataset, calculate the honest RICE score of loyalty points (C4). Then compare it with the founders' version: reach 5,000, impact 2, confidence 100%, effort 2.

Your answer

Units: RICE score, e.g. 250 or 42.5

You

So loyalty points get 312.5 and the quiz gets 450. Is the quiz clearly better?

Alex Tutor

Not clearly. Each score multiplies four estimates. Writing 312.5 is false precision: round the scores, treat close ones as ties, or group them into high, medium and low.

You

And the founders' ten out of ten?

Alex Tutor

That's gaming: whoever wants an item rates it high. The guards: define each scale step with a real example, score together, ask for evidence behind anything above 50%, and later compare estimates with results.

You

So the score isn't the decision.

Alex Tutor

No. A score starts the conversation; it doesn't end it. It shows which estimates are worth arguing about.

Alex Tutor

Question 6

Which practices keep a team's scores honest? Select all that apply.

Choose all that applyDefine each step of the impact scale with an example from past workLet each requester score their own ideasScore candidates together as a group, not aloneShow scores to two decimal places so they look exactAsk for evidence behind any confidence above 50%After launch, compare the estimates with what actually happened

Brandon

One thing RICE ignores: the conference on 23 May. If clinics could order online by then, I could sign new clinics right at our stand.

Alex Tutor

True, RICE has no clock. Cost of delay asks what we lose for every week an item isn't done. For the clinic solution, the conference makes that loss concrete.

WSJF, weighted shortest job first, divides cost of delay by job size and takes the highest ratio first. Short, urgent work goes ahead of long work of similar value.

You

And MoSCoW? The founders' sheet had “Must have” written next to loyalty points.

Alex Tutor

The MoSCoW method sorts a release's scope into Must, Should, Could and Won't have this time. It communicates priorities you've already set; it doesn't set them.

You

Brandon will read the table and ask whether his portal is out.

Alex Tutor

It isn't out; it's ranked. It scores low because it's big and untested, not because it's a bad idea. Explain that to him in a way he can live with.

Alex Tutor

Question 7Short answer · AI-checked task

Brandon asks whether the clinic ordering portal is out. Write Sofia's reply (2–4 sentences): why it ranks below the online order form and automatic reorders, and what would move it up. Don't dismiss it, and don't promise a date.

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You

If a score only starts the conversation, what do I bring to it?

Alex Tutor

The one estimate that would flip the order. For each close pair, ask: which single number, if it's wrong, would swap them?

You

Automatic reorders for clinics: at one person-month instead of three, they'd score 54 and pass the online form.

Alex Tutor

Exactly, so that estimate is worth checking before anyone commits. Often a cheap test that raises confidence is worth more than another meeting.

You

Then let me find one like that in objective 1.

Alex Tutor

Find it, and say how you'd check it cheaply.

Alex Tutor

Question 8Short answer · AI-checked task

In objective 1 of the dataset, find one estimate that, if it were wrong, would change the order of two candidates. Say what the new score would be and how Sofia could check that estimate cheaply (2–4 sentences).

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You

Does anyone get RICE right the first time?

Alex Tutor

Rarely. Chapterly's head of e-commerce sent me his RICE sheet for next quarter. He wants to build the top item first. It looks very rigorous.

You

“Looks rigorous.” I've stopped trusting that phrase.

Alex Tutor

Check the units, the scales, the confidence and the effort. Then say what order would make more sense, and why.

Alex Tutor

Question 9Case · AI-checked task

Critique Chapterly's RICE sheet and suggest a better order.

Chapterly is a Ukrainian online bookstore. This year's objectives: more repeat purchases (first-time buyers who buy again within 90 days, from 22% to 28%) and fewer “where is my order?” messages to support (about 400 a month; target: under 150). Under a signed contract, parcel lockers go live as a delivery option on 1 March; the checkout still has to offer them.

The head of e-commerce scored next quarter's ideas with RICE and wants to build the top one first:

Idea	Reach per quarter	Impact	Confidence	Effort (developer-months)	Score
Animated 3D book covers	60,000 site visitors	3	100%	2	90,000.00
SMS at every delivery step	9,000 buyers	1	100%	1	9,000.00
Reading-club emails with personal picks	8,000 regular readers	2	100%	2	8,000.00
Order-tracking page in the account	9,000 buyers	1	100%	1.4	6,428.57
Age filter for children's books	2,500 parents	1	100%	1	2,500.00
Parcel lockers at checkout	3,000 buyers	0.5	100%	3	500.00

Notes: impact was scored as “how much this improves the store”. Effort counts developers only; the reading-club emails also need an editor to write recommendations every week.

Write a critique (150–300 words): what's wrong with how the sheet was scored, how you'd fix the scoring, and what order you'd expect, with a reason for each position.

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You

Scoring makes the reasoning visible. Ian sees why loyalty points rank low, Brandon sees what would lift the portal, and Lucy estimates in sizes, not days.

Alex Tutor

And a score starts the conversation. The decision, and the reasons behind it, are still yours to write down.

Alex Tutor

Key ideas

A prioritization framework ranks items against the same criteria, so anyone can see how a score was reached. The value vs effort grid sorts quick wins, big bets, fill-ins and money pits.
A value vs effort scorecard adds up each item's effect on your objectives (negatives allowed for trade-offs), divides by effort, often in T-shirt sizes, and multiplies by confidence.
RICE = Reach × Impact × Confidence ÷ Effort. Use one reach period, fixed steps for impact and confidence, effort for everyone involved, and compare items within one objective.
Cost of delay and WSJF add urgency; MoSCoW communicates release scope once priorities are set.
Scores multiply estimates: avoid false precision and gaming, find the estimate that would change the order, and let the score start the conversation, not end it.

Next time: the first monthly review. Lucy's migration test is done, Brandon wants more clinics, and the founders aren't finished with loyalty points. Time for trade-offs, and for saying no.

Alex Tutor

That’s the lesson. You answered every task — nicely done.

Next lesson: Trade-offs and saying no