Still mired in quarterly planning? This new prioritization technique can help.

[#1]

Picture this. You and your team are at the end of (or, let's face it: in the middle of) a long and tumultuous planning cycle. You've assessed the relative impact of all the work you could take on, made some tough choices, and emerged with a prioritized set of projects you will take on. You're exhausted, but filled with purpose and hope nonetheless.

Then it happens.

A request comes in from another team. They've just been through the same process, and it turns out, they'll need a contribution from you to achieve their goals. But your own projects already max out your capacity! You want to be a team player, but how?

If this sounds familiar, then our newest play is for you.

Welcome to the matrix – the project prioritization matrix, that is. It's a simple technique for prioritizing requests from other teams against your team's own work. Heck: it'll help you prioritize your own work, too.

Coach Bernie says: "The more your team can focus, the bigger impact you'll make. During planning, be real about your capacity and resources, then stay strong when considering the trade-offs. It's easier to make the hard calls up front than to explain that you delivered sub-par work because you tried to cover too much ground." 

The new quarter is already underway... run this play with your team right away!

Cheers,

-the Team Playbook team

P.s. Get a head start by learning from our mistakes. Here are 5 lessons we learned the hard way.

[Dane Kantner]

It would more interesting if you could show how to create this in Jira vs having to have everyone sit down in a room w/ cards on a whiteboard

[Brant Schroeder]

I really like this team playbook.  Some units have weak support from management which can make the exercise frustrating for the team.  When you run this playbook and present it to leadership who does not support your decisions or is not open to feedback it can be very deflating.    I would really like to see some additional information on the the best way to incorporate weak leadership into this activity so they can grow and learn about the team and in the end do a better job supporting and managing the team. 

[Alexis Robert]

Interesting read 👍