Making Choices: How to Prioritize When Everything Seems Important
Every day we face choices—some small, some life-changing. Whether it's deciding between a cheese or ham sandwich (and yes, some—like Marijke—would argue these are very important decisions), or choosing between buying a new house and saving for a dream trip around the world, one thing is certain: we always find a way to decide.
But how? What makes one option “better” than another? And more importantly, how can we apply this same decision-making process in our professional lives, especially when it comes to prioritizing projects, products, or epics?
This post is a follow-up to my earlier one about the agile marketplace. Let’s talk about what really drives prioritization: value.
One of the most powerful enablers of a successful agile marketplace is having a shared and structured way to calculate value. And yes—I do mean calculate. This isn’t just about gut feeling or informal discussions. We’re talking about some serious math.
In my experience, the hardest part of prioritization is quantifying value—especially when there are multiple factors involved. We tend to get overwhelmed by pros and cons, or we fall into the trap of trying to do everything instead of making tough calls. The result? We lose focus on delivering what matters most.
Below is a simple 5-step method that has helped me prioritize backlogs more effectively. I hope it helps you too.
Picture this: You’re considering adding a new feature to your product. How do you determine its importance compared to what’s already in the backlog?
Step 1: Identify your key drivers.
These are the guiding principles for your organization—or your personal life. For example, my own drivers are:
Step 2: Assign weight to each driver.
Some drivers matter more than others, and that’s okay. For me, family life is the top priority, so I give it double the weight compared to the rest.
Step 3: Score your backlog items against these drivers.
Let’s say I’m evaluating “a journey around the world” as a potential item on my life backlog. Here’s how it might score on a scale of 1–10, with weighting applied:
Total Value: 9
Step 4: Align with your stakeholders.
Before finalizing your priorities, get feedback. In my case, key stakeholders would be my husband, my son, and my boss.
Let’s say:
Revised Total Value: 9 + (4 × 2) + 5 + 0 = 23
Step 5: Use this approach across your entire backlog.
Let’s add another item: “Having a second child” (just hypothetically, of course 😛). Here’s the score:
Total Value: 26
So, based on the numbers, I should skip the world trip and start planning for baby number two instead. Simple, right?
Well… not always. Prioritizing doesn’t make every decision easy—but it does give us a structured way to navigate tough choices. The key takeaway? Value isn’t just about money. It’s multi-dimensional. Find out what truly drives you—or your organization—and prioritize accordingly.
Because at the end of the day, making the right choices starts with knowing what really matters.
Let me know if you'd like this formatted for publishing on LinkedIn, your company blog, or as a visual one-pager.
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