
Ask HN: How do you decide which features/bugs/etc to prioritize? - jlangenauer
I&#x27;ll wager the following 2 statements are true for almost every software company, from bootstrapped one-woman micro-SaaS to the largest Silicon Valley unicorns:<p>1. There&#x27;s a massive amount of new features, improvements, product polishing, bug fixes, technical debt refactoring and the like to be done.<p>2. There&#x27;s not enough time and engineering&#x2F;design resources to actually do all them.<p>So tell me, HN: What tools, techniques and systems you use (if any!) to prioritise all that work for the success of your business?
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20years
Following is how I usually prioritize in order.

1\. Fix unexpected security issues that may be found

2\. Implement features that will result in more new users signing up and
_paying_

3\. Implement features that will result in existing users paying more than
they already are

4\. Implement features that will lower churn

5\. Implement features that will save the company money such as more
automation to reduce manual work

2 to 4 requires you to engage with your customers and get good at filtering
out a lot of noise on what some customers may want but the majority may not.
Usually if it's going to make the majority of your customers money or save the
majority of them money, it's something they will pay more for.

~~~
freehunter
Exactly. I have alpha/beta testers clamoring for new features, and I have them
write every single one of them down in a list. I have them reporting bugs, and
I have them write every single one of them down in a list. And then I separate
that list into "showstoppers" as number one priority, "user-experience" as
number two, administrator niceties as number three, and legitimate, completely
new features as number four.

Showstoppers means users stop using the product. Either the site is down, core
functionality isn't working, it's too slow, etc. If these aren't addressed,
there's no point in offering the product. Users are unforgiving, and in most
cases you only have one shot.

User experience is making things nicer. Text is too big. Fonts aren't
consistent. Page redirects don't go where you expect. Colors are wrong. Minor
things that decrease the value the customers are getting translates into major
impacts to your pocketbook. The design and finish should be as close to
perfect as you can get it.

Admin nice-to-haves are things that end users won't ever see. My admin panel
is atrociously designed. But only me and a handful of other people ever see
it, so who cares?

Legitimately new features I actually prioritize last. Not because I don't want
to offer more, but if the above three things aren't making people happy, more
features won't help. And for every feature that gets added, you have to
address 1-3 all over again.

What a lot of testers and developers get wrong, I think, is assuming priority
#4 comes first. Numbers 3 and 4 may be able to be reversed in some situations
or during a sprint, but end-user experience is _always_ priority numbers 1 and
2. Developer/admin experience is lower down the list than a lot of
developers/admins might want to believe.

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12s12m
This is a huge problem that will derail your product if you are not careful.
My general advice is: "Think about a specific person" for which you are
building you are product. And build features that make that single person as
happy as possible.

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seekingcharlie
1\. What is the engineering effort involved in doing X?

2\. How many users does it impact / benefit?

3\. What is it's estimated impact on core metrics
(Activation/Engagement/Monetization)?

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danieltillett
The answer is easy - rank the activities by money made or saved. The really
hard problem is the ranking as you don't normally have the perfect information
that allows you to calculate the exact dollar value of any change.

More usefully I use two rules.

1\. Fix all bugs now. The software should do what it claims to do. If I can't
fix a bug (rare) then stop claiming the software does whatever the bug
prevents working as a feature.

2\. Once 1 is taken care of then work on those things that will bring in the
greatest long term value first. I have to say that I mostly do this by feel as
I have no good way to get accurate information out of my customers - they
often don't know what they want until they see it.

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tmaly
I just launched a new version of my side project last week. So I have this
exact same situation. I have to make decisions of what to prioritize.

Here is how I have done it. First I have been asking as many people as I can
to try the site and provide their opinion. Indiehackers.com has been super
helpful in this regard. Then I try to fix all of the issues that affect the
basic functioning of the system. Can people create an account without issue.
Can they sign in without issue. Can they create a new food dish without issue.

So tackle all the basics, what is core to the system. After this, try to work
on any features that will provide more value to the users, things that will
get them to use the system more.

After I finish these, then I move on to the new features.

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jimminy
The technique I personally use, as a full-stack developer, is if I can get
features planned out into weekly chunks, segment days to backend vs frontend
work, and move forward.

Monday is backend, Tuesday is frontend integration, Wednesday is front-end
adjustments, Thursday and Friday are refactoring and further integration days.

Also I batch my issues, so if I'm planning to work on something that day, I'll
look for other issues that may be in the same code area. Then I'll work on all
of them throughout the day, as I can with primary focus on the issue I started
with.

Refactoring happens any time you look at the code if you can see a need.

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taprun
TLDR:

If you're dishonest, things that will attract buyer's attention the most for
the least amount of effort.

If you're honest, things that will both attract buyer's attention the most and
provide the most value for the least amount of effort.

As described here: [https://taprun.com/articles/product-managers-visual-guide-
to...](https://taprun.com/articles/product-managers-visual-guide-to-feature-
selection)

------
EJTH
I don't my PM does.

