How big is an effort? How to decide what to do first?
When confronting the task of prioritizing efforts, there are some basic approaches we can do to make it easier.
After extracting all tasks from OKRs (see OKRs: How to Take the Most Out of Them), we put together the list of tasks and we assign each one two variables: the priority and the size.
To assign the priority to each task, we can use the MoSCoW prioritization, that it is a basic process to decide which task we must / should / could / won’t have for the current iteration / timebox decided.
Ideally, this prioritization will be done by the contributors with assistance of people expert in product / (marketing) strategy / growth.
In addition to the priority, we need to assess how big an effort would be each task, without the need (sometimes impossible) to quantify it. To assess the effort, then, we use another easy process, that is to assign a T-Shirt size to each task / epic / project:
This T-Shirt sizing process comes from the world of SW development, especially applied in agile projects. However, it is easy to understand and to apply it outside SW development.
To determine the size of the tasks (or epics / projects), the team or person involved in developing / creating / doing the tasks must be present in the sizing process. A list containing all tasks for sizing should be available for all people present in the sizing meeting.
When the sizing process starts, the group agrees and select a task from the list that has a size M. After this selection, all the rest of the tasks can be sized taking into account whether each one of the remaining tasks are smaller or larger than the first one (or extra small) in a comparative way.
A further step, if desired is to match T-Shirt sizes with the number of sprints / iterations it would take to complete the task.
When these two evaluations are done, then it is easy to put all the information in a table, and then decide which are the tasks that have more priority, taking into account the MoSCoW prioritization, but also the effort they would entail to the team: