Software Growth

RICE prioritization

RICE ranks product ideas using Reach, Impact, Confidence and Effort. It makes estimates comparable, but its scores still depend on the quality of those estimates.

RICE is a product prioritization framework developed at Intercom. It gives a team a shared way to compare possible improvements before committing its limited development time.

How to calculate a RICE score

Reach counts people or events affected within a stated period. Impact estimates the benefit per person against a shared goal. Confidence expresses how well the estimates are supported, as a percentage entered as a decimal. Effort covers the work across the team, commonly in person-months.

A SaaS example

Suppose a setup improvement reaches 400 accounts per quarter, has an impact score of 1, confidence of 80%, and needs two person-months. Its score is 400 × 1 × 0.8 / 2 = 160. A reporting change reaches 100 accounts, has impact 2, confidence 50%, and needs one person-month: 100 × 2 × 0.5 / 1 = 100. Under these assumptions, setup ranks higher.

These are fictional planning estimates, not predicted revenue or probabilities of success. Use the same reach period and impact scale for both projects. Comparing monthly reach for one with quarterly reach for another creates a misleading ranking.

Why confidence is controversial

In Lost confidence, Jason Cohen argues that subjective confidence scores can favor familiar, incremental work over valuable uncertain ideas. His alternatives include testing behavior and limiting the downside of experimental work. This is a critique of the framework, not proof that every RICE score is useless.

For a small SaaS

Write down the evidence behind each estimate, and see whether modest changes reverse the ranking. If they do, investigate the uncertain assumption before treating the score as decisive. Intercom also cautions that dependencies and essential customer requirements can justify doing lower-scoring work first.

Sources

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