Connecting Prioritization to Impact Metrics

Situation

A product team at a fintech company had set a specific goal of converting a certain number of single-product users to multi-product users by year-end
The goal was directly tied to business value: the team had calculated that multi-product users had a significantly higher customer lifetime value
A product manager on the team was struggling with prioritization and created an ICE (Impact, Certainty, Effort) matrix with abstract scoring
The PM had assigned numerical scores to "impact" without connecting these scores to their actual team goal

Matt LeMay (consultant) encouraged the PM to reframe impact in terms of their specific goal: number of users converted
They reviewed each initiative on the prioritization list, estimating actual user conversion numbers instead of abstract impact scores
For a landing page initiative, they estimated it might convert "a few hundred" users
They identified a high-effort option: completely redesigning the onboarding experience to understand users better at signup
The PM had initially scored this option lower due to high effort, dependencies on other teams, and uncertainty

When forced to estimate actual user conversions, the team realized the high-effort onboarding redesign was the only initiative that could potentially achieve their full goal
The abstract scoring system had obscured this reality by allowing "easier" initiatives to appear more attractive
The team recognized they needed to tackle the complex, cross-functional work despite the challenges
They shifted from avoiding difficult cross-team collaboration to embracing it as necessary for meaningful impact

Connect prioritization directly to goals: When estimating impact, use the same unit of measure as your team goal (users, revenue, etc.), not abstract scores
Avoid false precision: Proprietary scoring systems can create an illusion of rigor while disconnecting work from actual business outcomes
Embrace necessary complexity: Sometimes the only path to meaningful impact requires difficult cross-team collaboration and higher effort
Recognize prioritization traps: Teams naturally gravitate toward easier, more certain work even when it can't deliver the impact needed
Make trade-offs explicit: Forcing teams to estimate actual impact numbers reveals the true cost of avoiding difficult work
Challenge comfort zones: The most impactful work often requires stretching beyond team boundaries and comfort zones