Rank product ideas by customer impact, effort, risk, and strategy. — Claude Skill
A Claude Skill for Claude Code by Paweł Huryn — run /prioritize-features in Claude·Updated Jun 13, 2026·vmain@d384f0c
Turns a messy backlog of feature ideas and customer requests into a ranked recommendation with visible evidence, trade-offs, validation gaps, and what to defer.
- Scores feature ideas against the outcome the team is trying to move, not just the loudest stakeholder request.
- Compares customer value, effort, confidence, risk, and strategic fit so the trade-off is visible.
- Separates build now, validate first, sell later, and defer decisions so the roadmap is easier to defend.
- Flags weak evidence and customer assumptions before the team commits engineering capacity.
A PM sorts backlog items by loudest stakeholder, biggest customer, or rough gut feel.
Run /prioritize-features with goals, evidence, constraints, and candidate ideas to get a ranked decision with visible trade-offs.
Who this is for
What it does
Choose which roadmap items deserve team capacity when there are more requests than time.
Decide what stays in the first release when the team cannot ship every requested feature.
Turn sales, support, and customer requests into a transparent product decision.
How it works
Collect the product goal, success metric, customer evidence, and list of candidate features.
Estimate customer value, reach, effort, confidence, risk, and strategic fit for each idea.
Rank the backlog and group items into build now, validate first, sell later, and defer.
Explain the recommendation in plain language so sales, support, leadership, and engineering can see why each decision was made.
Call out data gaps, validation steps, and the stakeholder message for items that are not selected.
Input options
The outcome or metric the team must improve, such as activation, retention, revenue, or support volume.
Example
Goal: raise activation from 38% to 55%. Ideas: setup checklist, Slack invite reminders, bulk CSV invite, admin dashboard redesign, SSO setup wizard, template library. Evidence: invite completion is 41%; teams with 2+ invited users activate at 63%; 18 setup tickets; 12 customers requested reminders; 4 enterprise accounts requested CSV. Constraint: 2 engineers for 6 weeks.
| Rank | Feature | Customer value | Effort | Risk | Confidence | Decision | |---:|---|---|---|---|---|---| | 1 | In-app setup checklist | High | Medium | Low | High | Build now | | 2 | Slack invite reminders | High | Low | Medium | High | Build now | | 3 | Bulk CSV invite | Medium | Medium | Low | Medium | Build if capacity remains | | 4 | Template library | Medium | High | Medium | Low | Validate first | | 5 | SSO setup wizard | Medium | High | High | Medium | Separate enterprise track | | 6 | Admin dashboard redesign | Low | High | Medium | Low | Defer |
Focus Q3 on invite completion and setup clarity. Build checklist and reminders first, keep CSV invite as the capacity-dependent item, validate template demand with a prototype, and move SSO to an enterprise roadmap track.
Dashboard redesign has weak evidence for the activation goal. It should return only if Sales or research can connect it to setup completion, expansion revenue, or support reduction.
| Assumption | Validation step | |---|---| | Templates improve first value | Test 3 templates with 5 onboarding customers | | Slack reminders are acceptable | Confirm notification preference with admins | | CSV invite belongs in activation roadmap | Check whether request is broad or only enterprise sales-driven |
Metrics this improves
Works with
Want to use Feature Prioritization?
Choose how to get started.
Install and run this skill locally on your computer.
Open a terminal on your computer and paste this command:
This downloads the skill with all its files to your computer:
Add -g at the end to make it available in all your projects.
Start Claude Code, then type the command:
Prioritize Feature Backlog
Evaluate and rank a backlog of feature ideas to identify the top 5 to pursue.
Context
You are helping prioritize features for $ARGUMENTS.
If the user provides files (spreadsheets, backlogs, opportunity assessments), read and analyze them directly.
Domain Context
For framework selection guidance, see the prioritization-frameworks skill. Key recommendations:
Opportunity Score (Dan Olsen, The Lean Product Playbook) is recommended for evaluating customer problems: Opportunity Score = Importance × (1 − Satisfaction), normalized to 0–1. High Importance + low Satisfaction = best opportunities. Prioritize problems (opportunities), not solutions.
ICE is recommended for quick scoring of initiatives: Impact (Opportunity Score × # Customers) × Confidence × Ease. RICE adds Reach as a separate factor for larger teams.
Instructions
The user will describe their product objective, desired outcomes, and provide feature ideas. Work through these steps:
-
Understand priorities: Confirm the product objective and success metrics.
-
Evaluate each feature against:
- Impact: How much does it move the needle on desired outcomes? Consider Opportunity Score if customer data is available.
- Effort: How much development, design, and coordination is required?
- Risk: How much uncertainty exists? What assumptions need testing?
- Strategic alignment: How well does it fit the product vision and current goals?
-
Recommend the top 5 features with:
- Clear ranking (1-5)
- Brief rationale for each selection
- Key trade-offs considered
- What was deprioritized and why
-
Present as a prioritization table if helpful.
Think step by step. Save as markdown if the output is substantial.
Further Reading
Reference documents
name: prioritize-features description: "Prioritize a backlog of feature ideas based on impact, effort, risk, and strategic alignment with top 5 recommendations. Use when prioritizing a feature backlog, making scope decisions, or ranking product ideas."
Prioritize Feature Backlog
Evaluate and rank a backlog of feature ideas to identify the top 5 to pursue.
Context
You are helping prioritize features for $ARGUMENTS.
If the user provides files (spreadsheets, backlogs, opportunity assessments), read and analyze them directly.
Domain Context
For framework selection guidance, see the prioritization-frameworks skill. Key recommendations:
Opportunity Score (Dan Olsen, The Lean Product Playbook) is recommended for evaluating customer problems: Opportunity Score = Importance × (1 − Satisfaction), normalized to 0–1. High Importance + low Satisfaction = best opportunities. Prioritize problems (opportunities), not solutions.
ICE is recommended for quick scoring of initiatives: Impact (Opportunity Score × # Customers) × Confidence × Ease. RICE adds Reach as a separate factor for larger teams.
Instructions
The user will describe their product objective, desired outcomes, and provide feature ideas. Work through these steps:
-
Understand priorities: Confirm the product objective and success metrics.
-
Evaluate each feature against:
- Impact: How much does it move the needle on desired outcomes? Consider Opportunity Score if customer data is available.
- Effort: How much development, design, and coordination is required?
- Risk: How much uncertainty exists? What assumptions need testing?
- Strategic alignment: How well does it fit the product vision and current goals?
-
Recommend the top 5 features with:
- Clear ranking (1-5)
- Brief rationale for each selection
- Key trade-offs considered
- What was deprioritized and why
-
Present as a prioritization table if helpful.
Think step by step. Save as markdown if the output is substantial.