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By Lenny Rachitsky · lennysnewsletter.com · @lennysan on X · YouTube · LinkedIn
Lenny argues that most teams should skip elaborate prioritization frameworks and use a simple impact-versus-cost sort of T-shirt-sized ideas, then refine it with team input. He stresses that the roadmap must follow a clear strategy and goals, and offers guidance on balancing small, low-risk bets against larger long-term ones.
Subscriber post — summary only01Key takeaways
- List all ideas, T-shirt-size each on estimated impact and cost, then sort by impact-to-cost ratio to surface most of the best opportunities.
- Treat the first-pass roadmap as a draft and revise it with the team, since dependencies and unquantified opinions will shift it.
- Build the roadmap only after strategy and goals are set; prioritization is downstream of mission, vision, and strategy.
- Allocate resources across 2-5 strategic bets, then mix roughly 80% incremental low-risk work with 20% high-risk long-term bets.
- Estimate impact using past project results, daily users who will see the feature, and the likely effect per user, accepting that estimates improve over time.
02Frameworks mentioned
Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.