Work
Tier Lists for Product Prioritisation
Product teams can use tier lists as a fast, visual alternative to scoring spreadsheets.
By Tier List Maker Team ·
Prioritisation frameworks like RICE are powerful but slow. When a team needs to align quickly, a tier list can get you 80% of the way in 20 minutes.
Rename the tiers
Swap S–F for labels that match the decision:
- Now — committed for this cycle
- Next — strong candidates for the following cycle
- Later — good ideas, not yet
- Never — doesn’t fit our strategy
Run the session
- Add every candidate feature as an item.
- Each person ranks privately first, then the team compares exports.
- Discuss only the items where placements differ by more than one tier.
- Agree a final list and export it to share in your planning document.
Why it works
Tier lists are relative: putting one feature in “Now” visibly pushes others down. That makes trade-offs concrete in a way a long backlog never does.
A note on confidentiality
Your list is stored only in your own browser, so sensitive roadmap items aren’t uploaded anywhere.