Prioritise

Do the most important and valuable work first.

Prioritise follows Define.

First, we need to back up a bit. Yesterday I glossed over arriving at solutions and I need to explain a little more. 

As mentioned, solutions are usually the focus of most problem solving and that you should try to resist that natural inclination as long as possible by focusing on defining the problem.

Here’s why: the solution needs time and many sets of hands to become real. If it’s done right, everyone down the chain is empowered to use their expertise to build on the starting point solution, which needs to be no more than an idea. It doesn’t need to be precise or high fidelity at first, only that it must (1) solve for real people and (2) be driven by delivering business value.

These are the two most important factors to Prioritise.

No matter the organisation (or each of us individually for that matter) there is never enough time, money or people to do everything without making a prioritised list. In other words, a backlog of things to be done.

If you’ve been following along, it should not be a surprise that prioritisation never ends and is constantly iterative. As new understanding, problems and ideas surface they are folded into the list, with the best rising to the top.

Prioritisation can be done any number of ways, from total subjectivity by a single person, to a committee, to an objective scoring system. The critical thing is moving quickly and focusing on people. Additionally, documenting these items (ideas, problems, solutions, etc) can be done in many ways. In a future Thought I’ll share some of my favourites with you.

Make a ranked list and do the most valuable stuff first. Deceptively easy to say, until you realise the discipline required to keep focused and stay on track. 

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash