Prioritize

When resources are scarce, it is essential to prioritize what to do and what not to do to maximize results.

This can apply to everything: problems to attack, proposals to define, approaches to tackle, budgets to target, etc.

The question is to establish some kind of prioritization mechanism to help us get it right.

How to prioritize

Without going into too much detail, the first thing to do is to define or clarify the goal to be achieved.

Anything is possible if we are not clear about it, which will mean a world of distractions. On the contrary, the options to face a concretized goal are conveniently reduced, therein lies the strength of this approach.

If the idea is to satisfy everyone’s needs, the number of aspects to take into account can be infinite. If, on the other hand, we focus on an extremely small part of reality, the possibilities can no longer be any.

All this implies that we must always start from the concrete problems we want to solve:

• Which market segment do we believe we can impact with the least possible effort, or with the right approach to stand out as THE solution in their eyes?
• What part of our product has a strategic position so that by improving it, it becomes our best asset?
• What market trend can we ride to get some traction?

These types of questions can help us clarify ourselves as a team and facilitate working together to achieve results.

Have you found yourself in this situation and how did you manage to move forward (or not)?