(2019-03-15) Cutler Prioritizing Without Level Of Effort

John Cutler: Prioritizing (prioritize) Without Level of Effort? The reason I like using CoD (cost of delay, the $1,000,000/month in this example) is that it helps us have an apples-to-apples discussion about which opportunities to chase. It hopefully forces a meaningful discussion about value, ideally resulting in some kind of mental model / causal relationship diagram / belief network that everyone can see. In cases where I see CoD being difficult to calculate, it is almost always because this understanding is lacking. There is no shared understanding. Which means that figuring out CoD for each individual item is a huge drag.

CD3 (CoD/duration or level of effort in time) is very helpful for prioritization.

As for how to exploit those opportunities — how to intervene — don’t consider prioritization as precious, and value small batches and experimentation whenever possible (CD3 can be your guide here as it really highlights the value of working small).