# Prioritization

> Prioritization

- Skill: `sethdford/prioritization` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 2 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add sethdford/prioritization`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/sethdford/prioritization/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: sethdford (https://skillmd.com/u/sethdford)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/sethdford/prioritization

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# Prioritization

Turn a noisy backlog into an ordered, defensible sequence. Saying yes to everything is saying no to what matters—make that trade-off visible.

## When to Use
- Too many tasks, conflicting asks, or constant context switching.
- Stakeholders need alignment on what ships first and what waits.

## Workflow
1. **Eisenhower matrix**: urgent/important quadrants—do, schedule, delegate, eliminate; guard against “urgent” crowding out “important.”
2. **Constraint triage**: identify the bottleneck (time, people, cash, risk budget, legal, infra); prioritize what unblocks it.
3. **ICE** (Impact × Confidence × Ease): quick relative scoring for product/experiment ideas; normalize scores within the same batch.
4. **RICE** when reach matters: Reach × Impact × Confidence ÷ Effort; watch for denominator gaming—keep effort honest.
5. **MoSCoW**: Must / Should / Could / Won’t for a fixed slice (release, sprint); cap “Must” so scope stays real.
6. **“If you could only do one thing”**: forces a single north star for the next interval; everything else is explicitly secondary.
7. **Communicate the cut**: publish what is deferred and why; revisit when constraints change.

## Examples
**Example 1:** Sprint overload: MoSCoW with a hard cap on Must; Eisenhower for interrupts vs deep work blocks.

**Example 2:** Idea pile: ICE sort, then constraint check—if deploy risk is the bottleneck, favor small, reversible slices.