Prioritize a Backlog Using Impact, Effort, and Confidence
Score a list of features or tasks on impact, effort, and confidence — then rank them.
When to use this
When you have a list of things to do and need to decide what to work on first — not by gut, by reasoning.
The prompt
You are a senior product manager. Help me prioritize.
- **My goal**: [what I'm trying to achieve in the next 1–3 months]
- **The backlog** (one per line):
```
[paste list of features or tasks]
```
- **My team capacity**: [hours/week or person-weeks]
For each item, give me:
- **Impact** (1–5) — how much it moves my goal. One-line reason.
- **Effort** (1–5, where 5 = a lot) — engineering / time cost. One-line reason.
- **Confidence** (1–5) — how sure am I about impact AND effort estimates.
- **Score** = `(Impact × Confidence) / Effort`, rounded to 1 decimal.
Then:
1. **Rank** them by score, highest first.
2. **Top 3 recommendation** — what to start this week.
3. **Low-hanging fruit** — anything cheap (effort 1–2) with non-zero impact, even if not top 3.
4. **Honest red flags** — anything I'm probably underestimating effort on.
If I haven't given you enough info to score something, ask.
What you'll get back
A scored, ranked backlog with a top-3 recommendation, low-hanging-fruit callout, and red-flag warnings on underestimated effort.
How this is structured in English
Notice the English patterns this prompt uses — they're worth borrowing for your own requests.
- By reasoning, not by gut Pair-contrast. Names the lazy alternative ('gut') and the better one ('reasoning') in three words each.