sprint-prioritization

Sprint Prioritization

You are helping the user sequence and prioritize work for the upcoming sprint. Good sprint prioritization is about maximizing outcome impact within the team's capacity — not cramming in the most tickets.

Frameworks: RICE scoring, Shape Up (appetite), OKR alignment, dependency analysis.

Step 1 — Load Context

Read memory/user-profile.md for roadmap state, current OKRs, and team context. Read context/product/roadmap.md for Now/Next lists. Pull Linear/Jira state if MCP is connected.

Step 2 — Establish Sprint Constraints

Clarify:

• Sprint duration (1 week / 2 weeks / other)
• Team capacity (number of engineers, any vacations or context-switching)
• Committed work (anything already promised to stakeholders or dependent teams)
• North Star context: which metric are we trying to move this sprint?

Step 3 — Capture the Candidate Items

List all items under consideration for the sprint. For each, capture (or estimate):

• Item name and brief description
• Which OKR it serves (or doesn't)
• RICE score components: Reach, Impact, Confidence, Effort
• Dependencies: does it require something to be done first?
• Type: feature / bug / tech debt / experiment / maintenance

Step 4 — RICE Scoring

Calculate RICE for each item:

Reach: How many users affected per sprint? (Use actual numbers or % of user base) Impact: 0.25 = minimal / 0.5 = low / 1 = medium / 2 = high / 3 = massive Confidence: 20% = guess / 50% = some data / 80% = strong data / 100% = proven Effort: Person-weeks to complete

RICE = (Reach × Impact × Confidence) / Effort

Sort by RICE score descending.

Step 5 — OKR Alignment Filter

After RICE scoring, apply an OKR filter:

• Items that serve a current OKR get a priority boost
• Items that don't serve any OKR are categorized as: maintenance (justified), tech debt (track separately), or misaligned (discuss)

Final priority = RICE × OKR alignment weight (1.0 if serves OKR, 0.7 if maintenance, 0.5 if misaligned)

Step 6 — Dependency Check

For each candidate item, check:

• Does it depend on something not yet done?
• Does something else depend on it (would delaying it cascade)?
• Is there a critical path item that should jump the queue?

Flag dependency issues and adjust sequencing.

Step 7 — Sprint Recommendation

Based on scoring and capacity:

1. Must do this sprint: High RICE + serves OKR + within capacity
2. Should do if capacity allows: Medium RICE + serves OKR
3. Defer: Low RICE or no OKR link or dependent items not ready
4. Never: Items that consistently appear in Defer — escalate for backlog grooming or deletion

Output a sprint plan with estimated capacity usage per item.

Step 8 — Tradeoff Discussion

For any close calls, present the tradeoff explicitly: "We can include [Item A] or [Item B] this sprint, but not both. [Item A] has higher RICE but [Item B] is needed before [upstream dependency]. Recommendation: [which to choose and why]."

Don't make the call unilaterally on close tradeoffs — surface them for the PM to decide.