The "KJ Method"
At Christine Perfetti's workshop at UI18, I learned an interesting method for prioritizing development tasks, user feedback, etc.
The method goes by a couple of names: "KJ method" (or KJ session, using the initials of its inventor, Jiro Kawakita), and "affinity diagramming."
I think the method could be helpful when you have a list of feature requests and bug fixes, and limited resources or time. You've got to prioritize, and if you ask 4 different people you'll get 4 different priority lists. So it seems a good way to come to quite an objective consensus.
The Process
Put ideas on post-its In the case of a list of dev tasks, you probably already have them in some kind of ticket system. Ask each participant to bring the 5-10 tasks they think are most important. Put all the stickies on the left side of a wall, randomly.
Gather the troops Get together a few (probably 10 or fewer to keep from overcrowding) key people (developers, marketers, customer service people, other folks coming up with the tickets). Give people a chance to peruse the posted notes.
Group stuff Without talking, people then start to group the tickets, by taking pairs they feel belong together and moving them to the right side of the wall, in a column. This continues until all the sticky notes have moved to the right side of the wall. There may be single-sticky groups. Keep plenty of space between the columns.
Combine and regroup At this point people are free to combine columns, move things they think are misplaced, and so on, but no discussion is allowed.
Name the groups Everyone provides a "header" sticky at the top of each column, giving each group a name.
Pick three Have each person write down the names of the 3 groups she feels is most important. Then, ask everyone to rank their 3 in order of importance.
Vote and tally Each person marks 3 X's on the header for their top group, 2 on their second priority, and 1 on their third priority. The X's are counted up, and there you have your democratically achieved ranking.
Results
We went through this exercise in Christine's workshop using the question: "What are the worst parts of the air travel experience?". It was a surprisingly tidy, efficient way to both categorize and prioritize issues.
I hope to try it out with our company's ever-growing dev priority list soon.
Further reading
For a detailed description check out The KJ-Technique: A Group Process for Establishing Priorities.
At the end of Herding Cats with The KJ Technique there is a sample facilitator's guide for download.
