Prioritisation principles - new

When we decide what to build next and how much time we spend on building new features for improving existing features there is a number of criteria we consider.Developing a stable, unique product for

Every feature we add to our roadmap should be evaluated based on the following criteria. When different We don’t use a scoring system right now, but could as the team and the number of competing tasks we work on grows.

STRATEGIC ALIGNMENT

We make sure that we build a product that is aligned with our organisation’s vision and opens up opportunities for improving our technology for better community-journalism in independent small newsrooms and media projects.

Note: Right now (Jan. 2025) we are not focusing on user growth but on strengthening our product for existing and CORRECTIV users.

Alignment with CORRECTIV Goals

• Does this contribute to CORRECTIV’s key goals (for the year and longer-term)

• Are there internal deadlines to meet

• Does this move us towards the longterm vision of beabee

Funding and Partnership Development

• Do we have a partnership or contract that binds us to build this.

• What is the deadline to build this.

Funding or Business Opportunities

• Is funding available to support this?

• Can we secure strategic partnerships or grants for this initiative?

• Does this open us up to new opportunities (for partnerships, growth, innovation, business models)

NOTE: High risk of distraction. Need to stay close to our core mission, current noals and be aware of our resources. We discuss (depending on the type of opportunity) between head of development, CEO, head of technology, project lead and the team to make good decision.

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STABLE, UNIQUE, USEFUL PRODUCT

Differentiation and Innovation

• Does it help us stand out as a CRM for small local newsrooms (Build an expert database)

• Does it help us stand out as a Crowdinvestigation tool for newsrooms

• Does it help us to stand out as a privacy-first, open-source platform for independent media

• Does it give us an advantage through an innovative approach

Technical Debt and team efficiency

• Does this help us reduce existing technical debt?

• Will this improve the stability and maintainability of the platform?

• Can this streamline future development?

• Will this improve the team’s efficiency or workflow?

Team

• Does this idea excite and motivate the team

• Does this align with agreed development goals of team members

User impact

• Is this feature highly requested by our users?

• Does it address a substantial pain point for our users?

• How many users would benefit from this improvement?

Our impact goals

• Does this help a newsroom to do better, deeper or more engagement with their audience and community?

• Does it improve the productivity of the newsroom in engaging their audience?

• Does it take away a barrier to engagement in a newsroom

• Does it help a newsroom to grow their community?

• Does it allow the newsroom to involve more people in their engaged journalism project

Effort vs. Impact

• What is the expected effort, and how does it compare to the potential impact?

• Are there quicker wins we could prioritize?

• Are there simpler versions of this feature we could prioritise

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Tools for prioritisation

• Check effort vs. gain / value vs. complexity

• Voting of our users (keep a user request backlog to pick from)

• Do scoring sessions together in the team

Who decides?

• Prioritise projects in yearly and quarterly planning sessions (led by project leads)

• Prioritise backlog with the team in backlog gardening sessions every month led by product owner

Careful with distraction

• Not driven by opportunities >> Needs to be discussed in the team. When is an opportunity a distraction, when is it worth pursuing. e.g. beabee for exile media.

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