--- title: The Best Prioritization Is No Prioritization | daily.dev description: Prioritization frameworks like RICE or Kano are largely ineffective and waste significant time and cognitive effort. Two better alternatives exist: build... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/the-best-prioritization-is-no-prioritization-uhoicbygg twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: The Best Prioritization Is No Prioritization | daily.dev og:description: Prioritization frameworks like RICE or Kano are largely ineffective and waste significant time and cognitive effort. Two better alternatives exist: build... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/the-best-prioritization-is-no-prioritization-uhoicbygg og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/uHOICBYGG.png og:image:alt: The Best Prioritization Is No Prioritization og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # The Best Prioritization Is No Prioritization **[Stay SaaSy](https://daily.dev/sources/staysaasy)** · 7 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Prioritization frameworks like RICE or Kano are largely ineffective and waste significant time and cognitive effort. Two better alternatives exist: build faster (speed makes clever prioritization unnecessary), and keep teams in dedicated, durable lanes so cross-goal prioritization never arises. Stable teams convert hard prioritization problems into simpler resourcing decisions, reduce stakeholder management complexity, and maintain higher velocity overall. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Why do people say RICE and Kano prioritization frameworks don't actually work well for startups? Frameworks like RICE and Kano rely on abstract or unknowable inputs, making them unreliable guides. For example, calculating 'Reach' is meaningless when a market is growing 50% year over year or when a startup only has 10 customers, and 'Effort' estimates break down when AI coding productivity is changing exponentially. The frameworks generate false confidence rather than genuinely better decisions. _daily.dev surfaces perspectives like this for teams deciding how much process to put around prioritization._ ### What's a better alternative to spending time on product prioritization frameworks at a startup? Two alternatives work better than formal prioritization: building faster, and organizing teams around fixed domains so they never have to make cross-goal tradeoffs. If a team can ship ten things instead of one, only a vague sense of good ideas is needed rather than clever prioritization; keeping teams in permanent lanes turns hard prioritization calls into simpler resourcing decisions like hiring or reorganizing. _Engineers and PMs weighing speed versus planning overhead can follow more takes like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [How to Prioritize as a Product Manager – Product Prioritization Frameworks Explained](https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-prioritize-as-a-product-manager-product-prioritization-frameworks-explained-lpm4ynnpv) · freeCodeCamp · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Prioritization Happens In Layers — Ant Murphy](https://daily.dev/posts/prioritization-happens-in-layers-ant-murphy-netkgotf0) · Tech Lead Digest · 6 upvotes · 2 comments - [TBM 436: Tension-Based Prioritization \(A Non-Framework\)](https://daily.dev/posts/tbm-436-tension-based-prioritization-a-non-framework--9qgxylslm) · Tech Lead Digest · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [The unreasonable effectiveness of stack ranking](https://daily.dev/posts/the-unreasonable-effectiveness-of-stack-ranking-xwttuieot) · swizec.com · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [How to choose and adapt product management frameworks](https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-choose-and-adapt-product-management-frameworks-brr7meizf) · LogRocket · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#startup](https://daily.dev/tags/startup), [#leadership](https://daily.dev/tags/leadership), [#product-management](https://daily.dev/tags/product-management), [#company-culture](https://daily.dev/tags/company-culture) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/the-best-prioritization-is-no-prioritization-uhoicbygg) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"The Best Prioritization Is No Prioritization","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-best-prioritization-is-no-prioritization-uhoicbygg","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-best-prioritization-is-no-prioritization-uhoicbygg"},"datePublished":"2026-08-05T16:50:42.689Z","dateModified":"2026-09-14T07:29:42.697Z","description":"Prioritization frameworks like RICE or Kano are largely ineffective and waste significant time and cognitive effort. 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For example, calculating 'Reach' is meaningless when a market is growing 50% year over year or when a startup only has 10 customers, and 'Effort' estimates break down when AI coding productivity is changing exponentially. The frameworks generate false confidence rather than genuinely better decisions. daily.dev surfaces perspectives like this for teams deciding how much process to put around prioritization."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"What's a better alternative to spending time on product prioritization frameworks at a startup?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Two alternatives work better than formal prioritization: building faster, and organizing teams around fixed domains so they never have to make cross-goal tradeoffs. If a team can ship ten things instead of one, only a vague sense of good ideas is needed rather than clever prioritization; keeping teams in permanent lanes turns hard prioritization calls into simpler resourcing decisions like hiring or reorganizing. Engineers and PMs weighing speed versus planning overhead can follow more takes like this on daily.dev."}}]} ```