Choosing a framework for your team

Selecting the right prioritization framework depends on the team’s goals, culture, and resources:

• RICE works well when a team has access to reliable data and the capacity to invest time in estimates. It produces comparable scores and helps justify decisions, which can be useful in organizations where stakeholder alignment requires evidence.
• MoSCoW fits contexts where speed and clarity matter most. By defining what must and will not be delivered, it prevents scope creep and gives teams a common language for negotiation.
• The Kano Model is best suited when customer satisfaction is central to the product strategy and the team is able to conduct surveys or interviews that reveal how users truly perceive features.

The decision should also consider the maturity of the organization. New teams may find RICE too heavy and benefit more from MoSCoW’s simplicity. Established teams with customer research practices may use Kano to uncover deeper insights. The key is not to search for a universal solution but to match the framework to the environment. When a framework reflects how the team already works and communicates, it is more likely to guide decisions consistently rather than being abandoned after initial trials.