Product teams use various frameworks to decide which features to build first, with RICE being one of the most structured approaches.

This framework uses 4 key factors:

• Reach counts the number of users a feature will affect in a set time period, like "500 users per quarter."
• Impact measures how much it helps those users on a scale of 0.25 (minimal) to 3.0 (massive).
• Confidence represents your certainty in estimates, ranging from 20% (low confidence) to 100% (high confidence).
• Effort represents the total work required, typically measured in team weeks (e.g., one team member working for 4 weeks = 4 weeks of effort) or standard development story points.
• The final RICE score comes from multiplying reach, impact, and confidence, then dividing by effort. Higher scores suggest higher priority. For example, a feature reaching 1000 users (reach) with medium impact (1.0), high confidence (100%), and 2 weeks of effort would score: (1000 × 1.0 × 1.0) ÷ 2 = 500.

Other popular prioritization frameworks include ICE, Kano model, the MoSCoW method, and weighted scoring. Each method helps teams move from gut feelings to data-backed decisions.^[1]