Use when ranking backlogs, deciding what to do first based on effort vs impact (quick wins vs big bets), prioritizing feature roadmaps, triaging bugs or technical debt, allocating resources across initiatives, identifying low-hanging fruit, evaluating strategic options with 2x2 matrix, or when user mentions prioritization, quick wins, effort-impact matrix, high-impact low-effort, big bets, or asks "what should we do first?".
View on GitHubskills/prioritization-effort-impact/SKILL.md
January 24, 2026
Select agents to install to:
npx add-skill https://github.com/lyndonkl/claude/blob/main/skills/prioritization-effort-impact/SKILL.md -a claude-code --skill prioritization-effort-impactInstallation paths:
.claude/skills/prioritization-effort-impact/# Prioritization: Effort-Impact Matrix ## Table of Contents 1. [Purpose](#purpose) 2. [When to Use](#when-to-use) 3. [What Is It?](#what-is-it) 4. [Workflow](#workflow) 5. [Common Patterns](#common-patterns) 6. [Scoring Frameworks](#scoring-frameworks) 7. [Guardrails](#guardrails) 8. [Quick Reference](#quick-reference) ## Purpose Transform overwhelming backlogs and option lists into clear, actionable priorities by mapping items on a 2x2 matrix of effort (cost/complexity) vs impact (value/benefit). Identify quick wins (high impact, low effort) and distinguish them from big bets (high impact, high effort), time sinks (low impact, high effort), and fill-ins (low impact, low effort). ## When to Use **Use this skill when:** - **Backlog overflow**: You have 20+ items (features, bugs, tasks, ideas) and need to decide execution order - **Resource constraints**: Limited time, budget, or people force trade-off decisions - **Strategic planning**: Choosing between initiatives, projects, or investments for quarterly/annual roadmaps - **Quick wins needed**: Stakeholders want visible progress fast; you need high-impact low-effort items - **Trade-off clarity**: Team debates "should we do A or B?" without explicit effort/impact comparison - **Alignment gaps**: Different stakeholders (eng, product, sales, exec) have conflicting priorities - **Context switching**: Too many simultaneous projects; need to focus on what matters most - **New PM/leader**: Taking over a backlog and need systematic prioritization approach **Common triggers:** - "We have 50 feature requests, where do we start?" - "What are the quick wins?" - "Should we do the migration or the new feature first?" - "How do we prioritize technical debt vs new features?" - "What gives us the most bang for our buck?" ## What Is It? **Effort-Impact Matrix** (also called Impact-Effort Matrix, Quick Wins Matrix, or 2x2 Prioritization) plots each item on two dimensions: - **X-axis: Effort** (time, cost, complexity, risk, de