4. Prioritization Frameworks - The PICK Matrix

The PICK Matrix is a prioritization framework similar to the investment portfolio approach, but instead of assessing opportunities and certainty, it focuses on business/product impact and effort. This framework helps product teams and stakeholders align their decision-making by providing a clear structure to evaluate various initiatives based on their potential impact and the complexity of implementation.

How the PICK Matrix Works

The PICK Matrix is a simple 2x2 grid that helps categorize initiatives into four quadrants. The Y-axis represents impact, while the X-axis represents effort. This framework is particularly useful when you're dealing with input from multiple stakeholders, each with their own set of priorities and perspectives, like Sales, Support, and Founders.

By using the PICK Matrix, product managers can easily communicate why certain initiatives are prioritized over others, helping to avoid conflicts or confusion and ensuring that decisions are made transparently.

The Four Quadrants of the PICK Matrix:

  1. Proceed (High Impact, Low Effort):
    These are initiatives that provide high business impact with relatively low effort to implement. These are the "quick wins" that should be prioritized because they provide the most value with the least investment of time and resources.

  2. Investigate (High Impact, High Effort):
    Initiatives in this quadrant represent significant business opportunities, but they also require considerable effort to implement. These initiatives should be further investigated through user testing, prototyping, or interviews to justify the high effort required or to explore simpler alternatives that might deliver the same value.

  3. Consider (Low Impact, Low Effort):
    Initiatives that have low impact but require little effort may still be worth considering. However, they are not high priorities, as the return on investment is relatively small. These initiatives should be considered only if there is time and resources after addressing higher-priority projects.

  4. Kill (Low Impact, High Effort):
    Initiatives that have a low impact and require a high level of effort should generally be deprioritized or removed from consideration altogether. These projects are not worth the time and resources they would consume, as they deliver little value in return.

Alternative Versions of the PICK Matrix

Some sources may refer to the quadrants of the PICK Matrix with different labels:

These terminologies all follow the same basic principles of the PICK Matrix and serve the same purpose: to organize and prioritize initiatives based on their potential impact and required effort.

Applying the PICK Matrix: White-Label Course Platform Example

Let’s use the same hypothetical white-label course platform scenario to apply the PICK Matrix. Here are the four initiatives that need to be prioritized:

  1. Implementing Pix Payment – Enabling customers to make payments via Pix.
  2. Enabling Marketing Email Scheduling – Allowing customers to schedule marketing emails.
  3. Adding More Automation Triggers – Offering more automation triggers within the platform.
  4. Improving Home Screen Usability – Enhancing the usability of the main interface for end users (students).

1. Pix Payment (Kill)

Pix Payment would require significant effort to implement, as it would need to be developed from scratch or integrated into the current system. However, the demand for this feature is low, with few customers requesting it. The low impact combined with high effort means this initiative should be deprioritized, falling into the Kill category.

2. Marketing Email Scheduling (Investigate)

This initiative has a high potential impact, as it would make the platform more competitive and reduce churn. However, it requires substantial effort to implement, as the development team has assessed it as a complex project. Given the high effort but significant value, this initiative falls into the Investigate quadrant. The team should explore options to break the initiative down into smaller, more manageable tasks or conduct further research to confirm the necessity of this feature.

3. More Automation Triggers (Consider)

Offering more automation triggers has a moderate impact. There is demand for the feature, but the team lacks clarity about the specific triggers users need. The effort required to implement this is relatively low because the platform already supports automation, so adding new triggers would follow existing patterns. However, since the impact is not well understood, this initiative falls into the Consider quadrant.

4. Home Screen Usability (Proceed)

Improving the home screen usability has a high impact because it directly affects the end-user experience, which in turn affects the satisfaction of the B2B customers who provide courses on the platform. Additionally, the effort required to implement this change is moderate—while not trivial, it’s not overly complex. This initiative belongs in the Proceed quadrant, as it offers significant value for a relatively reasonable level of effort.

Conclusion

Using the PICK Matrix for the white-label course platform example, the prioritized initiatives would be:

  1. Home Screen Usability (Proceed) – High impact with reasonable effort; this initiative should be implemented first.
  2. Marketing Email Scheduling (Investigate) – High impact but high effort; further research is needed to justify the effort or find simpler ways to deliver value.
  3. More Automation Triggers (Consider) – Moderate impact with low effort; this initiative could be implemented if resources allow, but it’s not a top priority.
  4. Pix Payment (Kill) – Low impact with high effort; this initiative is not worth pursuing at this time.

By organizing initiatives based on both their business impact and the effort required, the PICK Matrix helps product managers and teams focus on the projects that provide the most value for the least cost, while also giving clear justification for deprioritizing less valuable or more costly projects.