Most prioritization sessions are scoring exercises. Twenty items, four scoring columns, a formula that produces a ranking, ninety minutes that feel rigorous. Everyone leaves agreeing the process was sound. And the list is still twenty items long.
The exercise is not to score them. The exercise is to cut them. Add your items below, score impact and effort from 1 to 5, and the matrix drops each one into a quadrant. The quadrant is the verdict. Everything saves in your browser, on your device. No login, no server.
The matrix is not the decision. It is the argument for the decision. Here is the verdict for each quadrant:
Do them now, this sprint. They buy the credibility that funds everything else on this page. A team that ships three quick wins in a month gets the benefit of the doubt on its big bet.
Pick one. Maybe two. A roadmap that is all big bets is a wish list, and a big bet only counts if you can name the person accountable for it and the quarter it lands.
Slack-time work. Do them when a sprint runs light, and never let one displace a quick win. If a fill-in keeps getting picked over harder items, that is a focus problem, not a planning problem.
Cut them. Say so out loud. Write the item's name in the meeting notes next to the word "cut," because a time sink that is quietly deprioritized comes back in six weeks wearing a new sponsor.
It will run a cut session on a small backlog. The paid versions add the part this page cannot: a defensible record of why each call was made.
Adds the anchored scoring rubric, so "impact 4" means the same thing to everyone in the room, and a decision log for what got cut and why.
$29 ›The full web app version. Built to be the tool you reopen every planning cycle, not just once.
$49 ›The full DirectorPM toolkit: prioritization, roadmap, status reports, charters, OKRs, and more. $533 bought separately.
$99 ›One page, no cost. The exact status format I use to brief leadership in under five minutes. It is the fastest way to see how these tools read before you spend anything.