Prioritization Method ICE

Prioritization helps us focus limited resources on the most impactful tasks. There are many methods to prioritize your to-do’s. The one I’ve adopted and been using is the ICE scoring method invented by growth hacking OG—Sean Ellis:

ICE Score = Impact x Confidence x Ease

ICE stands for impact, confidence, and ease. The method is straightforward and self-explanatory, but there are nuanced ways to define and score the three variables. Here’s my recommendation.

• Impact (1~10 with 10 as the most impactful): How much does this impact your business?

  • Revenue, CAC

  • Operational efficiency

  • CSAT, retention

• Confidence (0~100%): How confident are you that this will work? (0~100%)

  • Quantitative proof like experiments, data-driven insights

  • Qualitative research

  • Annecdotal

  • Gut feelings/Instincts

  • Vision, mission

• Ease (1~10 with 10 as the easiest): How easy it is to implement it?

  • Engineering resources

  • Budget

  • Time to launch

  • Adoption

For instance, a new feature can 3X current ARR based on a prevoius A/B test and takes a team of 1 PM, 1 designer and 1 engineer just a couple of weeks to ship. Its ICE score may be I (10) x C (100%) x E(8) = 80. Or for a UI redesign requested by a few customers with low confidence on its impact that will take the same team two months to accomplish, its ICE score could be I (4) x C (50%) x E(5) = 10.

Happy Prioritizing!