Every Planning Ticket has a priority label attached to it: "P1" or "P2." These labels get discussed and set at the beginning of each Heartbeat, in the Heartbeat Planning Meeting.
- "P1" means: must do. Often this means that there's a hard external deadline associated with it. Like a launch date, funder requirement or event.
- "P2" means: try to do. When we have time left over from our P1s, we try to get these done as well. (And we often do.)
###How do we decide what's a P1?
- Our quarterly goals. We set goals and KPIs for the year, and for each quarter. This guides us on how to set our priorities, instead of just making stuff up every two weeks.
- External deadlines. Is the deadline soft or hard? Does it need to be ready for an external date we can't change, or do we have some flexibility on timing?
- Does it require design or engineering work? These production resources are finite, so we can only commit to a limited number of P1s each sprint.
- What else is on our plate? This is the fine art of collaboration, negotiation and juggling. What are our other demands and resource constraints each Heartbeat?
- Did it not get completed in the last Heartbeat? Uncompleted P2s in the last Heartbeat get special consideration to become P1s in the next Heartbeat.
###Tips for getting your project prioritized
- Use the project intake form.
- State the metrics for success. Otherwise, it's hard to tell whether the effort is worth it.
- Understand and reference our quarterly goals. Our priorities aren't a secret -- [we post them publicly] (http://book.webmaker.org/index.html).