Pattern Storming - 5 Lanes Prioritisation
Workshop whats on first, what’s on second, what’s on third?
There are a number of prioritisation patterns from the agile and product domains which have proven as being valuable when used to prioritise work in the data domain.
One of these is the 5 Lanes prioritisation pattern which is run using the pattern storming process.
We use the Information Product Canvas as the input for this prioritisation pattern.
5 Lanes Prioritisation
This is one of my favourite patterns to help stakeholders define the priority of the data work to be delivered.
The 5-Lanes Prioritisation pattern storming is a simple yet effective way to help stakeholders decide which data work should be delivered first. It enables the collaboratively ranking of Information Products, ensuring alignment with organisational goals and strategies.
We use this pattern to do an initial prioritisation of all the identified Information Products.
Every few months, another pattern storming workshop can refine the priorities to reflect shifting organisational needs, keeping data efforts dynamically aligned with strategic goals.
5 Lanes Prioritisation Pattern Storming Process
Setup 5 lanes board
The first step is to set up a physical or virtual board with 5 lanes or rows on it. Number the rows from 1 to 5, with 1 at the top and 5 at the bottom.
This can be done using tape on a wall or tape on a large boardroom table (check first that the tape won’t take the paint off the wall or damage the table when you remove it). Or you can use a virtual environment such as Miro or other collaborative electronic whiteboard options to create an electronic board with the 5 lanes.
Prepare the cards
The second step is to create cards, one for each Information Product Canvas that has been defined. Either physical written or printed cards, or electronic cards.
These cards can either contain just the Information Product Name, or you may want to include a subset of the information from the canvas, for example the Vision Statement, Product Owner name and T-shirt sizing.
You need to provide enough information for the stakeholder to quickly glean what the Information Product is about. We will often use a card with just the Information Product name and then have copies of the Information Product Canvas readily available if the stakeholder needs more information.
Identify the key prioritisation stakeholders
Next you identify the group of stakeholders who will attend the prioritisation workshop and undertake the prioritisation process. These should be the people in the organisation who can make the prioritisation decisions, not people who have been delegated to attend the prioritisation workshop because the key stakeholders are too busy, or not interested.
Book a time that is suitable for all stakeholders to attend. The initial prioritisation workshop should take between two and three hours.
Gather the stakeholders and explain the process
Once the stakeholders have gathered for the workshop, explain they are going to work together to prioritise the data work that will be done over the next three months and that they will use the Information Product Canvas pattern to streamline the prioritisation process.
Explain what an Information Product Canvas is by talking them through one of the canvas.
Outline there are more Information Product Canvas defined than can be delivered within the current three month delivery window. We are focussed on prioritising the data work that will be delivered over the next three months, but we will quickly prioritise all the Information Product Canvas in this initial workshop.
Another prioritisation workshop will be run in two months time to prioritise the following three months, and to ensure re-prioritisation can happen to reflect any changes in organisational priorities that have happened over that time. This pattern of re-prioritising the Information Product Canvas is rinsed and repeated every three months.
Order the Information Product Cards
Ask the stakeholders to work together to place the cards for the most important Information Products at the beginning of lane 1 and the least important at the end of lane 5.
Information Product Canvas cards can go in any lane and anywhere in that lane. The Agile Data team will start with the first Information Product / card on the left hand side of lane 1 and once that is delivered then start on the card immediately to the right.
There are two rules:
Stakeholders cannot put cards on top of each other, if they have the same importance to an Information Product Canvas that is already in the lane, then they put the new card to either the left or right of the current card.
All the cards must be placed in a lane
The are five polices:
Stakeholders can reorder any placed cards whenever they want, but it must be done in discussion with the other stakeholders.
Stakeholders can shorten the prioritisation process by dumping all the low priority cards in Lane 5
Lanes do not need to be filled, its ok to have a short lane 2 and a full lane 3.
Stakeholders cannot bully other stakeholders.
If there is a HIPPO in the room they should wait until the other Stakeholders have placed all the cards in Lanes and then move the Cards they care about telling the Stakeholders why they are moving that card.
If lane 1 becomes full with cards, then the next card that would have gone into the end of lane 1, gets placed at the beginning of lane 2. All the cards already in that lane get moved right to make space for the new card.
The process is completed when every Information Product Canvas card has been placed in a lane.
The entire prioritisation process should take less than two hours to complete.
If you have a consistent set of stakeholders for each 5 Lanes prioritisation workshop, then you will find the process will take less time and less time as they become more familiar with the process.
5 Lanes Anti-Patterns
Pre-curate the lanes
You may be tempted to pre-curate the process by putting the cards into the lanes yourself, based on what you understand the priorities are or working with a single individual, such as the Product Owner to do this.
Then have the prioritisation stakeholders review and confirm the priorities, or move things around.
Don’t.
The key to this pattern is the conversations and collaboration about business value and trade-off compromises that happen when stakeholders start with a blank page.
If you pre-seed the cards into the lanes, then these conversations tend to not happen, as stakeholders will give it a once over, maybe move one or two cards and then try and finish the session early to get back to their other pressing tasks.
The power of the blank space pattern forces the necessary conversations to be had.