Strategic prioritization helps answer the question - “What should we focus on now vs next?” But what does this look like in practice?.
“Sometimes proxies are unavoidable. It might be all we have at the moment. And sometimes proxies are desirable! Say that when X happens, we’re pretty sure Y will happen at some point in the future. In that case, we don’t need to wait for Y to happen. Make X happen! If we see a decrease in X, pay attention!”When prioritizing, we tend to emphasize work that either sounds more important, or work that we personally think will create higher value. This style of prioritization is one or more steps removed from the overall goal it hopes to achieve. Proxies can speed the process up, and that is because they can imply connections & assumptions without having to be explicit about them. Proxies can help us move faster so they must be a good thing. They’re a good thing right?…