Brutal Prioritisation: Finding the Real Musts
Why is it that when you ask your stakeholders to prioritise the backlog, suddenly everything becomes a “Must”?
It’s a familiar scene: sticky notes plastered on the wall, passionate debates about what’s essential and a creeping sense that you’re no closer to knowing what really matters. Prioritisation should bring clarity but instead it often feels like wrestling with competing values, hidden agendas and impossible trade-offs.
That’s where this RAFT comes in. We call it Brutal Prioritisation - a sharp, no-nonsense way of cutting through the noise and landing on what’s truly important.
What is Brutal Prioritisation?
Brutal Prioritisation is our pragmatic twist on the classic MoSCoW prioritisation technique. You likely know the categories - Must, Should, Could, Won’t - but our brutal twist redefines them to make the consequences crystal clear and prioritisation decisions easier.
Think Harry Potter sorting hats, not spreadsheets. The goal is to agree the real “Musts”.
Must = Failure
This feature is critical to the next product release. Very simply if this feature isn’t delivered, the release will fail. There are no workarounds.Should = Operational Cost
There is a feasible workaround if this feature cannot be delivered in this release but we need to assess the impact of the work around and understand if it is viable to incur the operational cost until the following release.Could = Opportunity Cost
Deferring this feature significantly reduces the revenue or benefits that are anticipated. We need to assess whether this loss of value puts the viability of this release at risk. For large project based change, the business case viability may be at risk.Won’t = Later
Consciously deferring as it’s are not needed for this release.
With this framing, Brutal Prioritisation helps teams define their Minimum Viable Product (MVP) release. This is the foundation on which the Product Owner can then start to add Shoulds and Coulds to create a Minimum Loveable Product (MLP) release - a product release customers will genuinely value and love.
Why We Love It
Brutal Prioritisation strips away the fuzziness. By naming the real consequence of each decision (failure, cost, lost benefit, or deferment), it forces sharper thinking and makes prioritisation real.
It brutally exposes the Musts. Instead of everything feeling critical teams identify what genuinely can’t be worked around.
It sharpens debate. People must justify why something is truly a Must rather than inflate priorities - will the product actually fail without it?
It aligns expectations. Having agreed on the real Musts, Teams move from the mindset of "just viable" to "genuinely loveable” by using Value Buckets to prioritise the Should and Coulds.
It speeds things up. By cutting through circular arguments, teams can make more rational prioritisation decisions.
It empowers Product Owners. Gives them a strong framework to justify final calls.
It introduces the value conversation. Once you've identified the Musts and Won'ts, you can focus deeper discussions on the value of the Shoulds and Coulds using Value Buckets.
When We Use It
We use Brutal Prioritisation when:
A new product backlog is being created and there's too much to take on at once.
We're kicking off release planning and need a sharp definition of what will (and won't) make the cut.
Teams are getting bogged down in endless prioritisation debates.
Stakeholders are insisting that "everything is critical."
We need a quick first pass at a roadmap to see what matters most.
We want to separate the "must haves" from the "nice to haves" before diving into value conversations.
It's especially powerful at the start of initiatives, when the temptation to overcommit is highest. You can use Brutal Prioritisation at any level - an early sweep to shape a roadmap, or a more detailed pass to plan a specific release. The key is to work out your specific goal.
How We Do It
The key is to have a specific goal in mind before you start. What are you prioritising for? The next release? An MVP? A quarterly roadmap? That goal becomes the lens through which you make decisions.
We usually run this as a collaborative workshop. Each person gets their own set of Brutal Prioritisation cards - Must, Should, Could, Won't. Everyone plays a card for each backlog item before discussing the differences. This surfaces where assumptions differ and where the real conversations need to happen.
How to use the cards:
Play the cards - The facilitator (often the Product Owner) reads out each backlog item. Everyone plays a card showing their view: Must, Should, Could, or Won't. The facilitator records the results. Discuss each item briefly as you go, especially where there's disagreement.
Focus on the Musts - Once you've been through all items, look at everything that was marked as Must. These are your priority conversations. The real work is justifying the Musts - will the product genuinely fail without it? Use the Brutal Prioritisation definitions to challenge assumptions and test whether items truly belong in this category. Step back and review your Must list together. Are there any hidden non-Musts? Focus on what's genuinely essential for your goal, not just desirable.
Handle disagreements - If a debate stalls, turn the backlog item sideways and keep moving. Come back later when the context will probably have been clarified. If consensus still can't be reached, the Product Owner makes the final call. The responsibility for prioritisation sits with them.
That's it. Simple, fast and surprisingly effective. The real value comes from the honest conversations that the cards create.
It's "brutal" because it pushes teams to make deliberate decisions about what is really important for the goal you're working towards.
Once you've identified the Musts and Won'ts, you've got clarity on the extremes. The real value conversations often happen with the Shoulds and Coulds. That's when we use Value Buckets to compare which of these items delivers the most return on effort (RoE). Using both techniques together helps teams make smarter prioritisation calls.
Things to Look Out For
Everything labelled Must - if too many things end up at the top, you’re avoiding the hard conversations.
Hidden personal values and bias - people’s “musts” often say more about their own priorities than the product’s.
Forgetting your goal - If prioritisation starts to feel arbitrary, you've probably lost sight of what you're prioritising for. Come back to the goal.
Skipping the cards - Using individual cards helps surface different perspectives. Don't skip this step.
Try It With Your Team
Run your next backlog refinement through Brutal Prioritisation.
Be clear about your goal first. Are you prioritising for the next sprint, the next release, or a quarterly roadmap?
Give everyone their own set of cards to use independently for each item before discussing.
Use the sideways-sticky trick when conversations stall.
Reflect afterwards: did you reach sharper, more defensible priorities?
Brutal Prioritisation won't eliminate disagreement but it will help your team make the tough calls with a shared language and a clear focus on value.
Our RAFT Series
✦ Brutal Prioritisation is one of our CoLab RAFTs - Rapid Agile Forecasting & Tracking techniques. Practical tools we use every day in our coaching and training to help teams make work visible and performance-focused.
Version 2, last updated 3 December 2025
