The RICE framework

What Idea Should I Build Into a Business?

If you’re like me, you often ask yourself which project you should be focusing on. However, I believe that might be the wrong question to ask. It’s a question that contains an implicit assumption: that I should switch my focus. And the thing is, that’s how I feel a lot of the time.

Today, I discovered the RICE framework, invented by Intercom. (Off-topic: if you want more inspiration from the Intercom team, search for Des Traynor—you’ll thank me later.) In essence, RICE is a prioritization framework that helps you evaluate which features or tasks offer the best cost/benefit ratio. It removes emotion from the equation by assessing reach, impact, confidence, and effort across tasks or projects.

While reading the origin story of this framework, I realized I should be asking myself a different question:

What can I do now that will create impact?

Instead of separating each idea into silos, I believe I need to see myself as the business. Because, let’s face it—as solopreneurs, indie devs, bootstrappers (you name it)—we are the business.

The root of the problem with switching to a new idea is that: a) All the effort spent on the previous idea is lost, and b) Starting something new increases risk for you (a.k.a. your business).

Starting a new project or idea only makes sense if your existing live project(s) will never (!) move forward enough. That means you’ve done everything possible to ensure they cannot progress further.

So, asking “How can I create impact for my project?” is a much more productive and efficient approach. It shifts the focus to your existing project and emphasizes the things you can control.