How do you prioritize bug fixes and feature requests for your mobile app?

1 Identify the impact and urgency

The first step to prioritize bug fixes and feature requests is to assess their impact and urgency. Impact refers to how much the issue or feature affects the user experience, the app performance, and the business goals. Urgency refers to how soon the issue or feature needs to be addressed, based on factors such as user feedback, market demand, and technical dependencies. You can use a simple matrix to rank the impact and urgency of each item on a scale of low, medium, or high, and then assign them a priority level based on their combination.

2 Use a scoring system

Another way to prioritize bug fixes and feature requests is to use a scoring system that assigns numerical values to each item based on various criteria. For example, you can use the RICE framework, which stands for Reach, Impact, Confidence, and Effort. Reach measures how many users will benefit from the item, Impact measures how much the item will improve the user satisfaction or revenue, Confidence measures how certain you are about the estimates of Reach and Impact, and Effort measures how much time and resources the item will require. You can multiply the Reach, Impact, and Confidence scores, and then divide by the Effort score, to get a final RICE score for each item. The higher the score, the higher the priority.

3 Consider the user feedback

Another important factor to consider when prioritizing bug fixes and feature requests is the user feedback. User feedback can help you understand the needs, preferences, and pain points of your target audience, and validate your assumptions and hypotheses. You can collect user feedback from various sources, such as app reviews, surveys, interviews, analytics, and social media. You can also use tools like UserVoice or ProductBoard to organize and analyze the user feedback, and identify the most common and critical issues and features that users want.

4 Balance the quick wins and the long-term goals

Finally, when prioritizing bug fixes and feature requests, you need to balance the quick wins and the long-term goals. Quick wins are items that have a high impact and low effort, and can deliver immediate value to the users and the business. Long-term goals are items that have a high impact and high effort, and can contribute to the strategic vision and direction of the app. You should not focus only on one type of items, but rather mix them in a way that creates a consistent and satisfying user experience, and supports the growth and sustainability of the app.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?