Why the order of prioritizing work is important
To maintain focus on quality and predictability, work should be prioritized based on the model from the worst case (unplanned work / interruptions) to the best case (unstructured innovation / experimentation). Once achieved, maintain the healthy balance as defined in the column: “Do this”.
If focus is lost and one ends up in the “Not this” column, it’s crucial to minimize the time spent there and quickly return to the healthy flow. A balanced focus ensures room for new features, keeping both the Product- and Engineering teams happy, leading to high quality and predictability.
This focus allows flexibility, for example, dedicating 10% to innovation in one sprint and 20% in another. Balanced work improves employee well-being, enabling productivity and job satisfaction.
Work Type Examples
Unstructured Innovation / Experimentation
- Retrospective outcomes
- A/B Tests
- Hypotheses
- Hackathons
Add New Capabilities
- New features
- Greenfield work
- Feature flags
- New infrastructure
Enhance Existing Capabilities
- Improvements
- Extra field in a new screen
- Enhance MVP
- Enhance AI capabilities
- Expand infrastructure
- If the specs said a text should say "Welcome" and it says "Hello"
Manage Complexity
- Coding guidelines
- Technical debt
- Refactoring
- RFCs
- Documentation
Unplanned Work / Interruptions
- Production bugs
- Outages, incidents
- Scope changes
- If the specs said a text should say "Welcome" and it says "Wellcome"
Definitions, order of importance & ownership
1. Unplanned Work / Interruptions – Bugs are unplanned and must be prioritized. Less than 10-15% of unplanned work is productive. Product team classifies issues, while engineers handle bugs during the sprint.
2. Manage Complexity – Managing complexity helps teams stay within context. Engineers decide on complexity management for upcoming sprints.
3. Enhance Existing Capabilities – Product and engineering teams jointly decide which features to enhance based on product and technical priorities.
4. Add New Capabilities – The product team prioritizes the backlog, and the engineering team refines and selects new capabilities.
5. Unstructured Innovation / Experimentation – Product and engineering teams collaborate on innovation efforts.
Well-being
A balanced focus not only benefits the delivery of quality work but also ensures team well-being. Properly prioritizing tasks allows space for creativity, continuous improvement, and reflection, preventing burnout and fostering a healthier work environment. When there is a sustainable balance, employee motivation and engagement increase, leading to higher productivity and retention.
Get Work Type Focus for your team
Implement Work Type Focus and start reaping the benefits of a structured, healthy work environment. With automatic tracking of your team's tasks, categorize work types effortlessly and gain actionable insights. Generate dynamic charts and reports to visualize how time is allocated across different work types, helping your team optimize productivity. Whether you’re managing unplanned work, enhancing capabilities, or driving innovation, Work Type Focus ensures that you stay on top of every work type.
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