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Stop Using RICE. Try the "Triple Lens" Instead.
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The 3 Unspoken Laws of PM Communication
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The "Janitor" Mindset: Why Execution is Mostly Just Unblocking
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Discovery 101: Stop Guessing, Start Validating
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Signal vs. Noise: The Art of Ruthless Focus
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Roadmap Debt: The Hidden Cost of Promises You Can't Keep
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Dual-Track Roadmapping: The Discovery/Delivery Split That Changes Everything
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Theme-Based Roadmaps: How to Unite Your Team Around Outcomes
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The Now-Next-Later Roadmap: Why Timelines Are Killing Your Strategy
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Stop Writing User Stories. Start Writing Job Stories.
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Discovery vs Delivery: Why PMs Spend Too Much Time on the Wrong One
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The Stakeholder Management Matrix Nobody Teaches You
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Why Most Product Roadmaps Fail (And the One Question That Fixes Them)
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Stop Using RICE. Try the "Triple Lens" Instead.
Most Product Managers prioritize using fake math.
We've all been there. You're in a room, arguing with stakeholders about whether a feature's "Confidence" score in your RICE spreadsheet should be 80% or 90%. You adjust a cell, the final score changes by 0.5, and suddenly the roadmap shifts. It feels rigorous, but it's mostly theater.
The problem with RICE and MoSCoW is that they flatten complex decisions into a single number or bucket. They hide the why behind the what.
Better PMs don't rely on spreadsheets to make decisions. They use a multi-dimensional mental model. I call it the Triple Lens Framework.
The Three Lenses
Instead of scoring, evaluate every potential bet through three distinct lenses. Don't average them out. Look at them separately.
- Business Value (The Wallet): Does this directly drive revenue or reduce significant cost? If we don't do this, does the company suffer financially?
- User Value (The Heart): Does this solve a critical Job to Be Done? Will users love us more for this? (Note: This is often distinct from business value).
- Technical Value (The Brain): Does this reduce debt, improve performance, or enable future velocity? Are we making the house sturdier?
The 2x2x2 Mental Model
Here is the simple binary test. For every feature, ask: Is this High or Low for each lens?
You don't need a 1-100 scale. You usually know if something is a "Hell Yes" or a "Meh" in each category.
- 3/3 High: Do it immediately. (These are rare unicorns).
- 2/3 High: These are your strategic trade-offs.
- High Biz + High User + Low Tech = Typical feature work (accumulates debt).
- High Biz + High Tech + Low User = Backend optimization or cost savings (invisible to user).
- High User + High Tech + Low Biz = "Delight" features or goodwill (hard to sell to sales).
- 1/3 High: Kill it. If it only serves one master, it's rarely worth the squeeze.
"Prioritization isn't about sorting a list. It's about grouping items by the outcome they drive."
A Real-World Example
Last year, we had a request to add a "Dark Mode" to our B2B dashboard.
The RICE Score approach:
Reach was high (100% of users). Impact was low (cosmetic). Confidence was high. Effort was massive (refactoring all CSS). RICE score: Mediocre. We killed it. Users kept complaining.
The Triple Lens approach:
- Business: Low. Nobody buys enterprise software just for Dark Mode.
- User: High. Users stare at our screen for 8 hours a day. Eye strain is a real pain point.
- Technical: High. Our CSS was a mess of legacy code. Implementing Dark Mode forced us to tokenize our design system, which would speed up all future frontend work.
We had 2/3 Highs (User + Tech). We framed the project not as "Dark Mode," but as "Design System Architecture (with Dark Mode as the pilot)." We shipped it. Dev velocity increased by 20% the next quarter, and NPS went up 5 points.
Stop doing math. Start having the conversation about which lens matters most right now.
Sources & Further Reading: