4 steps product managers take to decide what to build next
Product teams are flooded with ideas. Customer requests, stakeholder priorities, leadership initiatives — the backlog never stops growing. The real challenge is not coming up with ideas. It is deciding which ones are actually worth building.
Saying "yes" to everything is impossible. But saying "no" can feel just as hard — especially when an idea is well reasoned or comes from an important customer.
Many product managers we speak with have a good sense of how to make prioritization decisions. But putting principles into practice is a real challenge. Leadership could push for pet projects, sales teams might advocate for the loudest customers, and conflicting priorities can make it hard to stay focused on long-term strategy. Teams often lack visibility into how ideas progress from initial request to roadmap to delivery, making it difficult to evaluate and act on them in a structured way.
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We have spent years refining our own approach to prioritization and building the Aha! suite to support a seamless flow from idea management to implementation. Teams can capture feedback, assess impact, prioritize with data, and tie everything back to strategy — all in one place.
What follows is a proven approach to deciding what to build next, with some of our most-read resources to help you take action:
1. Start with a clear product strategy
The only ideas worth considering are the ones that fit your strategic vision: the big-picture goals that guide every decision you make. If you do not know where you are headed, any idea can seem worth pursuing. So start with a clear strategy first, then evaluate ideas against it.
Ask yourself:
Does this idea align with our top company and product goals?
Will it serve our target customers (and not just the loudest ones)?
Does it move us toward the product vision, or is it a distraction?
If an idea does not fit, it is an easy "no."
Read next:
2. Look for real customer value
Not every customer request represents a real need. Some reflect a single person's frustration rather than a widespread issue. Others are edge cases that would take a lot of effort to solve, but offer little return.
You need a way to tell the difference. That means going beyond collecting feedback to spotting patterns. Look for ideas that repeat across different customers and tie back to tangible pain points. Dig deeper into why people ask for something, not just what they ask for.
A few ways to assess:
Are multiple customers requesting the same thing?
Have they tried to solve the problem on their own?
Does the idea support how your best customers use your product?
The best product decisions come from looking beyond direct requests — you anticipate needs and solve problems in ways customers might not have considered.
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3. Weigh effort vs. impact
Even great ideas come with trade-offs. That is why effort vs. impact should always be part of the equation. A small update that removes friction for thousands of customers might be a better investment than an ambitious new feature that only a handful will use.
You do not need a perfect scoring model — just a simple way to evaluate ideas fairly. We use the Aha! product value scorecard, but another common approach is to weigh ...
Customer value: Will this idea solve a real problem for many users?
Business value: Will it help drive growth, retention, or revenue?
Effort required: Does the benefit outweigh the engineering cost?
An idea with high impact and low effort should move up the list. If it is low impact and high effort, it is probably not worth pursuing.
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4. Be ruthless about prioritization
Even after filtering ideas for strategy, customer value, and effort, you might still have too many. This is where prioritization gets more difficult.
A few ways to refine further:
Compare ideas directly: If you could only build one of two ideas, which would have a bigger impact?
Align with company priorities: Does this idea support your organization's top initiatives?
Look at timing: Is now the right time for the idea? Or would it be more valuable later?
And remember: Saying "no" (or "not now") is part of the job. The best product managers are just as clear about what they are not doing as what they are.
Read next:
A rejected idea is not the end of the conversation. Be sure to explain why to customers, executives, and internal teams when you will not immediately prioritize what they asked for. A simple response like this will do: "We appreciate this idea. But after reviewing our priorities, we are focused on areas that will make a bigger impact right now."
Transparency builds trust. People are more likely to support your decisions when they understand them. And if an idea keeps coming up, it might be worth revisiting later.
Great products are not made by chasing every idea. They come from disciplined decision-making — filtering out the noise and focusing on what truly matters.
The next time you are drowning in suggestions, take a step back. Start with strategy. Look for patterns. Prioritize impact over opinion. And get comfortable saying "no." Your roadmap will be stronger for it.
Turn your strategy into a clear roadmap with smarter prioritization — start learning soon.
