Page 169 · Module 07, Operate with Precision · this screen continues that page
All 108 frameworksRICE Scoring
Prioritise your product roadmap with four numbers that matter
The prompt
Copy & paste readyLabelsReplace theseSwap the role below
Pro tip, from the book
The most important RICE output is the item that is being deprioritised for non-RICE reasons. Politics, founder preference, and squeaky wheels all suppress high-RICE items. When you see a high-scoring item consistently skipped, that is where organisational dysfunction is most visible and most expensive.
Who should run this prompt
Module role profileWho should audit and improve your operations? Operations problems hide in plain sight — in the handoffs nobody notices, the processes nobody has documented, and the decisions nobody has questioned. The roles on this page bring the discipline of people who have built systems that run without heroics. Use them to find what is broken before it breaks you, and to build what scales before you need it to.
Choose any role to drop it into the prompt above. Only the highlighted opening clause changes — the rest of the prompt stays exactly as printed.
◆◆◆◆◆ → ◆ seniority, board level down to specialist◈ outside the organisation
How to make any role sharper
- Add years of experience: "...with 15 years in enterprise SaaS" produces different depth than just the title.
- Add what they care most about: "You care most about [X]" shapes every word of the output.
- Add their communication style: "Be direct. Flag risks first. No jargon." changes the tone entirely.
Use this when
The problem it solvesYour product roadmap is driven by whoever has the most compelling story in the room. Engineering estimates don't account for how many customers will actually be affected. You're building things that feel important but don't move the metrics.
How the framework works
From the printed pageRICE was developed by the Intercom product team as a more rigorous alternative to ICE for product decisions. It scores across four dimensions: Reach (how many people will this affect in a given time period?), Impact (how much will it move the metric per person scored 0.25 to 3x), Confidence (how sure are we, as a percentage?), and Effort (how many person-months to build?). RICE Score = (Reach × Impact × Confidence) ÷ Effort. Dividing by Effort is the key difference from ICE it ensures that a small, high-impact feature beats a large, medium-impact one if the effort difference is significant.
The method, in four moves
Do these in orderUse real data for Reach, not projections. If you don't know, use Confidence to discount it.
Impact uses a fixed scale: 3 = massive, 2 = high, 1 = medium, 0.5 = low, 0.25 = minimal.
Effort should be in person-months, not story points it forces cross-team thinking.
Run RICE in a 30-minute team session group scoring removes individual advocacy bias. RICE looks like math, but Confidence and Impact are opinions with decimal points. Group scoring reduces bias, it doesn't remove it. Don't let the formula outrank your judgment on what the customer actually needs. A Score Feels More Objective Than It Is
Where the framework comes from
Intercom product team — RICE Scoring framework, 2016
Pairs well with
As printed with this frameworkModule 07 — Operate with Precision
Build systems that run without you and improve without being told.
12 frameworks, printed on pages 160–183.
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