Product teams have a laundry list of methods to use when it comes to prioritizing product feedback. While Centercode offers an automated approach to scoring each Issue, Idea, and Praise from your beta test with Feedback Impact Score, you may find yourself in need of categorizing the decision on "if" and "when" to implement the feedback into your product.

Product managers have tools to simplify the process of categorizing all that data such as the Kano Model, RICE Score, Pareto Principle, Eisenhower Matrix, Value vs Complexity Matrix, The Lean Canvas, and the MoSCoW Framework. 

What is the MoSCoW Framework?

The MoSCoW Framework organizes feedback into four categories, making it easy to prioritize and understand which issues are most important. Adopt the MoSCoW Framework to clarify which feedback must be addressed, what should be tackled next, what could be considered in the future, and what can be deferred or ignored.

• M: Must Have
• S: Should Have
• C: Could Have
• W: Won't Have

The Benefits of Using the MoSCoW Framework for Prioritizing Feedback

A data-driven, framework-based approach to making decisions has stepped up as a useful way to ensure you get the most out of your time. Here are some of the other benefits to using this framework:

• Clarity: A clear and easy-to-understand method for organizing and prioritizing feedback. It separates feedback into four distinct categories, making it simple to understand which issues are the most important and which can be deferred or ignored.
• Focus: You can focus on addressing the most critical issues first, rather than getting bogged down by less important feedback. This can help ensure that the final product is as successful as possible.
• Communication: Help improve communication between team members and stakeholders. Everyone can understand the priority level of each issue and discuss them accordingly.
• Cost and time management: Helps you to make better use of your resources, both in terms of time and money, by addressing the most important issues first and not wasting time on low-priority features.

How to collect product feedback

When it comes to improving your product, gathering feedback is key to ensuring you aren't building in a silo. But with so many channels and audiences to choose from, where do you start? The answer lies in aligning the right method with the right stage of your product's lifecycle. Here's a breakdown of six essential stages and some effective ways to collect product feedback:

Ideation or Concept:

• Surveys
• Interviews
• Focus Groups

During Design / Prototype:

• Usability Tests

During Development:

• Alpha Tests / Dogfooding
• Beta Tests
• Delta Tests

Public beta / soft launch:

• Public Beta Tests
• CSAT Surveys
• Support Call or Ticket Review

Post launch:

• Surveys
• Interviews

Applying the MoSCoW Framework to Feedback

Collecting feedback can pose challenges, but once you have the data, the real work begins. Sorting through the information to determine its usefulness and value, and deciding when and how to implement improvements to your roadmap can be overwhelming. To help simplify the process, let's explore a few steps to prioritize your beta testing feedback.

Step 1: Get all your data into a spreadsheet. This will make it easier to organize and review your feedback.

Step 2: Review your feedback and apply the priority category to each item. It's helpful if you establish guidelines and examples for each category so you can more easily apply categories by having a comparison and some rules.

Step 3: Sort your spreadsheet by category, Number of Occurrences, Severity, and any other column to help you prioritize which feedback to address first. You can use filters to quickly find and view specific types of feedback.

Step 4: Take action on the most critical issues first. Use the MoSCoW Framework as a guide to determine which issues to tackle first, and which ones can be deferred or ignored.

To help you get started, we've created a template that you can use to organize and prioritize your beta test feedback using the MoSCoW Framework. This template includes the following columns: ID, Feedback, Category, Number of Occurrences, Severity, and Notes.

Applying MoSCoW to Beta Results

During beta testing, a deluge of feedback arrives and it's up to the product manager to decide what stays and what goes. Sifting through all the suggestions to determine the most impactful changes can be a daunting task. Fortunately, Centercode offers the Tester Impact Score tool which organizes feedback based on customer priority and aligns with your own goals. This automated system simplifies the process of prioritizing feedback by applying a score that you can organize your data by applying your labels of prioritization.

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