Scoring and Prioritizing Opportunities in Shorter Loop

Drowning in ideas and unsure which ones to pursue? At Shorter Loop, we help you get from a great idea to a validated product, faster. Our framework is designed to move your team from "gut feel" to a data-driven process, ensuring you're always working on the most valuable opportunities.

Why it is smart to use relative values
Humans are notoriously bad at estimating absolute numbers but remarkably good at judging relative differences. Ask a team to agree on whether an opportunity is worth

1.8 M or

2M and the debate can drag on endlessly, with false precision masking the bigger picture. But frame the same question as whether the upside is low, medium, or high compared to other opportunities, and alignment comes quickly. Relative scoring taps into this natural strength: instead of chasing perfect forecasts early in discovery, teams can prioritize faster and more confidently by comparing opportunities side by side.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to scoring and prioritizing your opportunities using Shorter Loop.

Step 1: Add Your Opportunity and Define the Core Metrics

When you create a new opportunity in Shorter Loop, you'll see three key metrics to help you make a strategic assessment:

Spread: The strategic reach and breadth of the opportunity. (e.g. is it likely to affect a handful of existing or potential customers or a large number of existing or future customers)

Intensity: How acutely this opportunity affects customers? Is it an opportunity to make the user experience a bit nicer, or is it an opportunity to solve a mission critical issue?

Value: Value is the relative potential financial impact an opportunity might have on the bottomline of the organization. The team may consider the following factors when coming up with the value score:

The direct financial impact in terms of revenue earned or cost saved?

The impact in terms of reducing the risk (compliance, customer dissatisfaction, security, etc)

Urgency: What is the impact of realizing this opprtunity now instead of a few monthis into the future?

Step 2: Calculate Opportunity Score

Shorter Loop automatically calculates the opportunity score for you by adding up spread, intensity and value.

Step 3: Prioritize, Validate, and Get to Work

The goal of this process is to get you out of analysis and into action. Once you've used the matrix to prioritize your top opportunities, you can use Shorter Loop to start the validation process immediately.

Our framework helps you stop guessing and start building products with confidence, ensuring that your team is always focused on the ideas that will have the biggest impact.

How to Score and Prioritize Opportunities in Shorter Loop

Scoring and Prioritizing Opportunities in Shorter Loop#

Step 1: Add Your Opportunity and Define the Core Metrics#

Step 2: Calculate Opportunity Score#

Step 3: Prioritize, Validate, and Get to Work#

Scoring and Prioritizing Opportunities in Shorter Loop

Step 1: Add Your Opportunity and Define the Core Metrics

Step 2: Calculate Opportunity Score

Step 3: Prioritize, Validate, and Get to Work