Introduction
The MoSCoW Method is a prioritization tool used to manage requirements and their urgency relative to each other. As an acronym, the M, S, C, and W are the key letters in that:
- “M” refers to things that your product must have
- “S” refers to things that your product should have
- “C” refers to things that your product could have
- “W” refers to things that your product wishes to have
- Though, some variations of MoSCoW use W as a “won’t have” bucket, e.g. things that are out of scope.
How do I use the MoSCoW Method?
What features MUST your product have?
If you understand your product’s value proposition and place in the market, this should come almost naturally to you. These are features that, if they did not exist, nothing else would matter as without them, your product would effectively be “dead in the water.”
What features SHOULD your product have?
These are features that give your product major differentiation in the market. If you’ve run a competitive analysis, you may have an idea of what features you’re able to better provide to customers than your competitors and their products do.
What features COULD your product have?
These are features that give your product minor differentiation in the market. These are generally things that, while yes, do differentiate you from your competitors’ offerings, are more like “nice-to-haves” when it comes to your customers and their needs.
What features do you WISH your product would have?
These are features that are stretch goals for your product. While they may differentiate your product from your competitors, they are a bit more experimental in nature. Features in this bucket are things you would love your product to do, but aren’t a requirement for your product’s relevancy and are not necessarily things that contribute to differentiating your product.
What features WON’T your product have?
The alternative to the “W” in MoSCoW, these are features that are not in the scope of your product. This does not necessarily mean you’ll never add them to your product, but that, as you feel (hopefully it’s data-backed), it is not something that has a place in your product.
Conclusion
The MoSCoW Method is a classic prioritization tool that is just as effective now as it was when it was formerly introduced. It’s also often one of the first prioritization methods product managers use on the count of its simplicity. In fact, even if a product manager uses more “advanced” prioritization methods like the RICE Scoring Model, it’s not uncommon for them to make quick, high-level prioritizations through the MoSCoW Method.