Prioritization Canvas — Choosing is giving up, choose what moves the business

Too many initiatives and the same budget? Prioritization is being settled by whoever defends their project best in the meeting. The Prioritization Canvas gets you, in one ninety-minute session: the whole portfolio of initiatives on one page, scored with rules, and an honest list of what stops. Free and ready to print.

How does it work? Ninety minutes. Three steps.

Four to eight people — the committee that decides resources. Printed canvas, one marker each, and a facilitator with no initiatives at stake. One single session.

1. Inventory

Everything on the table, defending nothing. Each initiative on one row with its horizon: I immediate (0 to 6 months), E strategic (6 to 24 months), T transformational (2 to 5 years). Everything goes in, including the zombie projects nobody formally cancelled.

2. Score

Two questions per horizon, 1 to 5, summed out of 10. Score against the clear variables, with concrete examples. Quotas that force a decision, per question and per horizon: only one initiative can get a 5 and at most two can get a 4. Totals only compete within their own horizon.

3. Cut

Three from the immediate horizon, two strategic, one transformational. Six initiatives with a single owner and a metric. The rest goes to the stop-list, with a closing date: that list is half the value of the exercise.

Three golden rules

1. Quotas hold. A second 5 by consensus opens the door to a third, and the scoring is decoration again.

2. Each horizon, its own yardstick. A 7 in Immediate doesn't compete against a 7 in Transformational: totals live inside their own column.

3. No stop-list, no cut. The session ends when the stop-list has names and dates.

Download it. It's free.

Download the canvas (PDF) · The user guide, with the full mechanics, can be downloaded on the page by leaving your details.

What if the quotas get negotiated?

That's where we come in. The canvas only works when the committee can hold its own rules; when everyone has projects at stake, the facilitator comes from outside. Book 30 minutes, no strings attached: lonuevo@noescomun.com.