Scoring & Prioritization Guide: A reproducible rubric

Prioritization works when the criteria reflect your organization's goals and when scoring is consistent. This guide gives a practical rubric you can use immediately and adapt over time.

Three core axes

• Value: Expected benefit if the project succeeds (reduced hours, cost savings, revenue, quality improvements, customer experience).
• Feasibility: Likelihood of delivering a useful pilot given data, technical complexity, and available team capacity.
• Risk & Compliance: Potential for harm, regulatory exposure, privacy issues, or reputational damage if the system is wrong.

Suggested scoring method

Score each axis 1 65 (1 = low, 5 = high). Use evidence from the intake form when possible.

1. Value score: Consider measurable outcomes. A project that saves thousands of hours or materially increases revenue should score 5. Smaller, localized improvements score lower.
2. Feasibility score: Rate data access/quality, engineering complexity, and availability of subject-matter experts. If the data is accessible and a small team can produce a pilot quickly, score 5.
3. Risk score: High-risk projects (safety-critical, regulated decisions, sensitive personal data) score 5. Low-impact internal automation scores 1 6.

Compute a prioritization index

One practical formula is: Priority = (Value * Feasibility) / Risk. Higher values prioritize projects that are both valuable and feasible while penalizing risk. Example:

Value 4 x Feasibility 4 / Risk 2 = Priority 8 (high).

Quick categories

• Quick wins: High priority score driven by high feasibility and modest-to-high value and low risk. Aim to pilot within weeks.
• Strategic pilots: High value but medium feasibility or moderate risk. These need discovery and potentially executive support.
• Research bets: High value but low feasibility or high uncertainty. Fund tightly scoped experiments to de-risk assumptions.
• Defer or reject: Low value, low feasibility, or unacceptable risk.

Practical safeguards when scoring

• Use evidence: back value estimates with simple data (counts, sample rates, cost per unit).
• Document assumptions and confidence levels; re-score after discovery work.
• Assign a reviewer: independent review reduces bias and vendor-driven hype.
• Keep the rubric public within your team so decisions are auditable and repeatable.

When to escalate

Escalate projects that score high on value but also high on risk—these need legal, compliance, or executive review before pilot funding.

Next step: Score your intake submissions with this rubric and move the top-scoring idea into the Risk & Readiness Checklist.