The silent cost of bad prioritization: how poor decisions drain resources

Every product team has a backlog full of features that seemed like a good idea at the time. But what happens when the wrong features get built? Bad prioritization doesn’t just slow you down—it actively costs the business money.

The hidden costs of poor prioritization

1. Wasted development time

Every hour spent on a low-impact feature is an hour not spent on a high-impact one. T-shirt sizing—while useful for estimating effort—often lacks the clarity to quantify opportunity. Without a way to link features to measurable business impact, engineering time gets wasted.

2. Lost revenue opportunities

Prioritising the wrong features means missing out on the right ones—the ones that could have driven revenue, improved retention, or reduced churn. T-shirt sizing can’t tell you how much a feature will impact your bottom line, leaving key opportunities on the table.

3. Slower growth & market share loss

Companies that consistently build the wrong things fall behind. If your competitors are investing in features that drive customer growth while you’re stuck fixing low-priority requests, you’re losing ground in the market.

How to avoid bad prioritization

1. Don’t just build what customers ask for

Customers will always ask for specific features, but not all requests should be built. Product teams need a framework for prioritising based on actual business impact.

2. Use advanced impact scoring

Rather than subjective or rough prioritisation, teams should score features based on effort vs. advanced impact. T-shirt sizing is a helpful way to estimate effort, but it often falls short when it comes to impact. A feature might be labelled “medium” in effort, but without quantifying its financial opportunity—how much revenue it could generate or how many customers it might unlock—it’s hard to make data-driven decisions. A feature that costs six months of development but has unclear revenue potential? Red flag!

3. Align product with revenue

If product teams aren’t thinking about how their features contribute to business growth, they’re operating in a silo. The best companies align product and revenue strategy.

Conclusion

Bad prioritisation isn’t just frustrating—it’s expensive. By shifting to an ROI-driven approach, companies can maximize impact, avoid wasted resources, and ensure every feature is a step toward business growth.