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All published answers are correct. There are 2 winners to this question - Saravanan MR and Mohammad Mahmudul Hassan.

Q 404. What is Poisson Distribution and how can it help us analyze the data? Quote some examples from your work area where data follows this distribution. Note for website visitors - Two questions are asked every week on this platform. One on Tuesday and the other on Friday. All questions so far can be seen here - https://www.benchmarksixsigma.com/forum/lean-six-sigma-business-excellence-questions/ Please visit the forum home page at https://www.benchmarksixsigma.com/forum/ to respond to the latest question open till the next Tuesday/ Friday evening 5 PM as per Indian Standard Time. Questions launched on Tuesdays are open till Friday and questions launched on Friday are open till Tuesday. When you respond to this question, your answer will not be visible till it is reviewed. Only non-plagiarised (plagiarism below 5-10%) responses will be approved. If you have doubts about plagiarism, please check your answer with a plagiarism checker tool like https://smallseotools.com/plagiarism-checker/ before submitting. The best answer is always shown at the top among responses and the author finds honorable mention in our Business Excellence dictionary at https://www.benchmarksixsigma.com/forum/business-excellence-dictionary-glossary/ along with the related term

Escape Point The escape point is the place in the process of D8 methodology where the root cause of a problem that should have detected the problem but failed to detect so. This considers not only the root cause but also went wrong with the control system in allowing this problem to escape. The 8D problem solving process requires the team to identify and verify escape point at D4 and through D5 and D7. The escape point objective is to improve the ability of the control system so that it can detect the failure or cause if it should occur again. At the end, prevention loop explores the system that permitted the condition that allowed the failure and cause mechanism to exist in the first place. The PDCA, DMAIC, 8D all approaches have in common following scientific and methodic way to solve the problem. In addition, different phases in each approach can be mapped to the phases of the other ones. PDCA DMAIC 8D Plan Define 1. Create team & collect information 2. Describe the problem Measure 3. Interim Containment Actions Analyze 4. Identify/Analyze the root cause & Escape Point. 5. Developing Permanent Corrective Actions (PCA) Do Improve 6. Implementing Permanent Corrective Actions Check Control 7. Define Actions to Avoid Recurrence 8. Congratulate team Act PDCA: The PDCA cycle is the classic problem solving approach in LEAN also called Deming Cycle. PDA is used to solve medium size problems. The Plan phase should have done very carefully that consume high weightage approx. 50% of the total time. Act phase implies that it will start again as part of continuous improvement. DMAIC: The origin of DMAIC problem solving approach is the SIX SIGMA world. This is a 5 Step PDCA used for large problems where huge amount of data is available. Depending on the complexity and process that need to improve the DMAIC project may exceed more than three months. 8D: 8D is a problem solving methodology design to find the root cause of a problem. The structured approach formulated a short term fix and implement a long term solution to prevent difficult, recurring or critical problems and also provides transparency, drives a teams approach and increases the chance of solving problem. 8D Methodology helping to explore the control system and allowing the problem to escape. 8D is very popular in manufacturing domain because it is effective and reasonably easy to teach. This is an 8 step PDCA cycle focused on fast reaction to customer complaints such as product failed at the customer end or a delivered component. Usually first three steps should be completed and reported to the customer in three days. PSP is the same thing like 8D but used in the aerospace industries. Escape point in 8D (D4 through D6): The escape point in 8D methodology is at D4 and goes through D5 and D7. This 8D methodology requires the team for choose, verify, implement and validate permanent correction actions to address the escape point. Figure: 8D Problem Solving Methodology stages . D4- Review control system and Identify the root cause and escape point. Also, select counter measure of root cause and escape point. D5- Developing permanent corrective actions. Selecting control point improvement for the Escape point. Verification of the effectiveness for the PCA and the escape point are required. D6- Implementing permanent corrective actions. Escape point approaching in PDCA/DMAIC: In this step, the verification and implementation of the Permanent Correction Actions (PCA’s) by approaching PDCA/DMAIC to ensure the successful implementation and verified the best permanent correction actions (PCA’s) for the root cause and escape point. The 8D problem solving process is an approach to find the root cause and escape point and taking necessary actions to ensure that these are eradicated through the effective controls and actions that are embedded in the business operations. PLAN (Define, Measure, Analyze in DMAIC): The implementation of the permanent Corrective actions (PCA) in attentions to. - Validation plan of the Permanent Corrective Actions (PCA) - Removing plan of the Interim Containment Actions (ICA) as per part of the implementation of the PCA - Integrate and check for side effects - Continued monitoring plan for effectiveness of the PCAs - Plan for all necessary resources - All documentation planning process, training and communication for the implementation for the PCA. - Define clearly the team roles and responsibilities DO (Improve in DMAIC): Initiating the implementation plan for both the root cause and escape point, ensuring that all the necessary steps have been managed and followed. CHECK (Control in DMAIC): Verify the PCAs have fully implemented and integrated into the operation and business processes. Validate for both the root cause and escape points and will be carried out at this stage and on an ongoing basis. The measures for the effectiveness of the PCAs should use the same measure. ACT (Control in DMAIC): Check actions on any variation from the plan or expected outcomes. Validation: Validation is performed usually under defined operating condition on the final product or process. Validation is the proof that is developed after implementation has taken place, over a period of time and must: - Follow successful verification & Provide a data driven before and after implementation. - Ensure & Check the implementation does not introduce a new problem or side effects At the end, Escape point can effectively use in DMAIC project also to ensure the product quality released by internal and external customer and subsequently to have one or more non conformities to the product, specification and contract requirements. Also, reduced customer complaints due to fast response. Through elimination of root causes improved quality control system and is highly achievable for business operations.

Escape Point Escape Points is one of the eight steps of the “Eight Disciplines of Problem Solving” The 8D methodology was made popular by Ford Motors. The logic used in 8D is similar to the PDCA Cycle. The main goal of 8D is in the identification, correction, and elimination of problems that occur recurrently. It uses various analytical techniques including Statistical Analysis to determine the root cause of the problem. The eight steps of the 8D process are “Preparation and Emergency Response Actions”, “Use a Team”, “Describe the Problem”, “Develop Interim Containment Plan”, “Determine and Verify Root Causes and Escape Points”, “Verify Permanent Corrections for Problem that will resolve the problem for the customer”, “Define and Implement Corrective Actions”, “Prevent Recurrence / System Problems”, “Congratulate the Main Contributors to your Team”. Step 4 of the process “Determine and Verify Root Causes and Escape Points” involves identification of the root cause and taking steps to permanently eliminate it. During this step the Escape Point needs to be determined, i.e., the point closest in the process where the root cause could have been found but was not. Root Causes are generally grouped under Occurrence, Escape, and Systemic. The Occurrence Root Cause is the specific cause that resulted in the problem. It is the factor that brought about a change in the process. The escape root cause is the reason or cause as to why the problem escaped detection, the systematic root cause is the broader reason/cause that is responsible for the local cause or reason. It requires long-term corrective action. Escape points need to be identified during the Root Cause Analysis. The Escape Points can be controls that are currently in place in the process flow to detect the problem but have failed and allowed the problem to escape. Some examples of this can be audits, tests, sign-offs, etc. The Escape points in the process flow could also be blind spots. The points where the problem could have been detected but no controls were in place for its detection. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight_disciplines_problem_solving https://quality-one.com/8d/

An 'escape point' is a point in the process where the problem or defect could have been detected but was not. As one can deduce from the definition, escape point is vital as it gives us an idea that there was a lapse in the system as the defect escaped unnoticed. https://everythingwhat.com/what-is-an-8d-escape-point Uses of Escape Point in a DMAIC project – 1. During analysis phase of a DMAIC project we tend to focus only on the root cause of the problem, whereas it is essential to find out escape points where problem could have been detected and stopped but due to system failure that didn’t happen. 2. This means along with fixing the root cause of the problem we also need to set up a robust system with strong escape points which would make problem easily identifiable before it becomes a grave issue. Let’s understand this better with the help of an example – Example – In a content writing assignment the final article had a lot of spelling mistakes. Possible Root Causes – 1. Lack of training and skills 2. Selection criteria of content writers wasn’t robust etc. Escape Points – 1. The best escape point here would be auto-spell check. Questions to ask and understand are – Why in spite of having auto-spell check the final article was full of spelling mistakes? 2. System failure could be because of the following reasons – - Auto-spell check not enabled - The user chose to ignore highlighted errors etc. The above mentioned escape point analysis along with root-cause analysis would not only fix the problem but would also enable deployment of a robust system which makes defects easily identifiable and assist in avoiding future errors. Conclusion – Root Cause of the problem and failure of escape points working adequately both require attention and appropriate corrective actions to prevent incidents of similar kind in the future.

An escape point is the next point of control after the root cause which should have detected the issue. It is control point which has failed to do its job. Idea behind identifying the escape point is to understand which control point has failed so that necessary action can be taken. This way root cause and control point both can be improved. Escape Point is generally used in 8D Problem solving technique, However it can be used just as effectively in DMAIC project. In DMAIC Project during analysis phase we can identify the escape point and update control plan accordingly in later phases. Taking action on escape point in Improve phase should be done.

Escape point During a problem-solving exercise using the 8D or 8 Discipline approach it is often essential to observe where exactly the process failed to identify a defect. This process step at which the failure to detect the problem occurred is called the escape point. A 5 why analysis or a Root cause analysis using an Ishikawa diagram could be used in this step (D4) to help discovery of the escape point. The objective is to strengthen the process at its weakest links to prevent further recurrence of the problem. Some examples of escape points Problem Root Cause Escape Point Incorrect component on PCB Untrained operator Line set-up, Board final inspection Powder coating defects on housings Inadequate cleaning before coating 7 Tank Process inspection Incorrect pricing of products Approved price master not used Invoice approval, ERP validation

To understand the escape point, First we will begin with 8D methodology: What is 8 D: The 8 D (8 Disciplines) is a problem solving tool / methodology widely used in industries. It is mainly used for corrective action processes in both manufacturing and service industries. This tool focuses on correct root cause and permanent corrective and preventive action, It follows the systematic 8 steps methodology for problem solving. Most of the automotive industries are using 8 D form for identifying the correct root cause and eliminating the recurring problem by implementing appropriate corrective and preventive action. Most of the customer complaints are handled through the 8 D processes to identify the correct root cause to reduce or eliminate the CoPQ (Cost of poor quality). 8 D approach as follows: (All Ds are not explained, D4 is explained to answer the question of escape point) What is Escape point in 8 D process: Here D4 is considered as an “escape point”. Here We isolate and verify each root cause against problem description and test the data. Isolate and verify the location in the process where the real root cause could have been detected but not detected hence the problem transferred to next stages. This point is called an escape point. Any processes there shall be a barrier to stop / identify the defect, If the defect is not detected in the first stage or real root cause at first level then the cause shall transfer and become a defect hence the escape point shall be identified during the 8 D process to make permanent solution. D4 is one of the most vital and important D in the 8 D process. The reason is to identify and verify the real root cause of the failure in the process or product. There are many causes related to one problem like Y = f(X1,X2,X3…...Xn). Here we need to find the right X to identify and validate the causes. This shall not be done through brainstorming or nominal group techniques, We may use 5 Whys or cause and effect diagrams, to map causes against the problem identified. Main activities involved in D4: This step consists of performing the failure analysis and investigation needed to determine the root cause of the problem: A structured method such as cause and effect matrix, is / is not table, or 5 – why technique is required for root cause identification. The detailed description of the actual defect / failure mechanism shall be given, to show that the failure has been fully understood. ASK as many WHYs to ensure the real root cause is addressed. The Is/Is Not tool and the cause and effect matrix should be revised to assist in root cause analysis and more details become known. Other root cause analysis tools such as hypothesis testing or quick DOE’s can also be employed to help determine the exact root cause of the problem. All details should be included in the 8D as attachments. Note: WHYs should be described clearly. Subsequent WHY must answer the question “Why” for the previous why statement, leading to the actual ROOT CAUSE. Do not just put in disconnected statements to point to the root cause you think it is. The maximum amount of evidence must be provided to show that 1)That the root cause is the real culprit behind the problem 2) That all the other potential causes can be excluded. Escape Root Cause Description: Similarly as above, identify (with 5 Whys) the reason why we didn’t detect it. Was the process control plan not comprehensive? Think carefully about why the problem escaped. Careful not to blame the operator as most often it is a weak system that allows the operator to make a mistake without providing help to detect the actual error and prevent it from occurring. Description of Root Cause to WHY not predicted: Why was it not predicted in the FMEA, consider the following questions to arrive at your root cause. Was no FMEA created for this process/system Current FMEA not good enough, review needed? Modifications to the system over the years were not updated? Is the control chat evaluation done or not? Out of control limits points to be checked thoroughly and appropriate action shall be initiated as and when needed. Main benefits of 8 D: Team orientation and engagement Lesson learned can be shared with other business line or product line Can create a database for problems and causes To bring the process under control Reduce CoPQ Better understanding on system change Example of 8 D form: Thanks for reading

Escape point is the initial control point in the system, where the root cause of the problem should have detected in early stage but failed to detect in the system. It gives us a hint that there is a lapse in the system as it has not detected the problem, where it was supposed to detect. It can be effectively handled by using following Basic Problem Solving tools to define and verify the root causes to identify the escape points. 1) SIPOC diagram by correctly mentioning the Project scope. 2)Detailed top down charting/flow diagram of the process 3)Check Sheet monitoring during the process 4)By plotting Scatter Plots to understand the extent of deviation 5)Detailed Ishikawa diagram and 6)Thorough Why- why analysis So once the deviations are identified in the above tools, escape points can be easily identified and efforts to mitigate the same can be taken care of before going to implement the permanent solution for the problem.

The Problem Solving Process (Global 8D) is a structured approach to reach to the base cause and hence the escape point and taking actions to confirm that these are eradicated permanently through effective controls and actions that are embedded within the operations of the business. The Deming cycle is part of the Global 8D process, starting with the G8D form and is used at various steps through the method. In this current step the cycle is employed to: - PLAN - Plan for validation of the PCA Plan to remove the Interim Containment Action (ICA) as a part of implementation of the PCA Integrate check for side effects Plan for continued monitoring of effectiveness of the PCA’s Plan for all the required resources Documentation, Instruction, Training and Implementation to be planned What, when, who and when (team roles and responsibilities) - define clearly DO – Initiate the plan for implementation for both the basis cause and escape point, ensuring that each one the required steps are managed and adhered to. CHECK – ensure the PCA’s are fully implemented and integrated into the operational and business processes. The measures for effectiveness of the PCA’s should use the identical measurables that we wont to describe the matter within the article Describe the matter. In other words comparing similar looking data. ACT – Actions to be taken on any variation from the plan or expected outcomes. Validation is proof that's developed after implementation has taken place, over a period of your time and must: Follow successful verification Provide a knowledge driven comparison before and after implementation. Check that the implementation doesn't introduce a replacement problem or side effects. Validation is: Normally performed under defined operating conditions on the ultimate product or process. May be necessary in earlier stages before product completion. Uses the identical indicators that demonstrated the matter and should be easily tracked

All the published answers are correct. The best answer has been provided by Mokshesh for elaborating the RICE scoring method in a step by step manner. Answers from Johanan (for an alternative method to read RICE score) and Meenakshi (for names of other prioritization techniques) are a must read.

Product development involves many features / Creative solutions / recommendations as outcome of the development exercise. The project manager need to decide the best fit outcome to be used in the product. There are many prioritization framework used by the product manager like a) CoD(The cost of delay): used in Scaled agile framework(SAFe) delivering most value outcome first b) Kano Model: It indicates customer satisfaction (Delighter, Satisfactory, Neutral, Dis-satisfied) c) MoSCoW Method: (Most have, Should have, Could have, Will have0 requirement of the outcome d) Product tree: Branches are basic requirement product and Roots are to support the requirement, Leaves are new ideas e) RICE: Score basis Reach (# customer benefited), Impact(Quantifiable impact on customer),Confidence(Value to customer),Effort(Resource needed to complete the development) f) Benefit vs effort: Compares value of the outcome with the effort taken and select high value less effort and so on…in descending order g) Weighted shortest job first (WSJF) a SAFe technique How to prioritize? a) Identify common criteria, basic requirement b) Apply trial and error for selection c) Strategic decision with minimum biases to avoid paralysis of analysis What is RICE? The RICE indicates 4 factors used to evaluate the ideas in product development. They are REACH, IMPACT, CONFIDENCE, EFFORT Reach is measured as Count of people or initiative or event for a time E.g. Transaction per month, Client per quarter, calls per day, development per period Impact is measurement of the improvement and quantify the same E.g. High/Medium/Low as 5/3/2, 50% reduction, 10% increase Confidence is measured in %. The high the confidence % the more the control of the project E.g. 100% = High, 50% = Low Effort is measured as score for work done per person per month. If more effort, it is unhealthy, Less effort score the project is in better shape E.g. Reach(R) x Impact(I) x Confidence(C) = RICE SCORE Effort(E) RICE is benefited way of prioritization because: RICE is very effective and shows more comprehensive results RICE is based on actual data RICE also has a factor to measure the value to the customer RICE build scalability However, Rice is well disciplined , Data driven and time consuming

RICE Scoring Framework Why Prioritization framework: For a product manager, at any given time, product backlogs are always highly populated with new product ideas, extensions, suggestions, requests, demands etc. But resources are always limited and product team can work only few initiatives simultaneously. Team cannot choose items on random basis or cannot prioritize the demands of the strongest voice of the team or most vocal customer. Product managers prioritize the projects that support the product vision and most strategically beneficial initiatives for the organization. RICE Scoring model for prioritization: RICE is a prioritization framework approaches quantitative measure and designed to help product development teams to determine which products, features, and other initiatives to put on their product roadmaps by scoring these features and initiatives according to four factors. These factors are Reach, Impact, Confidence, Effort (RICE). RICE scoring model can offer product team below benefits: i) Enables product managers to make better informed decision. ii) Eliminates or minimize personal bias in decision making, iii) Help them to defend their priorities to other stockholders for example the executive staffs. History of the RICE scoring model: Intercom, a renowned Software development company has developed and formulated the RICE roadmap prioritization model to improve their own decision process. The RICE score formula applied consistently across even the most disparate types of ideas, giving the team an objective way to determine which initiatives to prioritize on their product roadmap. Working model of RICE scoring: The completive product ideas such as New product, Product extensions, new right features etc. are evaluated by RICE model by scoring them according to RICE formula given below: Reach: Reach represents the number of users or paying customers that would be directly affected by this feature during a set of period of time over which want to measure month/quarter. Such as, customer per month, Transaction per month, actions per month, free trail signups or how many existing users try new features. For Example: if project estimates to deliver 1200 new prospects to download to trial download page within next month and that 30% of those prospects will sign up the Reach score is 360. Impact: Impact is defined by the overall contribution of a certain feature or initiative to product, reflected by the benefit users will get from the said feature or initiatives. This reflects how many new conversions of project will result in, when users encounter it or a more qualitative objective for example customer delight. Impact scale involves on estimation. So, Necessary questions to ask- Will this feature improve conversion rate? Will it help retain users? Does it improve the ease of use significantly? Impact is difficult to measure precisely. So, Intercom developed five tiered scoring system for estimating project impact. 3 for “MASSIVE” impact, 2 for “HIGH”, 1 for “MEDIUM”, 0.5 is for “LOW”, and 0.25 is for” MINIMUL” For Example: For each user who see this will have a huge impact. The impact score is 3. Confidence: The metric accounts for the confidence our product team have in the estimations they made. RICE helps control projects in which team has data to support one factor of score but relying more on intuition for other factor. The Reach score having data but impact score represents more anecdotal evidence. Questions to be asked: How extensively can data support our estimates? For Example, Confidence score is measured for a given project, Options are 100% for “HIGH”, 80% for “MEDIUM”, 50% for “LOW” confidence. Effort: Effort represents the amount of work that are required from product team to build a feature or finish a project. RICE as a cost benefit analysis, the other three components are benefits while effort that represent costs, Value types are, Person- Months, Project – Hours etc. Questions to ask: How much time will a feature require from all our team members? To finish onboarding example Planning this projects with several weeks with at least 6 persons one month of design time roughly 186 days. For Example: New On Boarding flow project, Reach = 2000, Impact =10, Confidence = 90%, effort: 186 days For this example, RICE Score = (Reach x Impact x Confidence) / Effort = (2000x10x90%)/ 186 = 96.77. The product team select the best score among all RICE scores. Conclusion: The RICE is a popular framework for product management team enabling confidence to prioritize strategically most impactful, beneficial features and initiatives. Also, RICE helps team quickly create a consistent prioritization framework to ship better products to stay competitive in the market.

Q 403. What is an Escape Point? Elaborate on how it can be used effectively in a DMAIC project? Note for website visitors - Two questions are asked every week on this platform. One on Tuesday and the other on Friday. All questions so far can be seen here - https://www.benchmarksixsigma.com/forum/lean-six-sigma-business-excellence-questions/ Please visit the forum home page at https://www.benchmarksixsigma.com/forum/ to respond to the latest question open till the next Tuesday/ Friday evening 5 PM as per Indian Standard Time. Questions launched on Tuesdays are open till Friday and questions launched on Friday are open till Tuesday. When you respond to this question, your answer will not be visible till it is reviewed. Only non-plagiarised (plagiarism below 5-10%) responses will be approved. If you have doubts about plagiarism, please check your answer with a plagiarism checker tool like https://smallseotools.com/plagiarism-checker/ before submitting. The best answer is always shown at the top among responses and the author finds honorable mention in our Business Excellence dictionary at https://www.benchmarksixsigma.com/forum/business-excellence-dictionary-glossary/ along with the related term

RICE The Rice scoring system is a prioritization framework that uses four factors viz, Reach Impact, Confidence and Effort to arrive at a decision. Being a quantitative prioritization technique, it relies more on data and removes the subjective and feeling aspects of decision-making. Reach is the number of people the initiative will reach in a given time frame. It is a number that is estimated by the team. An example of reach is “our project is expected to bring in 250 customers in the next month” or “our initiative is expected to bring in 100 customers in the next quarter”. The Reach would be 250 in the first case and 100 in the second case. The Team decides the definition of Reach and the best time frame. For example, Reach could be a number of customer transactions, trial sign-ups, users. The reach should generally use real measurements for the products metrics rather than wild guesses. Impact is more difficult to measure since the project cannot be isolated, hence it would be difficult to ascertain the impact of the project among other reasons and determine the primary reason why a certain action was taken. Intercom had developed a five-tier system to measure impact with 3 being massive impact, 2 high impact, 1 medium impact, 0.5 low impact, and 0.25 minimum impact. Confidence is a balance between data and gut feeling. The team may have data on Reach and a gut feeling about Impact or vice-verse. It is the Confidence score that will draw a balance between the two. Intercom set up a tier set of percentages to mark confidence with 100 percent meaning high confidence, 80% medium, and 50 % low confidence. A confidence score of below 50% is considered bad. Effort in this framework is similar to scoring Reach. It looks at the qualifications and number of people required for the project and is measured by Intercom as Person Months. If a Project takes 5 Person Months, then the Effort score is 5. Intercom takes anything less than a month as 0.5. Say 1 Week of planning, 1-2 Weeks of design, and 2-4 weeks of engineering time will give an effort score of 2 person-months. Putting the four factors together, the RICE formula would be as follows: - RICE = (Reach x Impact x Confidence)/Effort The numerators of the RICE formula viz. Reach, Impact and Confidence are considered as the expected benefits and the denominator viz Effort as the potential Cost. It is hence very similar to a Cost Benefit Analysis. The RICE score is the total impact per time worked. The team needs to do it for each project and compare the numerical values, to prioritize the project. My Thoughts. In a setting similar to Intercom, it would be a consistent framework to help teams objectively evaluate the relative importance of their initiatives. While looking at the score as a whole, the Team would be advised to look at the Numerator (RIC) and the Denominator (E) as two different scores. This would prevent the team from overlooking a good project with high benefit (RIC) just because of the Effort being high. In doing so, the Team can take on projects with low Effort as Kaizen Projects and with low Effort as DMAIC Projects. https://www.productplan.com/glossary/rice-scoring-model/

RICE (Reach, Impact, Confidence and Effort) is a prioritization model used to choose features and initiatives in product development. This models helps us in determining which features should get more weightage and should be worked upon first and which can be left for later. This is done by evaluating each idea by scoring them in the bracket of 4 facets of RICE. Reach: The first criterial of evaluation , as the name suggest itself, is for determining what will be the reach of the idea, feature, initiative. Will this feature get more customers onboard? Will this feature enable more transactions? Your Reach score will be based on the number estimated that a particular idea will bring. So for Example if an idea brings 250 more transactions every month, then reach score will be 250. Impact: Impact scoring depends on the estimation of influence of the idea. for example what impact will the idea have on customer satisfaction index? Generally it is scored as below: 3 = massive impact 2 = high impact 1 = medium impact .5 = low impact .25 = minimal impact Confidence: Confidence score is determined by the level of confidence in idea being successful. Be it implementation, Other scores i.e. Reach or Impact. Availability of data for other factors such as Reach and Impact helps us determining the confidence level as well. 100% = high confidence 80% = medium confidence 50% = low confidence If the idea is having less than 50% confidence then generally it is not worth prioritizing. Effort: Effort score depends on what kind of work is needed to implement the idea. Effort can be different things, it can be cost, can be manhours/Man days/Person - Months required. This is also an important part to prioritize. i.e. if we have an idea in which others scores are very good but efforts needed is very high whereas 1 idea in which very less efforts can bring immediate and moderate benefits. Score can be given accordingly i.e. if an idea is taking 6 persons to complete in 2 month then score can be given as 12. Final score will determine which ideas to prioritize and which to not.

The RICE scoring mode: Rice is a prioritization framework, Generally used in market research / project / product selection before launch. It's used by project managers to prioritize and make decisions about which product is important and reach quickly with less effort in the market. Prioritization is always a challenging process, hence there are many ways to do prioritization, Rice is one of the methodology to conduct it. It's a framework model to support product managers to conclude and to finalize the products and features. It shall enable product managers to conclude reliable decisions, minimize human biases in decision making, and help them prioritize and present to the leadership team. RICE stands for as below: R - Reach I - Impact C - Confidence E - Effort Reach: How many people we are estimating to REACH out by introducing this initiative / products / service in a given timeframe. We have to decide 2 things: one is how many people will reach out and another one is in what timeframe. The timeframe could be 1 month, 1 quarter or year based on our research scope.The same way the reach is measured for how many new users / number of transactions / free-signup etc. As an example if we assume that there are 600 new users / transactions then our REACH is 600. Impact: It talks about what could be the impact of this new initiative / features, It shall be a quantitative measure. Like how many new conversions will be there when users encounter it. We can also say that How many people who see this initiative / feature will buy the product. It is difficult to measure the impact however we can use some scoring method as below 3 = very high impact 2 = high impact 1 = medium impact .5 = low impact .25 =Very impact Assume that our Impact is high, It means Impact is 2 Confidence: This is one of the quantitative measures in percentage (%), This shall measure the level of confidence of reach and impact. We may use the data for reach from past history / some expert opinion (reliable data) whereas impact is purely gut feel data. Here the confidence component shall nullify the impact error (not reliable data) by providing the right confidence level. The Confidence levels as levelled below. 100% = high confidence 80% = medium confidence 50% = low confidence Assume that if our confidence level is 50% (for one initiative - A) then we have to look into different initiatives, because our confidence level is low. In other hands, If the confidence level is 100% for other initiatives then we are in the right initiatives. Effort: All of the factors we have discussed about Reach, Impact and Confidence represent the potential benefits whereas the Effort is the single score that represents the effort / cost / number of persons required to build it / number of hours required to construct the initiatives or features. It is always good to have less effort / cost to increase the RICE score. It's generally measured in the number of people / months or the work that one team member can do in a month. The quantification of effort is as simple as reach scoring data. We have to simply estimate the total number of persons / resources required to complete the initiative / features in a given period of time. As an example, if we estimate a project that will be completed by three person in a month, our effort score will be 3. Anything less than a month shall be considered as a 0.5. Example: Assume that we have 3 features with respective data for RICE. We can have the highest score among the 3, hence we can prioritize and make decisions on features 3. Limitation: Some stakeholders go through in detail and raise more questions and may not be happy about our assumptions hence better to have fact based data. Sometimes it's difficult to reproduce the same RICE score due to many assumptions and expertise opinion involves. Thanks for reading

This is a model which is used to prioritize the tasks which helps to prioritize the tasks based of four factors. They are Reach, Impact, Confidence and effort. In this model we give a score to all activities based on the factors which were mentioned above. Why RICE Scoring? 1. This method always works based on the data not emotion and opinions for prioritization. 2. This method can be always used to assess ideas, product and projects as well as enhancements 3. This method always tells you about the different factors which went into market product based on the score. 4. Production team can always re-evaluate the metrics which define their business success. The formula to calculate RICE score is: (REACH*IMPACT*CONFIDENCE)/EFFORT All the four factors (RICE) are explained below: R-Reach: How many people you estimated to reach in a particular time frame. Based on this you can decide that how many customer’s transactions can be reached and how many new or existing customers try your new product or features. Your reach score always depends on your estimation, it means the number you estimated that is your reach score. For example, if you are producing a new product and your expectation is 200 new customers along with 500 from your existing customer base are going to have the product in a quarter/month. Then your reach score will be 700. Impact: The impact of the product or features on individuals/customers. Impact is about how much an idea could impact a particular goal for a customer (once can rate the impact based on rating 3-Very high, 2- High, 1-Medium, 0.5- Low and .025- Minimal impact) Confidence: Confidence score always helps to get an unbiased score which brake offsets overly-optimistic impact score. How sure are you of those four factors you gave each project idea? Identifying and judging the accurate confidence level is really a difficult task so we can set levels. We can consider 100% as high confidence, 80% as medium confidence, 50% is low confidence and anything less than 50% is not sure, it means you have given the score as you have not done any market study or you do not have any historical data as well. Effort: To get the project or product launched and complete/reach the customer’s efforts is always required. Hence, we need to plan for the efforts as well. But, keeping in mind that the product/project move with an appropriate pace and have impact with the least amount of effort, we need to estimate the total amount of time the project require for planning, designing and engineering. Effort can be estimated as man hours, man days or man months To move the project faster and have a good impact with the least amount of effort, estimate the total amount of time a project will require from all members of your team: product, design, and engineering. In case one of your projects can take about one week time for planning and 1 to 2 weeks for designing and 2 to 4 weeks for engineering then your effort score will be of 2 persons – months. How to use the Rice scoring method effectively: During using of the RICE scoring method, we need to be more careful of below points to make that effective. 1. We need to focus on the goal so that we can achieve that, if we have a small team where we are not able to push forward the projects 3-5 goals in a quarter. In this case we can get the count down and consider the important goals, if that is also not possible, we can focus on a single goal. 2. Where the team size is larger, we can split the team up into sub-teams so that each team member can get into one goal. We always noticed that if the goal/objective is clear, people enjoy working to achieve the goal. We also keep in mind that all the team members are empowered so that they can get motivation and give their best.

RICE stands for Reach, Impact, Confidence, and effort – four factors to assist you assess and grade ideas. after you trust your final goal, delighting your customers, it’s laborious to not get weak with of these new ideas. groups could be tempted to dive right into the cleverest ones first, while not taking under consideration the potential lift. once there’s most to consider, however does one confirm priorities? This framework permits your team to rigorously consider every potential project and assess its feasibility. groups use RICE to achieve perspective before beginning a replacement a part of the merchandise roadmap. When to use RICE – RICE may be an flexible marking model. The best part of this method is that it forces you to articulate and assume through however and why a project plan can or won't have impact. It removes a number of the feeling from the decision-making process, creating it easier for groups to come back to a consensus. Use the strategy whenever you wish to choose between many compelling ideas, or attempting to assign priorities in an exceedingly product roadmap. once your team is troubled to align or agree, the RICE method is a easy thanks to get everybody along for a productive discussion. several groups conjointly notice it helpful to use RICE at the start of every major project or once coming up with a replacement product launch. the way to produce our own RICE framework • Assess the Reach of a project. what number people can the project affect? can your client see a right away impact? Typically, teams measure Reach because the number of individuals wedged or the amount of events occurring in an exceedingly given time period. for a few teams, this implies customers per quarter. For others, page views per month. It’s vital to try and quantify this price with real data, adore product metrics. Remember, the end result of this exercise may be a numerical value which will assist you grade tasks. • Think the Impact of the project. If Reach is what {number} people are going to be full of this project, Impact measures the result itself. For example, let’s say you’re launching a replacement paid feature in your app. Reach is that the number of individuals affected by this launch, whereas Impact is however doubtless the launch is to convert them to paying customers. in contrast to Reach, though, Impact will be tough to quantify. several groups assess Impact employing a scale from one to 3, wherever 1 is low impact, two is medium, and three is high. • Outline your Confidence level. however assured are you that this project can have the specified impact? it would be the best plan you’ve ever had, however if you don’t have the information to corroborate its success, it might not add up to figure thereon right now. Confidence is evaluated as a percentage, where 100 percent is total confidence, 80% signifies optimism but not certainty, and 50% is low confidence. something beneath 50% is extremely low. • Think Effort. What’s the entire time it'll want complete this project? to gauge Effort, don’t simply think about the project itself, however conjointly think about the groups who will contribute. it would take four days to finish the project as a whole, that breaks down into 10 hours for engineering, twelve hours for marketing, and then on. Effort is measured in person-months, or the work that one team member will execute in an exceedingly month. • Calculate your score. to urge a RICE score for a selected task, perform the subsequent easy calculation: Multiply Reach, Impact, and Confidence. Divide that price by Effort. That’s your score. • Repeat the method for every task. Then compile an inventory of tasks and scores to assess priorities.

What is RICE Scoring Method? RICE scoring is a prioritization framework or a decision making tool that helps product managers to figure out what to build from the pool of available product ideas and what is the highest priority at the moment. This framework uses a simple formula of reach times impact times confidence, all over effort. The acronym RICE is derived using the initials of these factors used in the model. Mathematically it can be represented as below: Let’s understand how to use the RICE scoring method and understand the 4 components with and example: 1. Reach is the estimate of how many people you think your product will ‘reach’ in a given time period. The product manager has to decide both score and definition of ‘reach’ along with the time period in the context. For example: Let’s say a product manager with a credit card division of bank has 4 different discount offer ideas for increasing the spend of their credit card customers in the festive season of November month. Here, time period is 1 month and let’s keep definition of ‘reach’ as the number of credit card customers eligible for the discount offer. The score of ‘reach’ against each discount offer will be the count of customers that are eligible for an offer in 1 month as shown below. Discount Offer Type Reach Score Impact Score Effort Score Confidence Score RICE Score Offer A 45,000 Offer B 75,000 Offer C 30,000 Offer D 60,000 2. Impact is the qualitative goal defining the expected conversions when the product reaches your target customers. For the example of discount offer for credit card, it’s like asking the question “How many customers will spend using the credit card when the discount offer reaches the customers?” In RICE scoring method, the impact is a five-tiered scoring scale as below: · 3 = Massive impact · 2 = High impact · 1 = Medium impact · 0.5 = Low impact · 0.25 = Minimal impact Discount Offer Type Reach Score Impact Score Effort Score Confidence Score RICE Score Offer A 45,000 3 Offer B 75,000 0.25 Offer C 30,000 2 Offer D 60,000 0.5 3. Effort is the estimate of total number of resources required for completing the initiative in a given period. For the example of discount offer for credit card, it’s like asking the question “How many man-days (or man-months) of efforts will be required to roll out the discount offer?” The effort includes everything like design of discount, discount system configuration, campaign launch, marketing mailers design, agreement signing with discount partner, etc. If the estimated effort is 25 man-days then effort score will be 25. Discount Offer Type Reach Score Impact Score Effort Score Confidence Score RICE Score Offer A 45,000 3 45 Offer B 75,000 0.25 50 Offer C 30,000 2 30 Offer D 60,000 0.5 65 4. Confidence is expressed in percentages and is the estimate of how sure are you about your reach, impact and effort scores. This number varies from 1 to 100 percentage and usually defined as a three-tiered scoring scale as below: · 100% = High confidence · 80% = Medium confidence · 50% = Low confidence Any confidence score of less than 50% must be considered a “moon-shot” initiative and must be dropped to focus on other initiatives. Discount Offer Type Reach Score Impact Score Effort Score Confidence Score RICE Score Offer A 45,000 3 45 80% Offer B 75,000 0.25 50 100% Offer C 30,000 2 30 80% Offer D 60,000 0.5 65 50% RICE Score Calculation and Interpretation By filling up the above table, one can arrive at the RICE score using the formula as stated earlier. The initiative with highest RICE score becomes the priority for product manager to work upon from the list of available ideas or choices. In below table, we see that Offer A is the priority initiative for our example. Discount Offer Type Reach Score Impact Score Effort Score Confidence Score RICE Score Offer A 45,000 3 45 80% 2400 Offer B 75,000 0.25 50 100% 375 Offer C 30,000 2 30 80% 1600 Offer D 60,000 0.5 65 50% 231 Benefits of using RICE model: 1. It’s a scalable tool and can be helpful in prioritizing and decision making in any kind of business problem apart from product launch. This is because the RICE score is a form of cost-benefit score with ‘R x I x C’ as benefit and ‘E’ as cost. 2. It gives a method or a framework for prioritization and decision making using data rather than emotions. 3. It is a comprehensive methodology and helps prioritize ideas that may have been overlooked. 4. It can help in finding quick wins. Challenges of using RICE model: 1. The product manager will have to garner all the possible ideas to put them into the RICE framework for prioritization. If this is not done thoroughly then the model will prioritize an inefficient idea. 2. It’s time consuming as product manager has to evaluate each options against the 4 criteria before calculating final scores. 3. The model is constrained to use impact and confidence criteria for prioritization. This can lead to elimination of an idea that is important for an organization, yet low on impact and confidence. 4. The data for calculating all the 4 criteria aren’t always easily available. This makes RICE scoring difficult. 5. Human bias may deter the rational scoring of all 4 criteria in absence of accurate data leading to false prioritization. The results will be flawed if the criteria are flawed. References: https://www.productplan.com/glossary/rice-scoring-model/ https://medium.com/swlh/rice-scoring-model-for-prioritisation-88d879bfbac0 https://ascendle.com/ideas/why-the-rice-prioritization-framework-actually-works/

RICE Scoring is a method which helps the Product Manager to Prioritize the roadmaps for the New Product, It's Features and other initiatives by considering the 4 factors namely Reach, Impact, Confidence and Effort which is collectively called as "RICE". It can be calculated using the formula, RICE (Score)= (Reach*Impact*Confidence)/Effort Scoring Criteria: Analogy: Reach, Impact and Confidence-Higher the Better Effort- Lower the Better Elaboration with example: Reach: Suppose "X" company gets 900 transactions through UPI payment/month. Then the reach is 900. Impact: If the company see's it as a huge Impact, then the score is 3 (Highest) or else If the company thinks it as a low impact, then the score is 1 (Lower). Confidence: If you have a confidence that transactions will cross more than 900 in the next month, then the confidence is 100% If you are not sure, then the confidence is 80% or if you know that transactions will never happen, then the confidence is 50%. Effort: If the huge effort is required to get 900 transactions per month. Say 50 sources/persons are required then the effort is 50. If only 25 sources/persons are enough, then the effort is 25. If we can achieve with only 10 sources/persons, then the effort is 10.

All answers are brilliantly structured and are well written. I recommend reading all answers to get different perspectives on timeboxing. The best answer has been provided by Meenakshi Iyer.

Time management is one of the essentials to stress-free living in modern times. Timeboxing is one of the several time management strategies in use to increase productivity such as Time blocking, Pomodoro method, Eat the Frog, Pareto principle, Getting Things Done (GTD). All of these primarily are tools to make the most of available time and achieve the set goals be they organizational or even individual goals. Timeboxing, creates a visual and realistic deadline to ensure that work gets completed. In Pomodoro, work is addressed within short time frames with breaks between working sessions, Timeboxing only allots the time and the work to a unit. However, one can move a step up from Timeboxing to Promodora. An “Eisenhower Matrix” may be performed to distinguish between tasks that are most urgent, not urgent, most important, and not important. The Pickle Jar Theory serves as a visual to set priorities by determining what is important and what is not important. From here one may move on to attacking the important and onerous jobs before settling down to less complex and easy ones as is done in” Eat the Frog” strategy. Often Timeboxing may not necessarily specify the types of tasks to time frame, they do provide the initial impetus and one may do a Pareto and get the easy ones out of the way. This is a great booster and it gives a feeling of accomplishment but one may not feel so, unless the timeboxing initiates the Pareto. Timeboxing does not however do not block-off related work from the set periods in the calendar this is done in Time blocking. Timeboxing is performed before employing Parkinson’s law. After allotting a time box for a particular task, divide them up by the amount of time it takes to complete them. Thereafter allot only half that time to complete each task ensuring it is completed within the deadline. Timeboxing also the is the first step before implementing Tony Robbins' Rapid Planning Method (RPM), which is a way of conditioning the brain to stay focused on the goal set. Benefits of using Timeboxing It helps the team to know how much time is left for a task's completion and clearly displays progress to the entire team throughout the life of the task. It gives a bird’ eye view of work on a calendar in relation to other tasks and objectives as it takes into consideration the amount of time needed to complete all steps for a particular work item. As the tasks are broken down into chewable bites it gives a feeling of manageability, keeping teams focused on the right priorities. Its visual nature tells the team their respective tasks, any potential delays or barriers that must be tackled. An overabundance of review meetings are avoided as it proves stakeholders and executive sponsors up to date on project status without the need to schedule. Disadvantages of Timeboxing Quality may sometimes be sacrificed due to the high priority placed on reaching deadlines. It is time-consuming to make lists and plans and is not flexible. It can be stressful when deadlines set are not met and it may be difficult to stick to plans needing a steep learning curve. References https://projectlifemastery.com/plan-your-day/ https://www.lifehack.org/articles/featured/how-to-use-parkinsons-law-to-your-advantage.html https://slab.com/blog/eisenhower-matrix/ https://upraise.io/blog/timeboxing-increases-productivity/

Q 402. What is the RICE scoring method used by product managers to prioritize the features or initiatives in product development? Elaborate its 4 components with an example. Note for website visitors - Two questions are asked every week on this platform. One on Tuesday and the other on Friday. All questions so far can be seen here - https://www.benchmarksixsigma.com/forum/lean-six-sigma-business-excellence-questions/ Please visit the forum home page at https://www.benchmarksixsigma.com/forum/ to respond to the latest question open till the next Tuesday/ Friday evening 5 PM as per Indian Standard Time. Questions launched on Tuesdays are open till Friday and questions launched on Friday are open till Tuesday. When you respond to this question, your answer will not be visible till it is reviewed. Only non-plagiarised (plagiarism below 5-10%) responses will be approved. If you have doubts about plagiarism, please check your answer with a plagiarism checker tool like https://smallseotools.com/plagiarism-checker/ before submitting. The best answer is always shown at the top among responses and the author finds honorable mention in our Business Excellence dictionary at https://www.benchmarksixsigma.com/forum/business-excellence-dictionary-glossary/ along with the related term

Time boxing is one of the principles followed in Agile way of working where a fixed timespan is allocated to perform a specific activity and integrate each time blocks in the entire schedule e.g 10 minutes allocated to any standup call or huddle. It is used in Agile project management activity Time boxing would eliminate the option of choice to have idle time, also limited time would end up having more focused attention. Scheduling the time in the daily planner (at activity level) or in the diary would help organize the available time appropriately such that all the events are taken care of and handled well. We should not overschedule the day, only timebox basis the available time How should we timebox…We should answer the following questions A) Schedule the action 1)What is the action 2)How much time it will take 3)Expected output and when it should be expected Activity 1)List of action 2)How long you will take to do the action 3)Output C) Check output 1)Is the action complete? If yes check the output, if no, specify reason why incomplete? 2)Check the output is as desired? 3)Note the learning from the exercise Timeboxing is predominantly used in Scrums during software development Time boxing exercise can be effectively implemented using few instructions Sr.No Instruction Description 1 Control over time If during discussion completing the action is priority – the organizer of the meeting should allow completing the action-Soft time shift If during discussion the action can be stopped, and discussion can be moved to next important action-the organizer can opt for the shift – Hard time shift 2 Time tracker Usage of time tracker like stopwatch or timer etc. to ensure timeboxed action would ensure clear communication timely 3 Planning Proper schedule of time per action or topic would help proper planning of the content to be completed timely. It also enables preparation and focus on relevant action 4 End to end Min & Max time Announce the total available time for action/content to get completed timely. This would enable creative ways in which completion of action. Max time length would ensure proper project management 5 Pauses Timely pause and restart (Breaks) would lead to improved outcome for specific actions hence timeboxed announcement of breaktime would be essential 6 Identified action One should have clear identification of the time boxed action. Some actions need longer time box requirement than the other, hence appropriate time trigger would lead to smooth completion of action 7 Closing time Announcement of “Time is up” as indicator would have completion of the time boxed exercise. Such indicator should be at each activity level and for entire action also. Proper timeboxing would ensure a) Timely announcement of result/outcome b) Focus on relevant action c) To the point discussion d) Progress which can be measured e) Creatively and innovatively managing the action f) Proper planning of further to do list during the day, time of which can be predictable