RICE Scoring Framework for CTOs | A Proven AI Prompt for leadership for ctos | Engify.ai
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# RICE Scoring Framework for CTOs

You are a CTO prioritizing technology strategy and engineering investments company-wide. Use RICE scoring to make strategic decisions and communicate priorities clearly to the board and engineering organization.

## RICE Framework Overview

**RICE Score = (Reach × Impact × Confidence) / Effort**

- **Reach**: How many engineers/systems will this affect? (company-wide, 1-10)
- **Impact**: How much will this impact engineering velocity/quality? (minimal to massive, 0.25-3)
- **Confidence**: How confident are we in these estimates? (50-100%, converted to 0.5-1.0)
- **Effort**: How many person-months will this take? (cross-company, 1-10)

## Context Setup

**Your Role**: CTO
**Scope**: Company-wide technology strategy
**Timeframe**: [Quarter/Year]
**Engineering Capacity**: [Total person-months available]
**Technology Context**: [Current stack, architecture, scale]

## Technology Initiatives to Evaluate

[List 5-10 strategic technology initiatives, each with brief description]

## Evaluation Process

### For Each Initiative:

**1. Calculate Reach (1-10 scale)**
- How many engineers will this affect?
- How many systems/platforms?
- What % of engineering organization?
- Consider: Total engineers × % affected × frequency of impact

**2. Estimate Impact (0.25-3 scale)**
- **3.0 = Massive impact** (company-wide transformation, 10x improvement)
- **2.0 = High impact** (significantly improves engineering velocity/quality)
- **1.0 = Medium impact** (meaningful improvement)
- **0.5 = Low impact** (incremental improvement)
- **0.25 = Minimal impact** (barely noticeable)

**3. Assess Confidence (50-100%)**
- **100% = High confidence** (we have data, similar past implementations)
- **80% = Medium-high confidence** (good estimates, some unknowns)
- **50% = Low confidence** (guesses, many unknowns)

**4. Estimate Effort (person-months, 1-10 scale)**
- Break down into: Planning + Execution + Migration + Training
- Include: Cross-team coordination, infrastructure, tooling
- Consider: Dependencies, organizational complexity, adoption time

## RICE Calculation

**Example:**
- Reach: 10 (affects 100% of engineering organization)
- Impact: 2.5 (high impact - reduces deployment time by 80%)
- Confidence: 0.75 (we've seen similar implementations)
- Effort: 8 person-months

**RICE Score = (10 × 2.5 × 0.75) / 8 = 18.75 / 8 = 2.34**

## Output Format

For each initiative, provide:

### [Initiative Name]

**RICE Breakdown:**
- **Reach**: [X] - [Reasoning with engineering impact]
- **Impact**: [X.X] - [Reasoning with velocity/quality improvement]
- **Confidence**: [XX%] - [Reasoning with data/experience]
- **Effort**: [X person-months] - [Breakdown by phase]

**RICE Score**: [X.XX]

**Rank**: [X of Y]

**Strategic Value:**
- Engineering velocity improvement
- Quality/reliability improvement
- Team satisfaction and retention
- Technical excellence and innovation
- Company competitive advantage

**Board Talking Points:**
- Why this matters strategically
- ROI and business impact
- Resource requirements
- Timeline and milestones
- Risks and mitigation
- Competitive advantage

**Technology Impact:**
- Systems/platforms affected
- Engineering teams affected
- Change management required
- Training and adoption needs
- Cross-team dependencies

**Risks & Dependencies:**
- Technical risks
- Organizational risks
- Resource dependencies
- Timeline dependencies
- Strategic dependencies

## Priority Ranking

Rank all initiatives by RICE score (highest first).

**Top 3 Priorities:**
1. [Initiative] - RICE: [X.XX] - [One-sentence strategic rationale]
2. [Initiative] - RICE: [X.XX] - [One-sentence strategic rationale]
3. [Initiative] - RICE: [X.XX] - [One-sentence strategic rationale]

**Strategic Considerations:**
- Balancing innovation vs. stability
- Platform investments vs. product features
- Engineering excellence vs. business needs
- Short-term efficiency vs. long-term scalability
- Technology choices vs. business outcomes

## Next Steps

1. Review RICE scores with engineering leadership team
2. Validate estimates with VPs and Directors
3. Present top priorities to board
4. Get buy-in on resource allocation
5. Track actual vs. estimated impact for calibration

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**Tip**: RICE is a guide, not a rule. Use it to inform decisions, but also consider:
- Strategic alignment with company goals
- Technology landscape and trends
- Engineering culture and values
- Team morale and retention
- Risk mitigation and resilience
- Competitive positioning
RICE Scoring Framework for CTOs

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