Monday.com offers product managers a flexible, visual platform to manage feature prioritization without the rigid constraints of specialized tools. While it lacks built-in prioritization frameworks, its customizable columns, automations, and board views make it possible to implement sophisticated ranking systems that align with your product strategy. This guide walks you through setting up a complete prioritization workflow that your team can use immediately.
Why Monday.com
Monday.com works well for feature prioritization because it combines visibility with flexibility. Your entire team sees the same ranked list, and you can adjust priorities in real time as business conditions change. The platform's column types support scoring models, custom formulas let you calculate priority automatically, and integrations connect to your existing tools like Slack and Jira.
Many teams start with Monday.com because they already use it for project management. Rather than introducing another tool, you can layer prioritization logic directly into your existing boards. This approach reduces context switching and keeps feature discussions anchored to the same workspace where you track development. Unlike dedicated prioritization tools, Monday.com lets you combine feature ranking with capacity planning, dependency mapping, and roadmap communication all in one place.
Step-by-Step Guide
1. Create a dedicated Features board with core columns
Start by building a new board called "Feature Backlog" or "Feature Pipeline". This becomes your source of truth for what to build and in what order. In Monday.com, click the plus icon next to your board list and select "Start from scratch".
Create these essential columns in order from left to right:
- Feature Name (text column) - the initiative title
- Description (long text) - the customer problem and proposed solution
- Status (status column) - use labels like "Proposed", "Evaluating", "Approved", "In Development"
- Business Impact (numbers column) - score from 1 to 10
- Implementation Effort (numbers column) - score from 1 to 10
- User Reach (numbers column) - estimated users affected
- Alignment Score (formula column) - we'll calculate this next
- Final Priority Rank (formula column) - this becomes your sort order
Don't add every possible column at once. Start with these eight and add more based on your team's feedback after two weeks of use.
2. Set up a scoring system that matches your strategy
Monday.com's column system works best when you decide upfront how you'll score features. The most popular approach for PMs is a simplified RICE model. Check our guide to the RICE framework for detailed methodology.
In your Features board, the Business Impact column represents potential value. Enter a score from 1 (minor improvement) to 10 (solves critical customer problem). Implementation Effort represents the work required, also 1 to 10 where 10 means a full quarter of one engineer's time.
Create a formula column called "Impact-to-Effort Ratio" using Monday.com's formula builder. Click on the column header, select "Formula", and enter this expression:
IF({Business Impact} = 0, 0, ROUND({Business Impact} / {Implementation Effort}, 2))This automatically divides impact by effort, giving you a quick view of which features deliver the most value relative to work required. Features scoring above 1.0 generally represent good bets. Features below 0.5 should face skepticism unless they have strategic importance.
3. Add a voting column to gather stakeholder input
Many teams skip this step and regret it. Before you rank features, you need input from engineering, sales, support, and leadership. Monday.com's voting feature lets stakeholders indicate preference without cluttering discussions.
Create a new column called "Stakeholder Votes" and select the "Votes" column type. In the column settings, allow team members to vote with a limit of one vote per person per item. Add all relevant stakeholders to the board, then send them the link with clear instructions: vote on features your team should build next quarter.
Let voting run for one week. You'll see numerical totals in each row showing how many people voted for each feature. This isn't your final ranking, but it reveals where consensus already exists and which features need more discussion. Voting also surfaces surprising disagreements early, before you commit engineering resources.
4. Create a priority formula that automates ranking
The real power of Monday.com appears when you use formulas to calculate priority automatically. Create a column called "Priority Score" using Monday.com's formula builder. The formula should weight your key decision factors.
Here's a practical scoring formula that incorporates impact, effort, stakeholder support, and user reach:
ROUND((({Business Impact} * 0.4) + (({User Reach} / 10) * 0.3) + (({Stakeholder Votes} / 5) * 0.2) + (IF({Implementation Effort} > 5, 1, 2) * 0.1)) * 100, 0)This formula gives 40% weight to business impact, 30% to user reach (divided by 10 to normalize the scale), 20% to stakeholder votes (assuming maximum 5 votes), and 10% to effort ease (favoring lower-effort items). Adjust the percentages to match your product strategy. If you care more about revenue than reach, increase Business Impact weight to 50% and decrease User Reach to 20%.
Monday.com calculates this automatically whenever you update any input column. The score appears as a number between 0 and 100, making it simple to sort features by priority.
5. Set up a board view filtered by status and sorted by priority
Now that you have scoring in place, create views that show you different perspectives. Click the plus icon next to your current view and create a new "Board" view called "Current Sprint Candidates".
Set these filters and sort settings:
- Filter 1: Status "is not" Rejected (to hide rejected ideas)
- Filter 2: Status "is not" Shipped (to hide completed features)
- Sort: Priority Score (highest to lowest)
- Group by: Status
This view shows your unevaluated and approved features ranked by priority within each status. Your engineering team can see at a glance which approved features rank highest and should be groomed next. Create additional views for leadership ("Quarterly Roadmap") and for sales ("Customer Requests") by adjusting filters and grouping.
6. Build an automation that notifies teams of priority changes
Major changes in priority should trigger a conversation, not slip by unnoticed. Set up a Monday.com automation so when a feature moves into the top five, your engineering team gets a notification.
In your board settings, click "Automations" and create a new automation:
- Trigger: "When a column changes" and select Priority Score
- Condition: "is greater than or equal to" 70 (top 30% of scores)
- Condition: Status "is" Approved
- Action: "Send notification to a person or team"
Select your engineering team as recipients. The notification appears in Monday.com and can trigger a Slack message if you've connected that integration. This keeps your team aware of newly high-priority work without requiring manual email updates.
7. Link features to development work in your existing sprints
The prioritization board becomes actionable once you connect it to actual work. If your team uses Monday.com for sprint planning, link your Feature board to your Sprint board.
When an engineer starts developing an approved feature, they create a task in your Sprint board. In that task's "Connected Items" column, they link to the original feature in your Feature Backlog board. Click the column header, select "Add column", then choose "Connect Boards". Configure it to link to your Features board.
Now when you sort by priority and see which features have linked sprint tasks, you know which are actively being built. Features without sprint tasks are waiting for grooming or capacity. This two-board system prevents features from falling through the cracks between planning and execution.
8. Review and adjust your formula quarterly
Product priorities should change as market conditions shift. Set a calendar reminder to review your scoring formula once per quarter. Gather your leadership team (product, engineering, and business leads) and ask: are we still using the right weight distribution?
If you're getting more customer requests for features with low impact scores, you may need to increase the weight of stakeholder votes or user reach. If most of your high-scoring features prove disappointing after launch, perhaps business impact estimates are too optimistic. Adjust the formula weights and document why you changed them.
Also use this quarterly review to calibrate your 1-10 scoring scales. Have your team re-score features from three months ago. If everything scored 7 or 8, your scale has compressed. Recalibrate by setting clear anchors: a 3 is "nice to have, low business impact"; a 7 is "meaningful value to multiple customer segments"; a 10 is "solves critical blocker for most users".
Pro Tips
- Use the RICE calculator to train your team on consistent scoring before implementing it in Monday.com. Spend one hour practicing, then apply that discipline to your board.
- Create a "Prioritization Runbook" document linked in your board description. Include your formula explanation, scoring rubric, and decision-making guidelines. This prevents drift when new team members join.
- Build a duplicate "Archive" board view that shows all rejected or shipped features. Reference completed work when discussing similar new requests, avoiding duplicate effort.
- Set column colors to show priority at a glance. Use Monday.com's conditional formatting to color rows red when Priority Score exceeds 80, yellow for 60-79, and green below 60. This visual cue helps non-technical stakeholders understand priority quickly.
- Run a "Prioritization Alignment" meeting monthly where you review the top 10 features, confirm scores still make sense, and discuss any features that moved significantly. Keep it to 30 minutes and update Monday.com live during the meeting.
When to Upgrade to a Dedicated Tool
Monday.com works well for small teams (under 15 people) and single-product companies. If your organization has these characteristics, you should evaluate upgrading to a dedicated prioritization tool:
- Multiple product teams competing for shared resources
- Dependency tracking across teams (feature X cannot ship until feature Y launches)
- Complex pricing or licensing models that affect priority calculations
- Need for statistical analysis of prioritization accuracy
- More than three active roadmaps being managed simultaneously
Browse the PM tools directory to compare alternatives, or review our Monday.com vs. Asana comparison for additional context. Most dedicated tools cost $50-200 per month per user, so evaluate total team cost before switching from Monday.com.