Use Cost of Delay to Prioritize What Truly Matters

Jake ran an online store selling handmade candles. One morning, his laptop keyboard clattered as he tweaked five new scents and a loyalty-program rewrite—everything felt urgent. He realized he was spreading himself thin. The coffee by his side had gone cold, and site analytics still hovered the same.

He remembered reading about Cost of Delay. He listed each tweak—new scents, loyalty tiers, homepage redesign—and ranked them by urgency (lost sales per week) and value (predicted lift in average order size). On graph paper, he plotted urgency on the vertical axis and value on the horizontal one. The new scents and loyalty tiers sat in the top-right corner—grid lines and colored pencil smudges left from his coffee spill.

Jake dropped the homepage redesign for later, focusing the next two sprints on launching his top-right features. Within days, customer feedback buzzed, and average order value rose 15%. He realized that simple prioritization based on urgency and value was a game-changer.

Cost of Delay—a concept from lean product development—helps you allocate time and resources where they matter most. By mapping features on an urgency-value matrix, you ensure your next release delivers maximum immediate impact.

To get started, list your upcoming feature ideas, note how much each week of delay costs you, then rate their customer value. Sketch a quick urgency-value matrix and position each feature accordingly. Commit your next release to what lands in the top-right quadrant. This simple prioritization will drive higher impact with fewer resources—give it a go today.