ROI Calculator Template: The magic solution to disagreements between marketing and product teams

Prioritize the right product features with this ROI calculator template

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Prioritize the right product features with this ROI calculator template

Copy this template certified by Product School to figure out which initiatives to prioritize using a voting-based system from your product and marketing teams

This exercise helps you visualize which initiatives should be prioritized based on their feasibility and importance, in effect, which ones will yield the greatest return on investment. Traditional ROI calculator templates rely on quantitative inputs. This ROI calculator template utilizes your team to vote on the initiatives they value the most to figure out which initiatives to prioritize.

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Use this ROI calculator template

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How to use this ROI calculator template

Step 1: List initiatives

Start by listing the set of initiatives that you want to prioritize. It is best to start with the list of items that do not have dependencies, otherwise you might prioritize an initiative above its dependency. If you do want to include items with dependencies, it’s best to consolidate the initiative and its dependencies as one item on your list.

Step 2: Allocate importance and feasibility “votes”

Then, assign each initiative a feasibility and importance rating. Typically, product management assigns the feasibility values with support from development; they know whether the idea can be built and what it would take. The “importance” column represents ratings that marketing and product management agree on.

The values you assign to each of the two criteria are based on a total budget of points. You can set any total budget; the more you allot, the higher fidelity the results will be. Of course, you would never distribute points evenly because the whole point is to show relative importance and feasibility. Remember, if you consolidate an initiative (to include a dependency) you must factor it into the cost of the initiative; so if the primary initiative costs 10 points and its dependency initiative costs 2, you must assign 12 points to its feasibility rating.

Step 3: Plot votes on a chart

Once you’ve plugged ratings into the table, you then plot the initiatives’ values on a chart. This exercise will give your teams a much better shared understanding of the initiatives and how they relate to each other. With these insights in hand, they’ll be better equipped to articulate a strategy that both product development and marketing can own and support.

In this exercise, it’s useful to have each participant come up with his or her own rating of feasibility or importance before sharing with the team. By concealing the results in this way, you avoid introducing the form of cognitive bias known as anchoring, in which the first number spoken aloud sets a precedent for subsequent estimates.

Get started:

Copy this doc and share this template with your team members by clicking Share in the top-right

Each team member adds initiatives in Step 1

In Step 2, enter the number of total “votes” each person gets and have everyone allocate their Feasibility and Importance votes

Review the ROI score, Avg. Feasibility, and Avg. Importance in Step 3

Delete the intro text (everything above the line below)

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ROI Calculator

Step 1: Add initiatives

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Add Initiative

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Clear Initiatives

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Initiative

Added by

Multi-location Management

Import functionality

Localization of mobile app

Notification panel redesign

Security upgrade

New billing page

Video calls

Item comments

There are no rows in this table

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Step 2: Vote privately

Enter total votes per person:

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Feasibility

You have

35

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votes remaining.

Clear Feasibility Votes

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Multi-location Management

Import functionality

Localization of mobile app

Notification panel redesign

Security upgrade

New billing page

Video calls

Item comments

There are no rows in this table

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Importance

You have

35

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votes remaining.

Clear Importance Votes

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Multi-location Management

Import functionality

Localization of mobile app

Notification panel redesign

Security upgrade

New billing page

Video calls

Item comments

There are no rows in this table

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Step 3: Review results

Results

Results

Initiative

Initiative

ROI Score

ROI Score

Multi-location Management

5.7

Import functionality

7.1

Localization of mobile app

7.1

Notification panel redesign

4.2

Security upgrade

4.9

New billing page

5.7

Video calls

4.2

Item comments

11.3

There are no rows in this table

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Chart

Chart

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