Timing:

10-15 minutes

Materials:

A minimum of 8 people, and an even number of people

Anything that you want to prioritise, written on separate cards

One card and one pen per person

Instructions:

This exercise only works with an even number of people and has a total of seven rounds

Give everybody a card with a Product Backlog item on it and a pen

In each round, everyone finds someone to pair up with and they discuss the two cards they have in front of them:

• As a pair, you have 5 points that can be allocated between the two cards based on the relative importance of the two cards
• No half-numbers are allowed so the points must be split 5:0 or 4:1 or 3:2
• It is not about each person trying to convince the other that their card is more important than their partner’s card
• The two people must agree on the scoring split
• Once the scoring split has been agreed, the pair swap cards with each other and hold their hands up to indicate they have finished the round
• Once everyone has finished with the round, the facilitator indicates the start of the next round where different pairings will take place, repeating the above process
• A total of seven rounds are run and then the total of the 7 scores on the card are totaled up.
• The cards are then laid out in order with the highest-scoring cards at one end and the lower scoring cards at the other

Learning Points: 

• It is easier to prioritise when only comparing two items
• It is a quick way to prioritise
• It is a democratic, inclusive process
• If you have stakeholders who are attached to lobbying for one particular feature, this literally requires them to give it away to someone else

Variations:

1. Try more rounds to decrease the likelihood of spurious results and cards with the same total score
2. Try a bigger scoring range to increase the spread and reduce the impact of people unwilling to use the extremes i.e. 9 points instead of 5. While you may still not get many 9:0 you may get more 7:2’s

I was introduced to this technique by Xavier Quesada Allue who told me he learned it from Tobias Mayer. A reference to this can also be found in Jean Tabaka’s book: Collaboration Explained (p207) entitled “Pass The Cards”