How to decide which new features must be done first

Joel has published a new article titled Set Your Priorities. Here’s an extract:

“Custom development is that murky world where a customer tells you what to build, and you say, ‘are you sure?’ and they say yes, and you make an absolutely beautiful spec, and say, ‘is this what you want?’ and they say yes, and you make them sign the spec in indelible ink, nay, blood, and they do, and then you build that thing they signed off on, promptly, precisely and exactly, and they see it and they are horrified and shocked, and you spend the rest of the week reading up on whether your E&O insurance is going to cover the legal fees for the lawsuit you’ve gotten yourself into or merely the settlement cost. Or, if you’re really lucky, the customer will smile wanly and put your code in a drawer and never use it again and never call you back.”

I enjoyed the article as much as I enjoy poetry. It’s always nice to learn how other companies set priorities and decide which features must be done first.

However, I’ve never thought that prioritizing features is a great problem. I just ask our programmers how difficult it is to do this or that feature and how long it will take them. Then I think how much the new feature may increase sales. It’s not that hard when you know your market and your customers (I spend at least an hour a day talking to our customers). That’s it.